This is amazing! ISAAC donors gave over $14,000 to our Endowment Fund in 2022! A huge thank you to the Endowment Fund donors who put so much trust in our work together to build the Beloved Community. Your commitment and generosity have increased our fund value to more than $176,000 even after the stock market’s rough year!

 

Three years ago when we were jubilant that we surpassed the $50,000 necessary for our Endowment to generate interest income for ISAAC. Now, thanks to amazing support for our work to get local “policies and practices infused with love, hope, equity and abundance” *, our Endowment has more than tripled!!  Our Endowment fund was the first “socially responsible” endowment fund established at the Kalamazoo Community Foundation, so all the interest we gain is from socially responsible investments.

Two of the generous donors who made this amazing growth happen are Dr. Regena Nelson and Dr. Carolyn Heineman. They describe their reasons for giving to ISAAC this way:   

“While ISAAC is blessed to receive funds from private donors, grants, and contracts to do our social justice work, the endowment fund will provide a long-term, consistent source of revenue. I give to the endowment fund monthly to ensure the financial sustainability of ISAAC in our community. I can’t imagine our community without ISAAC’s advocacy for equity and justice for all.”

     –     Dr. Regena Nelson

 

 

 

 

“I see my gift as an act of not only community healing, but an act of reparation. I don’t see the donation as something ‘special’–I see it as my obligation. Coming from humble roots, it never occurred to me that I would ever have enough resources to do something like this. But here I am. I’m realizing that it’s time to channel some of my privilegedly-accumulated resources into my community. And going forward, I will continue to look for portions of my resources that I can use to add to the power of our community change agents.”

     –     Dr. Carolyn Heineman

 

 

We are deeply grateful for every donation of “time, talent and treasure.” Together we are building the Beloved Community that is so badly needed.

If you’d also like to make a gift that will sustain ISAAC for years to come, go to Kalamazoo Community Foundation at connect.kalfound.org/GiveNow and put “ISAAC Endowment Fund” in the space to “Search for a Specific Fund.”

Or, please make your check (or your tax-free Charitable Distribution from the Required Minimum Distribution of your Individual Retirement Account) to Kalamazoo Community Foundation, and designate it for “ISAAC Endowment Fund”, and mail it to:

Kalamazoo Community Foundation

402 E. Michigan Ave

Kalamazoo, MI 49007

Thank you to each of you who has given to our Endowment in 2022, and over the past 5 years since it was first created. Every gift inspires others.

* “Policies and practices infused with love, hope, equity and abundance” are the words of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther KIng, Jr. describing “the Beloved Community, where every single person is held as beloved.”

Tobi Hanna-Davies, VP for Communications