Business Commons^™

The Economic Impact Of The Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, Christian Glupker, Paul Isely

Other Faculty Publications

SUMMARY OF ECONOMIC IMPACT

• The total annual economic impact of FMG is $138 million in economic activity, supporting 1,167 jobs, and contributing $77.6 million to Kent County’s GDP.
• The visitor direct spending, operational spending, and capital investment spending generate $353,115 in annual tax revenue for Kent County.
• There were 755,000 visitors to Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park (FMG) with 62% of these visitors coming from outside Kent County (nonlocal visitors).
• 50% of the nonlocal visitors were visiting FMG for the first time and 48% of the local visitors visit FMG six or more times a year.
• 40% of all …

The Economic Impact Of Saginaw Bay Bass Fishing Tournaments, Christian Gluker

Other Faculty Publications

The 2023 National Professional Fishing League Tournament and the Major League Fishing Tournament are estimated to have generated or supported economic benefits for Bay County in the following ways:

• The tournaments brought 582 total visitors from 25 states.
• There were 4,141 total visitor days. These visitors spent on average seven to eight days in the Bay City area.
• Direct spending of all visitors was $815,000.
• The total economic impact of all visitors is estimated at $976,000 in economic output supporting 10 jobs.
• Visitors generated approximately $8,187 in additional tax revenue for Bay County.

Back Matter

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Executive Summaries

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Learning, Unlearning, And Sprinkling In: Our Journey With Equitable Evaluation, Jane Mosley, Leigh W. Quarles, Jason L. Williams

The Foundation Review

The Health Forward Foundation recently completed a two-year journey with the Equitable Evaluation Initiative as a practicing partner. This partnership provided us with the support to push for change that better aligned with our new focus, prioritizing racial equity and economic advancement.

The partnership also allowed us to explore a number of questions fundamental to our work in learning and evaluation: what we really know about the impact philanthropy is making in our communities; how we can explain that to board members, and how we honor the personal experiences of the people we serve.

In this article we discuss our …

Front Matter

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Learning Circles As A Tool For Participant- Owned Evaluation, Virginia Roncaglione, Chan Brown, Jennifer James, Courtney Huff

The Foundation Review

Learning circles are an approach where individuals with a common interest meet regularly to learn from each other about a self-identified topic in a format chosen by the group. Honoring a group’s collective wisdom, centering participants’ learning needs, and prioritizing relationships and trust are all features of learning circles. This practice is of increasing interest to funders and evaluators as a tool for practicing learning and evaluation aligned with the Equitable Evaluation Framework™.

Kansas Health Foundation and its strategic learning partners, Innovation Network and Harder+Company Community Research, are exploring learning circles in two of the foundation’s initiatives: Integrated Voter Engagement …

In Conversation: Two Community Foundations In Dialogue About Their Equitable Evaluation Framework™ Practice, Madeline Brandt, Kelly Casey, Jean-Marie Callan, Joel Hicks-Rivera, Kim Leonard, Madeline Nguyen, Elena Tamanas Ragusa, Cierra Stancil, Kimberlee Salmond, Becky Seel, Kate Szczerbacki

The Foundation Review

This conversation between staff at the Oregon Community Foundation and the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving shares how we are infusing the Equitable Evaluation Framework™ into our practice as we aim to be less extractive, shift power, and honor all ways of knowing and being as valid. In sharing this conversation, we want to pull the curtain back and offer a behind-the-scenes view into the conversations, realities, and challenges involved in doing this kind of work.

We sat down together for 90 minutes on a Wednesday afternoon, and the following is a rough transcript of our time together. The intention …

A Team's Journey Toward More Equitable Philanthropic Research And Evaluation Practices, Kimberly A. Spring, Maria Fernanda Mata, Jeffrey Poirier, Allison Holmes, Amir François

The Foundation Review

This article describes the journey of the Research and Evaluation team at the Annie E. Casey Foundation to develop an approach that would allow us to rethink and deepen how we, as funders of research and evaluation, center equity in our practice.

In particular, we explain how, through this process, we began to focus on what it means to orient research and evaluation toward participant owners and came to examine the assumptions, expectations, habits, and values that we held. These experiences have presented us with opportunities to learn and be open to new ways of engaging in our work.

We …

The Practice Of The Equitable Evaluation Framework™: Context And Introduction To The Special Issue, Marcia A. Coné, Jara Dean-Coffey

The Foundation Review

Welcome to the special issue of The Foundation Review.

For many, this is an introduction to the Equitable Evaluation Framework™, and how some folks in U.S. philanthropy are reimagining evaluation, learning, and research through its practice. For others, you’ve been in practice of the EEF alongside us and other individuals and organizations and are, thus, represented in the offerings shared from your colleagues.

Over the past three years, in partnership with many, we’ve engaged in exploring, puzzling together, and sharing what it means to “be in practice of the EEF.” While impossible to convey the depth, breadth, and richness of …

A Journey Into Equitable Practice: Doing More, Doing Differently, And Doing Better, Bree Bode, Sarah Panken, Annie Murphy, Marci Scott

The Foundation Review

The mission of the Michigan Fitness Foundation is to encourage and facilitate active lifestyles and healthy food choices through education, environmental awareness, community participation, and policy leadership. The article shares how a three-year engagement with the Equitable Evaluation Initiative led the foundation to see its grantmaking, programming, and evaluation practices anew through an equity lens.

Through naming and noticing the ways in which traditional grantmaking has contributed to the inequities that philanthropy seeks to address, the foundation was able to change its own way of working — specifically by going beyond the standard written grant proposal to actually sit with …

Tfr 15.3 Full Issue

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Editorial, Teresa R. Behrens

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

The Economic Assessment Of The White River (Michigan), Christian Glupker, Paul Isely

Other Faculty Publications

SUMMARY OF ECONOMIC IMPACT

• There were 69,543 visitors to the White River in the past year, with 35,329 visitors coming from outside the local region.
• The local primary river users visited the river 49.3 times per year and nonlocal primary river users visited the river 14.7 times per year.
• The nonlocal primary river users averaged $15.84 in spending per person, per day, resulting in $9.0 million in total direct spending.
• The nonlocal primary river users generated $8.3 million in economic output, adding $4.2 million to the local GDP, and support for 80 jobs.
• There was $75,539 in additional tax revenue …

What Should I Say? Testing Ways To Reduce Fear And Increase Disclosure Of Incivility In Reference Checks, Benjamin M. Walsh, Brittany Heighton, Chloe Dingens

Open Access Publishing Support Funded Articles

We utilize signaling theory as a foundation for testing ways to decrease reference providers’ fear of adverse consequences and increase disclosure of workplace incivility in reference checks. We focus on three reminders–commonly recommended by practitioners–that may be sent to reference providers in the instructions prior to the reference check: reminders of applicant consent, qualified privilege, and confidentiality. 420 supervisors were recruited via Prolific.co to complete a hypothetical reference check for the employee with whom they least like to work. Participants were randomly assigned to one of eight conditions in a two (applicant consent reminder: yes/no) X two (qualified privilege reminder: …

Community Building As A Philosophy, Not An Initiative, Anne C. Kubisch, Kasi Allen, Max Gimbel

The Foundation Review

What happens when a foundation invests in community building for the long haul? The Ford Family Foundation, a rural embedded funder in southern Oregon, has made that transition over the past decade. The result is a transformed organization with a 10-year strategic plan focused on helping rural communities build the futures that they want to see — places where children and families can thrive.

The foundation is pursuing community building not as a stand-alone strategy or “initiative,” but as a philosophy that guides local community development efforts based on capacity building and grantmaking based on partnerships. The shift to a …

Exploring Flexibility In Philanthropic Funding For Place-Based Efforts To Improve Community Health: Reflections On A New York State Multisite Initiative, Beth C. Weitzman, Courtney Abrams, Bronwyn Starr, Irfan Hasan, Amy Shire, Brian Elbel, Carolyn Berry

The Foundation Review

Place-based efforts represent a key approach for philanthropies committed to addressing social determinants of health. This article shares insights and reflections from an experience funding and evaluating the Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative, a $22 million, six-year, place-based effort by two grantmaking foundations in nine geographically and demographically diverse communities across New York state. The initiative aimed to facilitate healthy living by fostering environmental and policy changes to enhance access to nourishing, affordable food and effective spaces for physical activity. Strategies to attain the goals were identified by actors most familiar with local community conditions. The funders provided substantial technical assistance, opportunities …

Systems-Change Philanthropy: It’S Essential, And It’S Our Responsibility, Emily Bhandari, Alison Mohr Boleware, Octavio N. Martinez Jr.

The Foundation Review

The Hogg Foundation for Mental Health’s mission is to transform how communities promote mental health in everyday life. Policy engagement — fundamental to improving the social and structural determinants of mental health — has always been a strategic priority for the foundation, which has become a trusted resource for mental health and substance use policy issues in Texas. Yet, the state’s mental health and substance use policy community is limited in size, capacity, and training.

To address that reality, the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health Policy Academy and Policy Fellow Initiative was launched to invest in a mental health policy …

Back Matter

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Changing Systems, Changing Lives: Reflecting On 20 Years, Kennedy Musyoka, Emily Irungu, Margaret F. Sloan

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

From Philanthropoid To Foundation Professional: Reflecting On A Century Of Staff Role Development In U.S. Private Foundations, Michele Fugiel Gartner, Tobias Jung, Alina Baluch

The Foundation Review

Scholarship on foundations has tended to focus on the organizational level or their societal roles. Less attention has been given to foundations’ internal dynamics. Thus, how the roles of foundation staff have developed and evolved has been largely overshadowed. To better understand this development, this article focuses on the individual professional. After a review of a century of research on foundation staff roles, this article maps and synthesizes four research periods highlighting the impact of philanthropic events on role evolution, demonstrating a movement from amateur traditions to emerging professional influences. Then, it critically reflects on the literature, particularly its U.S.-centricity …

Editorial, Teresa R. Behrens

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

How Foundations In An Aligned-Action Network Start To Move To Equity In Philanthropy: Findings From A Year Of Observations And Interviews, Jamie Levine Daniel, Tuyen K. Dinh, Laurie Paarlberg

The Foundation Review

Community foundations across the United States hold a powerful role in leading meaningful social change toward an equitable future. Despite their unique leadership role at the intersection of place, race, wealth, and inequality, we understand little about how these foundations understand and implement efforts that are responsive to issues in their communities, especially those that have been historically marginalized. This article examines how community foundations within an aligned-action network are engaging in philanthropic efforts through their shared commitment to advancing social and economic mobility. Using data from interviews with foundation staff, network meeting observations, and network documents over the course …

Tfr 15.2 Full Issue

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Executive Summaries

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Innovation In The Economy: An Examination Of The Role Of Innovation On Economic Growth, Samuel Macchiarolo

Honors Projects

This paper will be examining factors that may have contributed to past economic recessions, particularly in the US, by looking at levels of both financial innovation and physical innovation, as well as research and development. The paper will take a deeper look into how previous economic recessions happened, how the changes in the level of innovation played a part in those recessions, why innovation levels change so much, and what can be done to eliminate the variation of innovation to help stabilize economic output.

Executive Summaries

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Editorial, Teri Behrens

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.