Expand your Foundation’s Horizons

In a recent poll, ACCE found that 65 percent of chambers have a 501(c)3 foundation as part of their organization. Many foundations focus on leadership development, student scholarships, workforce development and other issues that chambers have tackled for decades. However, many chambers are leveraging their foundations to address broad-based community challenges and use their convening power to build impactful coalitions of member businesses and other key stakeholders.

Here are some things to consider to help your organization and foundation make an even greater impact. 

Identify Key Community Challenges

Workforce challenges and talent development are priorities in all our communities. Are there other areas of focus,  specific to your community, that your chamber foundation could address? It could be mental health, food insecurity, childcare, economic opportunity or educational attainment. Focus on topics being discussed at City Hall or among your members to start the conversation.

Be Flexible

Chambers did a lot of pivoting over the pandemic and foundations were able to do the same. Utah Community Builders, the foundation of the Salt Lake Chamber, created a pandemic response based on immediate needs created by COVID-19. The foundation created Hope Grants and Hope Corps. Hope Grants targeted groups in particular need because of the pandemic, focusing on food insecurity, mental health and vaccine distribution efforts and information. Hope Corps connected college students who had lost internships or summer jobs with employers that needed talent, raising funds to make the internships paid. With the interruption in education during the pandemic, Hope Corps is now shifting to addressing learning loss that occurred over the last 18 months. Stay on top of immediate needs in your community to remain impactful and responsive. 

Engage Local Nonprofits & Community Foundations

Expanding into mission-based foundation work might cause concern among local non-profits or foundations. When discussing Utah Community Builders during a recent ACCE Metro Cities Council meeting, Derek Miller, the president & CEO of the Salt Lake Chamber, mentioned that a local nonprofit had questions about the new foundation. Miller suggested being up front and transparent with local organizations to discuss community efforts. When looking for issues to rally around, ask yourself, “What’s the business connection to it?” “We’re not necessarily out doing food drives, but we have a lot of businesses interested in food insecurity, so there’s a business connection and a way that we can be involved,” Miller explained. “It’s not duplicative.”

Do Your Research

ACCE has plenty of resources on chamber foundations and community impact. You can check out our Foundation Resource Guide, read this article from Chamber Executive on chamber impact

R&D From Other Foundations

Chambers love a good R&D – rip off and duplicate! Learn by example and see what other chamber foundations are doing in the social impact realm. You may find an innovative approach to a challenge your community is facing. Here are just a few examples:

Loudoun Chamber Foundation (Va.) – One of the strategic objectives of the Loudon Chamber’s foundation is public safety, supporting emergency responders and their families, with a focus on those who have been injured or killed in the line of duty.

Southwest Indiana Chamber Foundation – This foundation focuses on quality of place and talent development and includes early childhood education as part of that focus.

Livingston Parish Chamber Foundation (La.) – Located in Louisiana, this area is no stranger to severe weather events, leading this foundation to list disaster recovery as an area of investment.

Tampa Bay Chamber Foundation – Two areas of focus for Tampa Bay include a Minority Business Accelerator, designed to help Black and Hispanic businesses grow, and an effort to define and address workforce housing challenges in the region.

Utah Community Builders – Mental health is one of the four priorities for the Salt Lake Chamber’s foundation. That focus led to the launch of “Workforce Resilience through Mental Fitness,” a campaign to provide business leaders with information, tools and resources to help elevate the mental and emotional resilience of Utah’s workforce.