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COMMUNITY FOUNDATIONS | FUNDERS | MANAGING PARTNERS
COMMUNITY FOUNDATIONS
COMMUNITY FOUNDATION PROFILE
WHO WE ARE?
The Santa Cruz Community Foundation is a collection of several charitable funds from which earnings are distributed for charitable purposes to address local needs. As the assets grow, more funds will become available to distribute locally to ensure a continuing source of support for future generations and a lasting legacy to the foresight of today’s leadership.
OUR MISSION
The mission of the Santa Cruz Community Foundation is to promote philanthropy and assist with the creation of a healthier, more productive community for residents of Santa Cruz County and Nogales, Sonora, Mexico.
WHAT CAN WE SHARE?
In just two short years the Santa Cruz Community Foundation (SCCF) has gone from an idea to a reality. With a $500,000 challenge match from the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona, and a belief by its founding board that “it is possible,” SCCF has proven to be an early success with combined assets of one million dollars.
OUR COMMUNITY
MAKING A DIFFERENCE ALONG THE BORDER -
SERVING THE CHILDREN OF MEXICO
SCCF’s First Organizational Endowment Fund
We are proud to administer the St. Andrew’s Children’s Clinic Endowment Fund for the clinic which serves over 400 families a month by providing critical medical treatment to children with no access to health care. Once a month, families from Mexico travel to the border to seek the help of a cardiologist, orthopedist, speech therapist or a multitude of other healthcare volunteers. Children with severe illness receive the very best treatment available including life saving surgeries, prosthetics, and new medications.
As SCCF’s first organizational endowment fund, the relationship between a respected community nonprofit and a new community foundation forged an important example for work in the border region. It also demonstrated the way in which the community foundation can assist well-established organizations to plan for the future. It provided another vehicle for the clinic’s planned giving, thus adding another dimension to their fundraising program.
To find out more about St. Andrew’s Children’s Clinic visit their website at www.standrewsclinic.org
OUR TREASURES
The Santa Cruz Community Foundation has joined, in an advisory capacity, the Sonoran Borderlands Peacebuilding Initiative that aims to strengthen capacities in borderland leadership and conflict resolution. Their primary goals are to bring people and groups together from both sides of the border into forums of structured dialogue, exchange, and education. The work will address ways to work more effectively to reduce borderland conflict, enhance cooperation in economic, social, and political arenas, and strengthen leadership capacities of formal (elected) and informal leaders (grass roots) from across northern Sonora and Southern Arizona. We were very proud to join with other organizations to sponsor the first Border Leadership Forum which took place in February. The Forum was attended by 100 people representing Arizona, New Mexico, Sonora and Chihuahua, Mexico.
THE FACE OF THE SCCF: ROBERTA BRACKER
by Jenny Culvrer Hill *
I recently met with Roberta Bracker, a resident
of Nogales since 1957, to find out what motivated her to give
so generously to our community. She told me her motivation
was two-fold. First, she said it was her Jewish spiritual
training. “God intentionally leaves the world incomplete
so that it will be up to us to perform the healing acts of
compassion and charity.” She was also influenced by
her 37-year marriage to Bobby Bracker. Bobby died in 1994
but, “he walked his talk of being part of the community.”
How? By making a substantial gift to the Santa Cruz Community
Foundation. Roberta added to an original fund that was created
by gifts from friends and family at Bobby’s death.
I asked what made her choose this organization for her gift. “Foundations are the charitable vehicles of modern times.” Roberta’s decision to make the fund unrestricted resulted from the Foundation’s independent and judicious process for choosing nonprofit causes that need support. Plus, by making her donation to an unrestricted fund, her gift was matched by CFSA—dollar for dollar, doubling the financial power of her gift.
“The willingness of the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona to help us create our own local foundation is a tremendous opportunity for our community,” said Bracker. The way community foundations are structured enable a gift to be sustained, to “continue throughout the generations that will follow long after I am gone,” reflected Bracker. That sort of thoughtful and considerate generosity will help complete the world and honor Bobby’s memory and in turn will accomplish what Roberta Bracker set out to do.
*Jenny Culver Hill is a resident of Nogales, AZ, a member of the SCCF Public Relations committee and the founder of Angel’s Purse, a nonprofit dedicated to providing practical assistance to families of children with autism.
OUR HOPES
Our participation in the Border Philanthropy
Partnership is an exciting opportunity to expand on two critical
initiatives within the foundation.
ESTABLISHING A FORMAL
PARTNERSHIP TO SERVE AMBOS NOGALES
On June 10, 2002, Rod Hallman and Antonio Dabdoub, Board Presidents,
signed a formal Memo Of Understanding between the Santa Cruz
Community Foundation and the Fundacion del Empresariado Sonorense
of Nogales, Sonora, Mexico to work cooperatively to promote,
enhance and increase charitable and philanthropic activities
on both sides of the border. Both Foundations agreed, in good
faith, to work together on behalf of the shared communities
we serve.
BUILDING NONPROFIT CAPACITY
SCCF is focused on the big-picture in our work and technical
assistance with the nonprofit community. Not only for the
purpose of our own grantmaking, but also in planning and preparing
for the future of the region. Since last Fall, SCCF, in collaboration
with the local United Way and the Arizona Council for Economic
Conversion, has offered two technical assistance workshops
to nonprofits. The first, Fundraising 101 provided basic tools
for raising funds and attracting donors. Next, Business 101
for Nonprofits covered basic business practices, the importance
of the mission statement and strategic plan, and the development
of budgets. Both sessions were well received, But, there are
several next steps to be taken, and by participating in the
BPP, for shared knowledge using the Peer Exchange model, and
by acquiring additional resources, we expect to strengthen
this initiative.