Today, we talked with GMCF's current Board of Directors Chair, Matt Crocker. We discussed how he became involved with the community foundation the year ahead with the goal of finishing the projects that past chairs Jackie Hartman Borck and Kim McAtee started and laying the foundation for GMCF's next 25 years.
Today, we talked with GMCF's current Board of Directors Chair, Matt Crocker. We discussed how he became involved with the community foundation the year ahead with the goal of finishing the projects that past chairs Jackie Hartman Borck and Kim McAtee started and laying the foundation for GMCF's next 25 years.
Welcome to Philanthropy Today. Our goal is to inspire giving by educating listeners on ways to give and how to connect with charitable causes. My name is Dave Lewis. I'm your host of Philanthropy Today. Thank you for joining the show. Welcome back to Philanthropy Today, and we have a new perspective, a new year, a new chair, a lot of neat things happening. Vern Henricks we brought in a man who has been very involved in the community since the get-go.
Speaker 2:Matt Crocker has been around for a long time. He's on his second term as the board and will, beginning 2024, april, be our board chair, so is a kind of the new future for the Community Foundation. We've talked about many things going forward here, and Matt had some great ideas, and so we're excited about having you on the board for the second time, and now his first time as chair. First time as chair yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, you're going to get thrown into the fire here I am, I am.
Speaker 3:I guess I should learn to keep my mouth shut more often. I guess All these good ideas that Vern's talking about I should learn to keep my mouth shut more often.
Speaker 1:I guess All these good ideas that Vern's talking about. You spoke at the CFAs about some of the neat things that we've been able to do and things that you have perspectives on, and let's kind of go back a little bit to the beginning of your involvement with the Greater Manhattan Community Foundation and how that started for you.
Speaker 3:Sure, well, I mean, obviously, first of all, coming back to Manhattan and working for Steel and Pipe back in 2005,. The expectation at Steel and Pipe is you get involved in the community, and so the community foundation is a big piece of that. But I actually became a trustee of the community foundation in 2011. And that was about the same time that the at the time it was the community foundation of the Flint Hills, but later to be renamed the Goldstein Foundation started, and so, obviously, with my affiliation with Steel and Pipe, was involved in that and served on the grants committee.
Speaker 3:That's a great opportunity to learn what's really going on in this community. You see a very broad spectrum of people doing good things and the needs in this community. And then in 2013, I was asked to be on the board, my first tour duty, and that lasted for six years through 2019. And then in 2022, vern reached out to me to ask me I guess the nominating committee, but Vern reached out to me to serve another term. So, yeah, I got a little bit of a break there, but it's a great organization and one that's really easy to get involved with.
Speaker 1:I think one of the things that stands out to me in our visits that we've had before is what you bring in terms of vision, perspective with specifically regards to finance, and that ties in directly with your role at Steel and Pipe.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I served on the grants committee and then I was the fiscal sponsorship chair and then went to the investment committee and ran it for a little bit and so yeah, I definitely have an appreciation for what this organization does. I mean, it's very obviously money oriented, and so my background fits up pretty well yeah.
Speaker 2:Well and that's one of the good things about Matt is, ever since he's been on the board, he's been involved in several committees, and so, as being board chair, it's nice to have a little well-rounded view of what the community foundation does, and so he brings a good perspective, and obviously Jack's gift in 2010 really catapulted this Community Foundation into another world at that point in time, and that investment continues to grow, and so Matt's involvement as a representative there has been great as well.
Speaker 1:And you follow in that great line of leaders with Jack and then Dennis Mullen Big shoes to fill yeah. Yeah, yeah, and it seems like you're doing pretty well with them. Well, I don't know.
Speaker 3:I'm trying to keep up. I'm trying to keep up. They certainly set an expectation and really blazed a trail in terms of giving back to the community, and so it's just my job to kind of pay it forward.
Speaker 1:So what does it mean to you personally to become chair of the board?
Speaker 3:Well, I'll tell you it's certainly I have big expectations for myself and for the organization. So that's a little bit overwhelming just because of the nature of this organization and the number of people that rely on it. But you know, I'm really excited. This organization has changed tremendously over since I started getting involved, in particular over the last five years, and I'm excited to really kind of wrap up the work that Jackie and Kim started before me and really asking what's the new role for this organization and the community. You know, Vern knows I liked it. When there's an open issue or an unanswered question or a problem, I'm really driven to try to solve it, versus talking about it a lot. And so in this instance I mean it's been a lot of work and I'm excited about wrapping that up and hopefully providing a real clear vision and message to the community about what the future role of this organization is going to be.
Speaker 2:Well, and Matt's role as being the chamber president prior to this has been very helpful, because issues like child care that we've stepped into have really started with the chamber and our partnership in the last few years has grown stronger and stronger with the chamber. And that's where the community foundation, as we continue to get larger and larger and more assets and really more opportunities to make a difference, matt's background there is very valuable too as we enter into those community discussions.
Speaker 1:Let's talk a little bit down the road. You got a year of a lot of things that you're going to have your hands in. What are some of the things, maybe more specifically, that you would like to see the foundation move into?
Speaker 3:Well, Vern mentioned the child care initiative.
Speaker 3:That did start as a chamber initiative and was really highlighted in the business needs assessment the chamber did.
Speaker 3:The Community Foundation has stepped up and helped facilitate the receipt of some grants, and so obviously one of the big objectives for me will be to wrap that up or at least see that get closer to completion.
Speaker 3:That's really the first time there have been some grants here and there, but I mean, that's really the first time the Community Foundation has stepped forward as the recipient of a significant dollar amount for the community and I think this is kind of a you know, it's really an experiment at this point. I think it's one of those that we're going to learn a lot about this year board of what this organization's role is going to be and understanding what we're not going to get into. And we need to clarify that for the community so that we can make sure that we're meeting the expectations that the community has for our organization and then, equally as important, align our resources whether it be staff or funds around those initiatives to ensure we won't let anybody down right? I mean, that's what this organization's reputation is helping people and the last thing we want to do is wade into things that we can't support to the full level that we really need to, and people expect us to.
Speaker 1:We've got so many different events that the foundation is involved in. Each of the nonprofits have different events, the challenges you know. You talk about the child care accelerator and things like that, but are there some things a little more personal that you look forward to being a part of here?
Speaker 3:in your role as chair. I would say for me personally, again, a lot of it's very focused on the organization and just helping to make sure that this organization can continue. Again, kind of that steel and pipe view of pay it forward. I'm not really so focused on what I get done, but rather what I can do to help to make sure that this. You know, we just celebrated 25 years and I look forward to celebrating 50 years and putting our organization in a place to do that. I think for me my time's going to be mostly focused on internal of the organization and making sure that it's a sustainable organization. At some point that probably includes understanding of you know what's the next phase, who's the next Vern, right, but having us set up as an organization to be able to tackle that very effectively and efficiently.
Speaker 2:Well, I think that brings a lot of that experience to the table with an organization, with transitioning Everybody that's on the board. Now moving forward is going to be a part of some point the succession hire of me and just the nature of the terms that we have and so being a part of that. And I know we've talked a lot about strategic planning and so asking those questions from our trustees, young trustees, and so there'll be a lot of questions, a lot of formation of maybe plans moving forward, and so it's going to be an exciting time for the Community Foundation and having Matt and the board that we've got is going to be very good with it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know we talked a lot about things down the road. You've got a particular vision that suits you and what you hope to ascertain as chair. But some of the things that at the annual meeting at the CFAs we had a dollar amount of $367 million in assets and how that continues to grow, and how do we keep that pace and how do we continue to grow and how do we, even more importantly, continue to serve?
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So interestingly, when I look at the asset base and the resources that we have, those have probably already exceeded what we're able to do.
Speaker 3:So I think what's going to be more important for us is not worrying about growing the money, but catching up and being able to really leverage those donations. Again, you know, child care is one, but when the parks and rec situation occurred with the city the last couple of years, everybody reached out to the community foundation to figure out how they could help. And so I think, because of those assets, we're now in a position as an organization that we can have a huge impact, and in a different way, and we have to figure out how to make the organization catch up with the resources we have. I don't think we're doing everything we could be doing today, because there's a little confusion or at least lack of clarity about is that really our role as an organization? And if we do that and start making the impact that we're already having, but even more so, those additional monies will come, because people will continue to have confidence in the community foundation and be very comfortable that their donations and gifts are being spent wisely fern.
Speaker 1:You had mentioned at the cfAs about addressing the needs and seeing the needs, and this is something that has become a main mission for the community foundation addressing those community needs, whether it be a flood or something like the parks and recreation situation, all of these things can be all-encompassing through the foundation.
Speaker 2:Indeed, we've prided ourselves in being available for the community when the need was the greatest and we had a flood, we had COVID those kinds of things you can't plan for, but we had a disaster recovery fund available for that the MHK Together program.
Speaker 2:Nobody planned on a COVID occurrence and the disaster recovery Fund certainly wasn't prepared for that.
Speaker 2:But we created a whole other element, and that creation was our willingness to do more than what we were asked to do from the beginning, and working with Middle and Blade on the MHK Together program was simply being very opportunistic and our donors saw the value of that and they answered the call and the community had an impact.
Speaker 2:And so sometimes it's very hard to determine what the need's going to be years in advance, but what we do determine is that we want to be available and responsive to those needs, and the beauty of that and the Greater Manhattan Community Foundation staff that we have is they all see that as something that we want to get into and the board's been very respectful and responsive and supportive in those efforts. But you know, I agree with Matt we're seeing more and more people ask us for certain things and the needs in the community are getting larger, and some of these needs have formerly been taken care of by tax dollars and appropriations and mill levies, and so now maybe we do or maybe we don't, but certainly as we plan for the community going forward, it's nice to have that discussion in advance.
Speaker 1:Well, to me it seems like we talked earlier big shoes to fill and you've got the big feet to fill those shoes. You really do. You bring so much to the foundation's leadership perspective on finance the mission that the foundation has, and I know that there's just going to be a lot of significant things that happen under your term as chair of the board.
Speaker 3:Well, as Vern mentioned, we don't ever know what's going to pop up, and if you would have asked me two years ago, I would not have ever mentioned that the community foundation would be owning a childcare facility.
Speaker 3:But yeah, I mean we want to be responsive, but it's equally as important for us to recognize well, wait, that's not our lane to swim in and let's go find the person that is responsible for that. But we have a lot of great things going on. What used to be when people used to reach out to the community foundation? I remember when I first started it in the grants committee, right, it was, hey, we need $5,000 for this or $10,000 for that. Now we're talking hundreds of thousands and sometimes millions of dollars of needs to solve some of these more complex community-wide problems, and so we've got a lot to tackle. But, although I mentioned, we're going to be internally focused to try to really get ourselves in a situation to be sustainable for years and decades to come, we're going to continue to look outward and make sure we're helping the people that need the help. I mean that's got to go for sure.
Speaker 1:Oh, you have a lot to look forward to, don't you?
Speaker 3:I do, and you know. The other piece of this is it's not about me. I mean we've got a great group of people, great board members, great trustees, the staff. It's just trying to get people together and really facilitate the conversation and come to some conclusion on things. We have great people in this community. Unfortunately, you know, we lost one just recently and you know the impact Phil Howell's had on this foundation and the community at large is just phenomenal and we want to make sure that we can still be a conduit for others who want to do similar things in the future, because more people will be coming forward.
Speaker 1:I think one of the things that's going to be a great challenge is finding who are those people that fall into that Phil Howell role. We've had others, Jack Goldstein, et cetera. There's so many that have been so generous and so many different perspectives. We continue to see people that come through and see what the community foundation is doing and recognize the value and the efforts and reaching those goals to the solutions that we see need to be assessed.
Speaker 2:So the discussions moving forward are certainly going to be where do we go? And with any board or any group of people, everybody's got different perspectives of that. So our challenge is going to be making sure we're all on the same page and we're all and we're all serving the greatest need of the community and we continue to grow as a staff. This will be a growth year but you know we'll have a board retreat that will talk about a lot of things. We'll certainly put some strategic planning ideas on the table for discussion. We want to share those things with the community. We want to listen to the community and our nonprofit constituents. Our partners program continues to grow. It will most likely be over 20 this year and all of those things come into perspective. We're kind of filling the tank up while the car's moving and sometimes that's hard to do. But we're prepared to do that. And it's great that we do meet monthly on a board member board meeting status, because that gives us that flexibility to have discussion and keep things going, I guess.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I just want to reiterate. I mean just make sure everybody hears that we're going to continue to be doing the good things that we've been doing. You know people are relying on this organization, but we're also going to be spending a lot of time trying to really set the path for the next 25 years and I'm excited about that.
Speaker 3:I mean, it kind of sounds boring because it's you know it's mostly internal stuff and discussions, but it's really understanding, developing a deep understanding of what this community needs out of the community foundation and setting up a path for success.
Speaker 1:There is a tremendous synergy within the walls here of the offices and within all those that serve on the board or as a trustee or whatever the case may be, but there's a tremendous positivity that I sense. You know we talk about the different things, different challenges and, yeah, they're challenging and there may have been some frustrations in setting some of these things up. But being a community that sees the opportunity and addresses the opportunity and makes something special, I think says a lot about the people that are in leadership capacities, like you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we are an organization that is able to respond to things when they pop up and people see that and they get excited about that. It's not the bureaucratic process that you see from other organizations or even other community foundations, for that matter, and that's fun, it's exciting, right? People want somebody that can help them solve their problems and, at the end of the day, that's what we're here for and we're a fund of funds.
Speaker 2:So anybody that wants to start a fund or has an issue they want to tackle, if they've got the funds and we can make that happen. You know, we obviously, if it's going to be funds that we have, we have to go through the process of determining whether that's the greatest need at the time. But if somebody's got an objective that they want to tackle, we can add a fund and we can tackle those. And we've always wanted to be the philanthropic resource and knowledge resource of philanthropy in the community and I think we've established ourselves as that resource of philanthropy in the community. And I think we've established ourselves as that and that's why more and more people come to us.
Speaker 2:And the board that puts more due diligence on the board to oversee some of that and that's what they're going through right now and it's going to be exciting times and we need to make sure that the future is taken care of. And, matt, I guess I've always appreciated working with you. We share a lot of the same opinions about life and leadership and so your time on the board is going to be great. I'm going to wear you out. I'll probably make you a little bit older, but you're close by. You're right downstairs.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I had that situation with the chamber and it was great because I could wait to the last minute to go over to meetings, but it also meant that I got a lot of visitors, so I expect the same.
Speaker 1:Well, congratulations on your new position with the Community Foundation's Board of Directors serving as chair in 2024. And I know that you've got a lot of people cheering for you and they're pretty excited for you to be in that capacity.
Speaker 3:Well, it's an honor to be able to represent this organization and all the trustees and, ultimately, the community, and I'm really looking forward to it. We don't know what tomorrow will bring, or what opportunity or challenge, but we'll be here to tackle it.
Speaker 1:Thank you for joining us for Philanthropy Today an inside look at the Greater Manhattan Community Foundation. You can always learn more about the GMCF at our website, mcfksorg. We also invite you to subscribe to Philanthropy Today on Apple, spotify, amazon or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Dave Lewis. I'm proud to host Philanthropy Today. It's hosted and produced in the Ad Astra Cast Studios in downtown Manhattan, kansas. Philanthropy Today.