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Celebrate Charitable Giving During Community Foundation Week November 12-18
11/11/2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                             For more information, contact: Thursday, November 11, 2009                                       Samantha Dennis, Director of Communications & Member Relations                                                                                   759 N. Milwaukee Street, Suite 515                                                                                   Milwaukee, WI 53202                                                                                   (414) 270-1978 p (414) 270-1979 f                                                                                  sdennis@dfwonline.org

Celebrate Charitable Giving During Community Foundation Week November 12-18 Wisconsin's Community Foundation Leaders Visit Lawmakers at the State Capitol MILWAUKEE-Donors Forum of Wisconsin (DFW) will join more than 700 community foundations across the United States in celebrating charitable giving during Community Foundation Week, November 12-18, 2009.  In 2007, community foundations gave an estimated $4.1 billion to a variety of nonprofit activities in fields that included the arts, education, environment, disaster relief, and health and human services.   Today, representatives from Wisconsin's community foundations will be meeting with lawmakers at the State Capitol to discuss issues that are important to advancing the work of foundations and philanthropy in their communities.  In their meetings with policymakers, community foundation leaders will highlight the value of philanthropy at the local and state levels, their role as community leaders to partner with government to solve problems, and their ability to leverage philanthropic support to help address some of the community's most pressing needs.  As part of Donors Forum of Wisconsin Community Foundation Division's Day at the Capitol, Snapshots of Philanthropy posters which profile the extent, quality, and diversity of philanthropy across the state will be on display in the first floor Capitol Rotunda from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.   Community foundations in Wisconsin hold assets totaling over $1.3 billion and have contributed over $6.1 million to local nonprofit activities in 2008. Across the state, community foundations help create stronger hometowns where families want to establish roots, with recreational parks, social service programs and scholarship opportunities for promising local students.   "Community foundations are at the heart of our cities and towns," said Deborah Fugenschuh, President of Donors Forum of Wisconsin. "They are catalysts for positive change within both urban and rural areas. Donors of all income levels and from all geographic regions are finding community foundations to be an ideal way for them to easily give back to their community in a meaningful way."   Community foundations are one of the fastest-growing forms of philanthropy in the United States, with total assets of more than $50 billion.  Every state in the U.S. is home to at least one community foundation.  Although community foundations make up only 1 percent of all U.S. grantmaking foundations, they account for more than 9 percent of all foundation giving.  While the community and clients each foundation serves vary greatly, every community foundation shares in the commitment of improving the lives of others.   Community Foundation Week began in 1989 with a proclamation from former president George H.W. Bush and a congressional briefing about community foundation activities.  The observance has made donors seeking to maximize their philanthropic dollars aware of community foundations' charitable activities and services.   Donors Forum of Wisconsin is a professional membership association for grantmakers in Wisconsin with a focus on creating opportunities for the exchange of ideas and information, disseminating current nonprofit sector trends and research, fostering relationships between service providers and funders, building partnerships within and outside the sector, and advancing the growth and enhancement of stewardship of philanthropic resources for the betterment of all Wisconsin residents.   For over 30 years, the Donors Forum has served family foundations, corporate foundations and giving programs, independent and community foundations as the premiere resource for philanthropy in Wisconsin.   For more information visit our website at www.dfwonline.org or call (414) 270-1978.                                                                                                  #