The Dayton Foundation plans 100 gifts for 100 causes
As it moves into its second century of service to the Dayton region next year, The Dayton Foundation is planning to celebrate by assisting others in the region.
“Throughout our 100th anniversary year, starting in November of 2020 and running through next September, we’re going to be celebrating our 100th anniversary by inviting 100 of our donors and fund holders to make additive gifts to causes they care about in our community,” says Mike Parks, president of The Dayton Foundation.
“By next September, a total of 100 new gifts will have been made throughout the community in celebration of all the wonderful work the nonprofits do each and every day in our community.”
And those gifts range in size from small gifts to very significant ones.
“We want everyone and every organization in our area who wants to support a philanthropic cause to have a seat at our table, whether they are worth millions or of more modest means,” says Parks.
With a mission of helping people and nonprofit organizations help others through philanthropy and community leadership, The Dayton Foundation is the region’s largest community foundation.
The Dayton Foundation provides unmatched services, resources, support and counsel to help individuals and organizations achieve their charitable giving goals. It assists other nonprofits by funding important initiatives and offering its expertise to help them operate more effectively. And it’s helping build a better community by identifying important issues and bringing together the people and organizations who can solve them.
“Throughout our 100-year history, we now have nearly 4,000 families, individuals, business organizations and nonprofits that have established funds with The Dayton Foundation,” says Parks, who joined the organization as president in 2002. “That is an amazing testament to the generosity of the people in the Greater Dayton area. Collectively, we have given out 382,000 grants over our 100-year history. And last year, the collective total of all those grants surpassed $1 billion.”
While The Dayton Foundation was founded in 1921, the history and heritage of giving back in the Dayton area actually dates back to the devastating floods in the area in 1913, says Parks.
“Throughout our history, time and time again, Daytonians have risen to the occasion to help their neighbors,” he says.
The Dayton area’s spirit of giving and philanthropy continues to be tested, especially in the last 16 months, Parks adds.
“On Memorial Day of 2019, we all woke up to find that there were 15 tornadoes that ripped through Greater Dayton, devastating hundreds and thousands of homes and businesses,” says Parks. “A few months later, on Aug. 4, we had a mass shooting that took nine lives and seriously injured another 30-plus individuals.
“Obviously, since last spring, we are dealing with the ongoing challenges and complications from COVID-19.”
In each of those three cases, The Dayton Foundation was in a position to help set up a charitable fund to help individuals affected by each of those tragedies.
“We set up the Greater Dayton Disaster Relief Fund to help nonprofits respond to the tornado aftermath, a fund for the families of those whose lives were taken or individuals who were severely impacted by the mass shooting, and, more recently, we partnered with the United Way of the Greater Dayton Area on the COVID-19 Response Fund,” Parks adds, “and that work continues today.”
While any one of those tragedies would be hard for any community to overcome, to have three in such a short time span is almost unthinkable. Collectively, there have been over 8,000 gifts to those three funds, totaling nearly $9 million.
“We are truly blessed to be in a community that has so many caring people,” says Parks.
