Giving the Gift of Giving

by Brenda Chumley

On behalf of the entire team at the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation, I'd like to wish everyone a happy Community Foundation Week! We're pleased to celebrate by sharing how we work with other community foundations across the country.

In 2004, the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation established the Greater Horizons brand. We did this for a few reasons, but most importantly because this non-geographic name allowed us to easily provide administrative services to other foundations nationwide. We've been more than pleased with the results thus far, especially through our Giving Card program.

Giving Cards are not new. But in 2007, after the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation sold its first one, other community foundations took notice and came to us wanting to offer their own Giving Cards to their donors and communities. As a result, we've created nearly a dozen partner Giving Card sites.

One example is the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee (CFMT). They've had great success with their Giving Card program since its launch in 2010. Just last month they received an order from a national company with headquarters in their community. The company purchased $25 Giving Cards customized with its logo to give to each of its 3,600 employees. Giving Cards can be redeemed to benefit any 501(c)(3) in the U.S., so each employee can choose an organization that will receive the $25.

"It's great to see a company giving its employees options to give back," said Rebecca Finley, communications director for CFMT. "We're always looking for new ways to enhance charitable giving in our community, and Giving Cards have been a really great option for companies and individuals to give back."

And we're not done yet! We're currently enhancing overall usability and navigation of the Giving Card site and working to improve the customization options for each community foundation partner.

We certainly wouldn't be where we are today without the partnerships and collaborations we have with our fellow community foundations, and we look forward to forging more relationships in the coming years!  

Brenda Chumley is senior vice president of Administration at the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation, a member of the Council on Foundations. She is a regular contributor to the Greater Horizons Giving Better Blog.