Q & A with Alicia Dicks

Community Foundation of Herkimer and Oneida Counties has invested over $100 million in the community, says organization’s president. Nonprofit still has an endowment of over $170 million

by David L. Podos

Q: What is the historical background of the Community Foundation?

A: The foundation has been in existence in Utica since 1952. We are a donor-based organization where donors invest and we are a grant maker. Over time, our investment portfolio has grown from the first handful of donors in the 1950s to the present time where we have more than 500 funders in our portfolio. To give your readers a perspective, last year we celebrated putting more than $100 million into the community through grants [over the past 70 plus years]. Incredible as that is, our endowment presently is more than $170 million. So, the power of investment into the community is quite powerful.

Q: Those numbers are certainly incredible. That said, who was the first donor way back in 1952?

A: Her name was Rosamond Childs and she was our first donor. She had a desire to give back to her community for future needs, which is quite interesting, because Utica was a much different place at the time. It was a vibrant bustling very economically sustainable city. So, for donors back then, like Ms. Childs, to come together and think about future needs that the city might be facing someday was pretty impressive.

Q: I’m assuming that if someone wanted to donate to the foundation to help the area, the donor can be anyone living anywhere, not just in the city of Utica and or other areas of Oneida and Herkimer counties. Is that correct?

A: That’s correct. This is place-based philanthropy. So, people who are from here, or came here from another geographic area for instance and built a business, bought a home, and raised their families in this region, or for any other reasons why they care about this area, they will invest with us to help make the community better. We actually have donors from all over the world. One of our donors lives in England who has a scholarship fund here through the foundation.

Q: As a community foundation you help hundreds of non-for-profit agencies  because of this, those agencies are able to continue to provide services to the community. What is the process that someone has to go through for consideration of receiving monies from the foundation?

A: Well, traditionally we had grant applications where you would come to the office and pick up a grant application. But now you can just pick up the phone and call us and let us know what your need is. Is it an emergency need or an overall need? So, it’s really about the relationships we have with our nonprofits. That said, once we get to know you and have an idea what your need is, we do have certain grant rounds (times) where we are accepting applications; those are now all online. Some of our peers have very specific grant round timing, for instance, some are quarterly, some are monthly, etc.

Q: Does the foundation have just restricted grants or are they unrestricted?

A: That’s a great question. Some of our donors have put restrictions on who receives the grant money and we also have unrestricted grants as well. Percentage-wise we are close to 70% unrestricted versus 30% restricted. Our foundation is one of the more unrestricted community foundations which gives us great volume and latitude for decision-making in regards to where our money goes.

Q: What would some of these agencies do [to survive financially] if the foundation was not there to assist them?

A: Well, they would have to apply to other funders and they are not a dime a dozen. That said, we do not have a whole lot of funding agencies in our region like Syracuse and or Buffalo where they have more than a dozen funders, local and regional foundations. Here we only have a handful of other funders besides the foundation that get involved. So, if we went away, there certainly would be a negative impact upon the communities we serve.

Q: Name just one organization that you funded that went on to provide additional services that would not have been possible without the foundations help.

A: Sure — The Central Association for the Blind and Visual Impaired located in Utica. They are a great organization which provides specialized needs but wanted to expand their work, provide more services and more specialization for those services. They developed a new center for the blind that has a fitness center, a pool, a learning lab and a tech room, all for the use of people who are either blind and or visually impaired.

Q: If someone wanted to donate to the foundation, how do they go about doing that?

A: Simply give us a call and or email us. We will take it from there.

Q: How many staff do you presently have?

A: We presently have 16 staff — 15 full-time and one part-time.

Q: How does the foundation pay for its expenses?

A: We live off approximately 1.5 % of our endowment which covers all our expenses of running the foundation including salaries.

Q: For people who want more information about the foundation and upcoming events such as Mohawk Valley Gives, what is your website and what phone number can people reach you at?

A: Our website is foundationhoc.org. Our phone number is 315-792-0118. For those who want more info on Mohawk Valley Gives, the site is givemv.org