Foundation in rural Michigan county goes beyond making grants, to community leadership

As federal support continues to decline for programs that nourish young people in rural areas, one community in Michigan has created its own way for residents, especially youth, to flourish by raising millions of dollars to be put back into the community. The Barry Community Foundation provides resources for the rural county located smack dab between Grand Rapids, Battle Creek, Kalamazoo and Lansing, the cities where most Barry County residents work, reports Max Rose for the Daily Yonder.

The foundation "has about 200 funds that made up more than $18 million in assets in 2011," reports Rose. And some of the funds come from grants written by high-school students on the foundation's Youth Advisory Council. Those students, in turn, teach elementary students how to write grants. The group's office is in an converted church, and makes some money by renting space to non-profit groups.

The foundation helps to better the community in such ways as proposing a better location for the new library, left, and raising money to build it, Rose reports, and is involved in community awareness. When few people ran for local office, they worked to create job descriptions for each of the elected positions to generate more interest.

Community foundations can be most useful in rural areas, which are less likely to have businesses and individuals that engage in philanthropy, and can be a trusted vehicle for residents or expatriates to leave bequests. In Barry's foundation is "an example of how a foundation’s role extends beyond grantmaking to becoming a community convener, capacity builder and policy advocate," Rose writes. Perhaps ironically, Barry County includes one of approximately 10 U.S. communities named Podunk, a name that entertainer George M. Cohan popularized as a monicker for a rural town.