The Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties
http://www.cfpbmc.org
Since its founding in 1972, the Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties has granted over $78 million to the community in the areas of Arts and Culture, Community and Economic Development, Education, the Environment, Health and Human Services, Intergenerational Programs and Education, including more than $5.1 million in scholarships to more than 1,300 students in Palm Beach and Martin counties.
Nonprofit organizations throughout Palm Beach and Martin counties help us to fulfill our mission and together we can make our region a better place to live.
The Community Foundation accepts contributions from individuals, families, businesses, corporations and other foundations in support of community initiatives, special projects and permanent endowment. Income from endowment is used to make grants and award scholarships primarily in Palm Beach and Martin counties.
The Community Foundation gives donors the power to make a difference. When a donor creates a fund at the Community Foundation, they get the resources and expertise of our staff. We work with donors to make sure their charitable contributions meet their philanthropic goals and allow them to have an impact on the community and issues they care about.
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The Community Foundation and FCLF
In response to the growing need for affordable rental housing, in September 2009 the Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties announced an unprecedented $4 million low-interest loan to the Florida Community Loan Fund (FCLF), a nonprofit statewide lending institution. This investment in affordable housing is one of the largest ever made nationwide by a community foundation to a Community Development Finance Institution.
The Community Foundation utilized a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, a national leader on affordable housing, to fund its loan to FCLF.
“The Community Foundation strives to provide community leadership and solutions through the power of informed and disciplined philanthropy,” said William M. Matthews, Chairman of the Community Foundation. “We are deeply grateful to the MacArthur Foundation for their continued support of the Community Foundation, now totaling more than $27 million, and for the example they have set nationally in mission-related investing.”
"With a decline in the number of rental units, the rising cost of housing and growing affordability gaps, the Community Foundation, through their partnership with the FCLF, is rightly taking action to ensure that low income and working families have the opportunity to live in decent, affordable, nearby housing," said Julia M. Stasch Vice President, Human and Community Development of the MacArthur Foundation.
Even with the foreclosure crisis and collapse of housing prices, housing is still unaffordable for most workers. A study commissioned by the Community Foundation last year found that, since 2000, the number of extremely cost burdened renter households increased about 40% in Palm Beach and Martin counties.
The FCLF will invest the $4 million loan in a new $25 million Affordable Housing Preservation Loan Pool Demonstration Program and other affordable rental housing projects in Palm Beach and Martin counties. FCLF financing made possible by the community foundations’ investment as well other private and public investors will be available to non-profit organizations and their community partners to develop and preserve affordable rental housing units.
FCLF will place a local community development professional in the region. Additionally FCLF will continue to offer its other community development lending programs in Palm Beach and Martin Counties.
“This partnership with the Community Foundation of Palm Beach and Martin Counties represents an extraordinary step forward in meeting the mission of FCLF and strengthening the Florida affordable housing field. Strategic investments like this preserve and create affordable housing in places community foundations care about by tapping the capacity of community development financial institutions in ways that make both good business and social impact sense,” said Ignacio Esteban, Executive Director of the Florida Community Loan Fund. “The times and tremendous need for affordable housing in Florida call for more new partnerships like this.”
“The cost of housing is a dismaying surprise for those who thought they lived in paradise, only to find the affordability of a home was out of reach,” said Leslie Lilly, President and CEO of the Community Foundation at the conference. “We know that if we as a state and community don’t act, we will lose a building block fundamental to the economic security of millions of families.”
The Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties is one of more than 27 community foundations statewide and more than 700 nationwide that work to improve quality of life in their communities through charitable giving. Conference attendees and affordable housing advocates across the state are hopeful that this new collaboration will encourage others. “Working together,” said Lilly, “our hope is to change the conversation about why affordable housing is fundamental to the future prosperity of this state.”
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& Contributors
