Community Foundations in the Spotlight: HUD Secretary’s Award Makes its Debut

Community Foundations in the Spotlight: HUD Secretary’s Award Makes its Debut

Erika Poethig, Acting Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research After many years of working at the local level on national urban policy issues – in the public, nonprofit and philanthropic sectors -- not a day went by when a dose of humility wasn’t warranted. Now at the federal level, it is exhilarating to observe and learn about the variety of smart, creative ways local organizations are leveraging government funds to enhance their housing and community development efforts often overcoming significant regulatory barriers and jumping through many hoops. Unfortunately, far too often the actions of these groups go unnoticed, depriving other communities of the opportunity to take and apply lessons learned. Community foundations are one set of local players that leads this dynamism and creativity through grant making, pooling local donor philanthropy and leading communitywide conversations and efforts. In the United States, community foundations serve tens of thousands of donors, administer more than $49 billion in charitable funds, and address the core concerns of more than 725 communities and regions. They work locally and they always stay local. That makes their role in the community unique. It’s something that we should celebrate, which is why I’m pleased to share with you an exciting new development that will highlight the impressive work of community foundations.

In March, HUD partnered with the Council on Foundations (COF) to initiate the inaugural annual Secretary’s Award for Community Foundations. Last year, PD&R’s Office for International and Philanthropic Innovation was inspired by our partners in Germany, who had just launched their own community foundation award. The idea resonated so strongly with our work that we decided to advance the concept in the U.S. and. found a strong and willing partner in the Public-Philanthropic Partnership Initiative at COF. The purpose of the Secretary’s Award for Community Foundations is to recognize and broadcast excellence in public-philanthropic partnerships that have both transformed the relationship between the government and foundation sectors and led to measurable benefits in terms of increased economic employment, health, safety, education, sustainability, inclusivity and cultural opportunities, and/or housing access for low and moderate-income families.

Here at HUD, we understand that when it comes to tackling some of our toughest community development and affordable housing challenges, we can’t go it alone. We know that leveraging public investments with the power of community-based foundations is one of the best ways to produce real results. After all, community foundations are a valuable repository of local wealth and have in-depth knowledge of community challenges and opportunities, making them well suited to provide leadership on housing and neighborhood development while guiding donors toward investments that will have impact.

When we launched the award, we received far more applications than we expected from a wide variety of community foundations across the country. The applications covered public-philanthropic partnerships working on issues such as health and recreation, transportation, urban farms, housing and neighborhood improvements. In May, our judges selected the slate of winners, one community foundation for every HUD region – ten in all. While I can’t disclose the winners today, they represent foundations of all sizes, reflecting the diversity of community foundations and the challenges they tackle. We are all very excited to announce and honor them next month at the COF Annual Community Foundations Conference in New Orleans from September 10-12.

Our hope is that by making the Secretary’s Award for Community Foundations an annual competition and event, we can publicly recognize these amazing projects and partnerships. This will create a platform for organizations to share their experiences, best practices, and resources with each other, while encouraging the development of more partnerships between government entities and foundations. In particular, I am excited about the possibilities to share best practices that will enhance the work of the White House Council for Strong Cities, Strong Communities that is housed in PD&R and works in partnership with fourteen other federal agencies to improve local government capacity to meet immediate and emerging challenges. For more information, I invite you to read the website and brochure on the Secretary’s Award for Community Foundations. And I hope you will join us in our celebrations in New Orleans.