Q & A Clotilde Perez-Bode Dedecker President/CEO, Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo By Christopher Schobert; photos by kc kratt Clotilde Perez-Bode Dedecker If there’s an effort being made to strengthen Western New York, its culture, and its people, there’s a good chance Clotilde Perez-Bode Dedecker is involved. This might sound like hyperbole, yet it is undeniably an accurate statement, so deep and profound is Dedecker’s impact on the area she’s called home for the majority of her life. Currently the president and chief executive officer of the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo, Dedecker has previously served as executive director of the Erie County Commission on the Status of Women, been a member of the U.S. President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation, and is a past president of the Association of Junior Leagues International. She’s also a wife, mother of two, and an engaging, stylish individual who truly represents the best of Buffalo citizenship. We recently chatted about what the Community Foundation is, what it does, and how it and other charitable organizations are dealing with the fallout from an unprecedented economic collapse. The Community Foundation is unique. Tell me a bit about what exactly you do. Community Foundations are unique to each region, and we are one of the ten oldest in the world; we were the first in New York State, and we’re actually celebrating our ninetieth anniversary this year. So, for ninety years this foundation has helped provide services that help individuals, families, and organizations leave philanthropic legacies for the future of this community. We currently have over 800 funds under management. We’re a foundation of foundations, where individuals and families in organizations establish their foundation within the umbrella of the community foundation. Some of those funds are endowed, some are non-endowed. Donors direct their funds to the general needs of the community or to specific purposes. So the donor intent is expressed in many different ways through the establishment of these funds. We have the largest scholarship program in WNY. It’s very cost-effective. There is a very small annual fee that covers the administrative overhead and you [benefit from] being a part of a much larger investment pool which gives you great protection. And we have seen that play out this year, as the last two quarters brought us into some unprecedented times. Is it the safest way, then, for an individual or a family to give back? It’s the easiest. I would say it’s the simplest approach to establishing a foundation; if your interest is advising grants and having your successors advise charitable grants from the earnings, then that’s what you can focus on, and we take care of everything else. We are a nonprofit. Our role is to provide this service because our mission is to connect people, ideas, and resources to improve lives in WNY. So growing the philanthropic nest egg for this community is why we exist. And making that easy and affordable and attractive is why we come to work every day. What’s going on now in the economy—has it made what the Foundation does a little more difficult? A lot more difficult? Or are the effects not totally clear yet? I would say the effects are not clear yet. For example, in terms of our contributions we had no significant change. Remember, this hit in September in a really big way, and so I think it’s too soon to tell. We have to wait and see what happens in 2009. Our donors tend to give more from assets than from earnings—we’re a life legacy organization, so we wouldn’t see immediate impact. But when you look at what happened with major campaigns in our community, they were all short of goal to some degree or another, and I think that’s certainly reasonable to expect at a time where there’s a high level of uncertainty in terms of the wealth of individuals, and given the rollercoaster ride that the markets have experienced. I think people will be much more strategic, and maybe need a little bit more time to think about their charitable giving, but I don’t think people are going to stop acting on their charitable impulse. They will continue to do what they can. When you look at what happened with major campaigns in our community like the United Way, the City Mission campaign, the Catholic Charities campaign—they were all short of goal to some degree or another, and I think that’s certainly reasonable to expect at a time where there’s a high level of uncertainty in terms of the wealth of individuals, given the rollercoaster ride that the markets have experienced, and also I heard this morning that we’re at a twenty-six-year high in terms of number of individuals nationally that have filed for unemployment. That’s significant. Do you think it’s a better time for organizations to be involved with the Foundation? Because in a sense, then, they’re not going it alone. And it’s clear that for many organizations, funding from the state is certainly going to be less than it was in previous years. I would say yes, because again there are the benefits of the economies of scale. Our core business is managing endowments and honoring a donor’s intent and perpetuity, so being part of a larger pool is safer. And our performance certainly speaks for itself. What’s unique about this particular recession is the degree to which it has affected and impacted all three sectors: the private sector, the public sector, and the nonprofit sector. It has been absolutely democratic, if you will, in its impact. And depending on the type of nonprofit organization that you run, the circumstance will vary. For example, if you’re a human service agency that has historically been largely dependent on government funding, particularly at the state level, that is a pretty challenging situation to be in. In New York State, if you’re an arts and cultural organization, government funding has traditionally not been as robust as for the human service sector. It can’t always be counted on. Exactly. So it’s a bit different. But then your challenge there has to do with your traditional donor base: individuals. So I think organizations and their boards need to be very strategic about retrenching during this particularly challenging time, and really focus on new approaches and core business. Necessity is the mother of invention sometimes. I think a crisis can [inspire] better approaches to addressing the needs in our community. It’s an opportunity to take a fresh look at your business model, at your mission, and really an opportunity to reengage the community as to the need for your services. At the end of the day, whether you’re a foundation or a nonprofit, the most important conversation you can have with the community is, what change am I part of creating? Despite whatever is going on politically in NYS and Erie County, nationally, wherever, is what the Community Foundaton does kind of above all that? Well it is independent of that, but what we need to understand is when you look at funding, about four percent of the funding nationally, traditionally has come from corporate America. I would expect that to be a little closer to three percent as we go forward in 2009. About eleven percent nationally comes from foundations. Government will always be the largest funder of the nonprofit sector. So, as much as we as foundations have the most flexible dollars and the most independent dollars, we need to work with government, and we need to be a part of ensuring government makes the right choices, because at the end of the day government is the largest funder. And then, the second largest funder, by the way, is individuals. The two largest are individuals and the public sector. Foundations are only eleven percent, and corporate America is only four percent. That’s less than I would have imagined. So I think we need to think about that. Now, that eleven percent of foundation funding—again, these are national statistics—is the most strategic, the most flexible, the most independent pot of money we have. So it needs to be used with the burden of all that responsibility—to pilot programs that can then be brought to scale by government. And that is exactly what we’re doing here. The community foundation has three different functions. One is serving as a community leader on key issues that are timely for attention; next, as a vehicle for philanthropy, which is working with donors to make it easier for donors to establish endowed legacies to benefit the charitable needs of the community; and thirdly, a grant maker. These are the three functions of a community foundation opportunity. That is the three-pronged approach of our community leadership work. One fine example is the Read to Succeed Buffalo initiative. It has over fifty-four stakeholders as part of the coalition, and together they spent the better part of 2006 identifying goals they wanted to accomplish to increase the level of literacy in the city of Buffalo across the age continuum. And what we do know about literacy is that the earlier on in the age continuum that you intervene, the higher your return on investment. So infants to school age—this is the most productive point in a person’s life to make the greatest change in terms of enabling their success and their potential. Because we had a plan that had all of these partners at the table, we competed very successfully for a $4.1 million federal grant to make sure that infants to school-age children—birth to age four—get to that kindergarten door ready to learn. Unfortunately right now in the Buffalo public schools, fifty percent of all the children that show up at the kindergarten door are at risk for academic failure, because they don’t have the necessary vocabulary and the necessary knowledge to successfully experience kindergarten. That puts them at risk forever. Less than fifty percent graduate from high school. There’s a direct correlation there. And the best news, and the numbers are in that publication, are the early results of the first six months of this pilot program working with children that are at daycare centers have been extraordinary, extraordinary results and what we have proven is what we all know—kids are born with the right equipment, and kids can learn if given the appropriate stimulus at the appropriate age. And that’s very exciting, and that’s the leadership initiative that we have around the Read to Succeed program. And what’s even more exciting about that initiative is that it is housed at the Community Foundation, but it is funded—all of that planning work and all of that initial convening work of the community, the operational overhead was funded through a funders’ collaborative. And this is really important and unique. The Oishei Foundation, the Wendt Foundation, and the Community Foundation have together made this possible. Tell me a bit about the Community Foundation’s environmental initiative. When you look at the environmental initiative, it’s about bringing together the over 170 environmental nonprofits in this community to talk about what is it that we want to accomplish next, and how can we do that better together. And then when you look at the leadership initiative that we have around preventing lead poisoning as part of our reducing racial disparities initiative, that is also about what can we do better together here, because here’s an issue—lead poisoning—that is preventable. We had 1,400 kids in Erie County whose potential was permanently undermined by exposure to lead paint, and it’s as simple as being in a home where there is lead paint in any home that was built before 1978 is at risk. And every time you open and close the windows you may not see it. Everybody thinks of paint chips, but when you open and close the windows, that little dust the children breathe it in it creates permanent reduction of IQ. That’s scary. Completely, 100 percent preventable. So we have brought together the county, the city, and some nonprofits that work in this area such as the block clubs and community action organizations, and we said, what are the gaps here? What isn’t working? We’re still getting 1,400 children in Erie County within a twelve-month period whose potential is being permanently undermined because of high levels of lead in their blood. And we got answers to that. So now we’re working together, and because we did that coordinated approach we attracted $300,000 from the federal government to help us get that job done. We have significant resources we can put towards it, and our philanthropic dollars are now what I call the grease and the glue money to bring people together, and to backfill the gaps that the public sector is in a position to address, and to rally the volunteers to clean up 100 houses a year. We can get it done, and we can prevent these 1,400 children throughout Erie County from being in this situation. How do you feel about where this region is headed right now? Do you think that we’re headed in the proper directions, specifically when it comes to the environment? I would say that we’re at a crossroads, in that it’s going to take people like you and me and everybody else we work with and know to lock arms and [start] designing the future we want for our community in a coordinated [manner]. Funding levels for the environment [are very low]. One of the big gaps we found in our year-long planning process of listening to the community was the whole area of the nonprofit sector that looks to protect the environment in our community. It was lacking in coordination and organization; it was not lacking in passion or commitment. New dollars have come to the region, that we were able to attract because of our coordinated approach. And that’s the end game; that is what the Foundation is committed to doing. This organization is built on the generosity of Western New Yorkers. That’s very powerful. For more information on the Community Foundation of Greater Buffalo, including details on its many initiatives and partnerships, visit www.cfgb.org. Christopher Schobert is an associate editor of Buffalo Spree. SUBSCRIBE NOW Back to the Table of Contents Back to Top