News

As April has begun and the pandemic continues, we are going to issue regular weekly updates on our community responses and activities. This week highlights on Data-Driven Responses, Collaborative Responses, Personalized Responses, and Thoughtful Responses.

For more than a half century, thousands of community members have invested in Washtenaw County through endowment gifts large and small. Because of that loyalty to community, the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation (AAACF) can give significantly in this time of crisis. In the past two weeks, AAACF has already deployed more than $475,000 across our community.

The Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation’s Short-Term Cash Flow Loan Program makes short-term (up to 180 days) cash flow loans of $5,000 - $50,000. The loans will be made on a rolling basis from a revolving fund of $500,000. This program has been initiated as part of AAACF’s philanthropic response to the COVID-19 health pandemic and economic crisis and complements AAACF’s grantmaking to support COVID-19 response, relief, and recovery efforts. Since the crisis began in mid-March, AAACF has granted over $470,000 to local nonprofits in support of response and relief efforts and will continue to do so throughout 2020 and beyond.

AAACF is issuing both Grants and Loans in response to the COVID crisis. As our nonprofits, partners, and community strive to support those in need, we are working with them to support Washtenaw County.

Here are important messages for individuals and organizations alike as we all focus on taking care of our community during this time of crisis.

The Young Citizen of the Year award recognizes outstanding community service on the part of local students. Read more and submit a nomination in the form below.

Nonprofits provide essential services to those who need them most, but resource and capacity constraints continue to threaten the health and sustainability of such organizations. To address these constraints, Michigan Health Endowment Fund (The Health Fund), Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation, Washtenaw Coordinated Funders, and Catchafire have come together to roll out “One Michigan”, a statewide initiative aimed at enabling nonprofits to get access to talent in abundance, and in the process, “on-demand” capacity building support.

Capacity Building for Social Movements: Grants for “capacity building” have been a central focus for AAACF for decades. Capacity building is an equivocal concept because there can be both tangible and intangible outcomes across multiple levels, from micro to macro. The Nonprofit Quarterly says: “It can be helpful to think of capacity building through the lens of who (e.g., people, organizations, networks), what (e.g., knowledge, skills, processes), and how (e.g., training, peer learning, technical assistance).”

In the spirit of a new year and decade, we’re largely looking forward in this newsletter. 2019 was another strong year, thanks to our generous community! This spring, we will share news of gifting, granting and investment performance—as well as new staff hires, as we expand our abilities to serve Washtenaw County.

The Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation (AAACF) recently awarded over $1 million in grants from the Glacier Hills Legacy Fund (GHLF) to support vulnerable seniors and their caregivers in Washtenaw County. The GHLF was established through the generosity of Ann Arbor's Glacier Hills Senior Living Community and Trinity Health Senior Communities of Livonia, MI.