Displaying items by tag: Kalamazoo Community Foundation

Martha Gonzalez-Cortes has leveraged an educational background in cultural anthropology into a career focused on helping people — often those from marginalized communities. A West Michigan native from Oceana County, Gonzalez-Cortes joined the Kalamazoo Community Foundation at midyear to serve as the organization’s vice president for community investment. With a 20-year career in public service, Gonzalez-Cortes most recently served as the community relations director for the Michigan Department of Civil Rights. Previously, she was CEO of the Hispanic Center of West Michigan and state director of the Office of Migrant Affairs during part of the Granholm administration. Gonzalez-Cortes spoke with MiBiz about her new role in Kalamazoo and her outlook for how she can help effect change through philanthropy in Southwest Michigan.

Philanthropic leaders throughout Michigan are throwing their support behind state legislation to restore tax credits for taxpayers who make charitable donations to nonprofits.

As the economy has recovered from the recession, philanthropic giving nationwide has slowly climbed to an all-time high, in 2015 reaching $373.25 billion, according to a report from the Giving USA Foundation. However, nonprofits rely on funding from other sources as well, and leaders like Carrie Pickett-Erway at Kalamazoo Community Foundation don’t know if those sources will remain secure in the coming year. “We know many of our partners are concerned about major changes they anticipate in state and federal funding,” she said. “Our endowed funds provide a stable source of funding, but would not be able to fill that gap.”

KALAMAZOO — Of the hundreds of nonprofits in the Kalamazoo area, most of them have tapped into the services offered by ONEplace at one time or another.

Galas and golf outings may find themselves on the way out as nonprofits test the waters with more experiential activities to engage a larger audience.

KALAMAZOO — When a violent tragedy struck downtown Kalamazoo in late February, local nonprofits reacted swiftly to channel corporate and individual donations to the appropriate needs. 

Our LGBT Fund hit a milestone to close out 2015 when it announced its first grant of $20,000 to a collaborative program involving Arbor Circle and the Lesbian Gay Community Network of West Michigan (The Network).