Mission Statement

Strengthening our community by providing leadership, fostering collaboration on local needs and issues, and encouraging a legacy of giving through grants, scholarships, and events.

Midland Area Community Foundation—Your Center for Charitable Giving

Since 1974, area residents have been working with the Midland Area Community Foundation to make their philanthropic giving as effective as possible. The Foundation is a non-profit organization serving thousands of people who share a common concern to improve the quality of life in Midland and Gladwin Counties. Now, through our Clare County Community Foundation affiliate, we are helping in Clare County as well.

Individuals, families, businesses and organizations create permanent charitable funds that help our region meet the challenges of changing times. The Foundation invests and administers these funds. We then use the distributions to award grants and scholarships each year to many of the humanitarian, educational, environmental and cultural organizations in this remarkable region we call home.

What’s a Community Foundation?

We are a tax-exempt public charity that enables anyone to establish charitable funds, or to contribute to existing ones. Our over 340 such funds are commingled for investment purposes and managed professionally. As each fund’s assets grow over time, both through investment earnings and additional contributions, grants are awarded to support local nonprofit organizations in accordance with the interests of the donors.

Like all community foundations, we are overseen by a volunteer board of leading citizens and run by professionals. We go beyond simply making grants that advance charitable activities; we also identify current and emerging issues, stimulate resources to address those needs, help our region prepare for the future and provide donors opportunities to leave lasting legacies.

It is for these reasons that community foundations represent one of the fastest growing areas of philanthropy. When people seek ways to give back to the community they live in, we can help you make a difference.

How Does It Work?

The community foundation idea is simple: Anyone may use it to give something back to the community.

Assets that you donate to the Foundation create or enhance one of several types of funds to support your charitable goals. We offer you a full menu of planned giving options as well.

You can create a fund in honor of someone you love or to celebrate a special event. You can direct your gift broadly or narrowly to issues you care about or to wherever the needs are greatest. However you give, your gift can change lives today and in the future.

We offer you the flexibility in charitable giving without the legal paperwork, time and expenses associated with running your own private foundation. We can help you set up a fund that will maximize both your tax advantages and your impact in the community now and forever.

Why Choose Us?

We Know Our Community

When you choose to invest in the future of our community, you want to work with someone who knows the territory. The broad cross-section of leaders who guide our work lends valuable insight that will help your charitable giving achieve maximum results.

We Help You Achieve Superior Tax Benefits

Since the IRS considers us a public charity, contributions are eligible for the highest available tax deductions. And when you add the Michigan Community Foundation tax credit to the mix, the benefits increase even more. In most cases, these tax benefits even outweigh using your assets to establish your own private foundation.

We Make Set-Up and Administration Easy

Establishing a fund can be done in about the same time it takes to open a bank account. We take care of all the administrative and grantmaking activities, eliminate the need for you to set up a separate institution, formulate policies, file innumerable forms and monitor the status of grant recipients. We save you precious time and money.

We Share Your Interests

We are here to help you become connected to the issues you care about most. Your charitable interests and priorities are important to us because committed, caring citizens are so important to our community’s well being.

We Care About the Future

By setting up or contributing to a fund, you have the ideal opportunity to create and/or grow a legacy for you and for our area.

Go Ahead. Make a Difference

By establishing or contributing to a fund with us, you’ll know your gifts are in good hands. Our staff can help you identify where your gifts will best benefit the community. The result is a lasting legacy that addresses the needs of today and the challenges of tomorrow, establishes a tradition of philanthropy and ensures that your gift will develop community capital to improve the quality of life now and well into the future.

What Do I Do Now?

Contact our Foundation staff. You may know precisely which causes you want to support or you may not. In either case, we can help you shape or contribute to a grantmaking program that fits your needs and carries out your charitable intent forever. Let us show you just how easy, flexible and effective your charitable giving can be. And how you can make a difference by giving something back to the community that helped you get where you are today.