Foundation Partners with DuPage County Human Services on Community Funding Initiative

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 25, 2007

Contact: Mike Sitrick, Manager of Development

(630) 665-5556 or msitrick@dcfdn.org

Phil Smith, Director

DuPage County Human Services

(630) 407-6420 or phil.smith@dupageco.org

WHEATON, IL—The DuPage Community Foundation is pleased to announce a new partnership agreement with DuPage County to help allocate the $75,730 remaining in the County’s Human Services Grant Fund (HSGF).

Under the approved agreement, $50,000 of the available funds will be provided to the Foundation for grants relating to its Communityworks initiative.

Communityworks is a statewide initiative established by the Grand Victoria Foundation (GVF) to help community foundations build capacity, leverage new assets for endowment growth, become leaders in their communities and encourage grantmaking in the areas of three key target areas: early childhood care and education, land use and protection, and workforce development. The DuPage Community Foundation will begin making grants from its Communityworks Fund this December and will continue to make annual distributions from it thereafter.

“The Foundation Grant Committee has been carefully considering for months the best investments that can be made in the community to have impact in these three important target areas,” said Dave McGowan, Foundation president. “The timing of this support from the County couldn’t be better.”

The remaining $25,730 has been allocated to the Foundation for research and marketing initiatives to help create a network of health and human service providers and to encourage philanthropy throughout the County. These activities will be driven by a collaborative effort involving DuPage County and area funding organizations including Community Memorial Foundation, The DuPage Community Foundation and the United Way of the DuPage Area.

"These funds are the beginning of a collaboration of funding organizations that will go far beyond just a one-time grant,” said Yolanda Campuzano, chairman of the County’s Health and Human Services Committee (District 1). “By working with The DuPage Community Foundation and other key funding organizations, we can see to it that this investment will help build the capacity for a network of service organizations and make a lasting difference to those in need. The money this agreement provides will help plant a seed that will continue to grow and blossom in the years to come. I am pleased we were able to find an innovative way to see to it that these remaining funds can help make a difference.”

This approach of partnering, collaboration, and strategic use of County resources is an implementation of the recommendations presented in the County’s Strategic Plan, which the County has been undertaking for the past year-and-a-half.

As a result of the County’s continuing budget crisis, the HSGF was closed out earlier this year after making final payments that were approved in 2006. Subsequently, no new grants were approved in 2007.

Established in 1986, The DuPage Community Foundation is a publicly-supported 501 (c) (3) organization to which contributions are tax deductible. It was created to benefit the people of DuPage County and receives contributions and bequests into a permanent endowment from individuals, corporations, organizations, and foundations wishing to make lasting contributions to the people of DuPage. The earnings on these funds are then used, in accordance with donor wishes, for the Foundation’s grantmaking and community leadership activities.

The DuPage Community Foundation seeks to raise the quality of life throughout DuPage County by developing and channeling philanthropy to meet the needs of its residents. Based on the American virtues of volunteerism and philanthropy, the Foundation fosters a legacy of support for the people of DuPage County by making grants to not-for-profit organizations working in the arts and culture, education, environmental affairs, health, and human services. Since its inception the Foundation has awarded nearly $6 million in grants to approximately 400 not-for-profit agencies serving the residents of DuPage County and beyond.

For further information about the Foundation or to arrange future media opportunities, please contact Michael Sitrick, manager of development, at (630) 665-5556 or msitrick@dcfdn.org.

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