spring appeal Bringing Evanston’s strengths to bear 2013 on our challenges, and building new community resources, together. evanston ten reasons Sparking new beginnings potential to care. You put your money where your hopes are, and1 we put it to work. Endowment gifts since 2004 have allowed the Foundation to increase efforts to nurture Evanston’s youngest children and their families. We are building resources for programs in the birth-to-5-year-old arena, and extending home visiting for families with children who aren’t quite ready for preschool.

! Evanston is becoming that place where Every Child is Ready for Kindergarten. community

Making the case with facts and figures You expect the Foundation to multiply your gifts and funnel them into programs that produce evidence measurable results. You want to see nonprofits 2 working together toward shared community goals. We deliver. We’re tracking the effectiveness of more than $1.7 million invested in early- childhood initiatives since 2007, money that has built up a network of organizations (including Infant Welfare Society of Evanston and the District 65 Family Center) providing direct services to hundreds of Evanston’s most vulnerable families. The strength of our local network will have still greater impact thanks to a new federally-funded foundation research project that combines preschool with parental engagement.

Researchers say the earliest years are the best time to target the achievement gap and give all kids an equal opportunity to succeed. Leading Evanston where it wants to go Call us merchants of save the date collaboration. Without a 27th annual grant awards specific product to stock and endurance Thursday, May 23 at 5:30pm at the sell, the Foundation can focus 6 North Shore Retirement Hotel. Join on big community challenges Here for GOOD, and FOREVER us to hear what the new recipients of that cross many sectors. our 2013–14 Responsive Grants plan Leave it to the Foundation. to accomplish with ECF’s support! That is our direct service. We Knowing how much people Admission is free, but space is limited never go it alone—or assume love this town—the lake, the that we have all the answers. workshop: growing a great board schools, the parks, and the Thursday, May 30 at 5:30pm. Learn Step one of “Leading ten Kids will learn to believe enough in unmistakable “speak-your- about best practices in board Evanston” is settling on the themselves to take risks and become positive s mind, buckle-down, and recruitment and training to advance destination or goal—and that intelligence leaders, through outdoor adventures made your organization’s mission and build possible by the Avi Kurganoff Memorial Fund get-it-done” spirit that infuses takes a lot of what we offer: 3 capacity and sustainability. at the Foundation. reason the place—we’ve created listening, synthesizing, and a way to preserve those snapshot evanston consensus-building. Growing through loss give. treasures in perpetuity. Thursday, October 24. Catch our When Jorge Kurganoff and Judy Mendel to one-day, fast-track orientation to Through the Daniel Burnham the Evanston community and its lost their son Avi after an accidental Society, you can set aside any fall at the University of Vermont, they issues, offered by ECF’s Leadership turned to the Foundation to honor Avi’s amount with confidence that Evanston program. legacy and share it with others. The future Evanstonians will use it Foundation consulted Y.O.U., a local celebrate!evanston as gratefully and thoughtfully Saturday, October 26, 6:30pm at the youth development agency, to create as we have in this generation, Levy Senior Center. Our annual gala Avi Adventures for elementary-age is one of the best parties in town. Ask WE’RE HERE FOR youngsters.This spring the students will even after all of us are gone. now about sponsorship opportunities! have opportunities to go on group camping experiences, through a partnership compassion For info and reservations for any between Y.O.U. and the McGaw YMCA. 7 of these events: 847.492.0990 or Reaching out, and changing lives [email protected] The Foundation knows that the energy and focus of Evanstonians are hope matched by big-hearted determination to help people in tough situations. connect Through two consecutive responsive grants to Connections for the Homeless, Find us on Facebook we have helped the organization move dozens of our town’s most desperate facebook.com/evanstonforever folks into stable housing and get help for mental health and substance abuse Follow us on Twitter issues. One recent client had been living in a public parking garage for twitter.com/evanstonforever 4 months—but moved into supportive housing in 2012 and has stayed there, thanks to interventions and assistance provided with Foundation support. Visit our website to learn more GOOD evanstonforever.org patience 5 Groundbreaking Your gift is in good hands for Grandmother Park 8 We’re governed by local leaders you can trust, like in an underserved integrity Judy Aiello-Fantus. She joined the Foundation Board of neighborhood is set for Directors as a longtime donor and civic leader, including a this spring after three distinguished career as Evanston’s assistant city manager. She knows this town inside-out—especially the interplay years of work from between nonprofits and the business community as a Gay Riseborough and key to Evanston’s economic success. Mary Adams Trujillo, Judy was awarded the 2012 Jim Kogen Foundation Spirit Award for her leadership and vision. “Besides all that fueled by $12,000 high-level intellectual, social and political capital, she is the in Foundation grants model of a tireless board member—ready to do the big stuff, and to personalize fundraising letters and lick the envelopes,” and an almost-done says 2011 Kogen honoree Kevin Mott. $250,000 campaign. Honoring the respect community’s generosity Careful stewardship of your contributions so 9 that they support both today’s needs and the grants and community’s bright future distributions is an ironclad commitment $1.5 of the Evanston Community Foundation. With your

support, we’re an $1.0 increasingly important

The Foundation is a key resource for Evanston. partner in the ongoing The tremendous ten-year evanstARTs initiative growth in both our asset $0.5 to map Evanston’s arts aspirations and assets base and the amount we’ve (such as Evanston Dance been able to give away Ensemble, at right).

each year tells the tale. millions $ 03 12

Fund for Evanston Joseph and Linnie Lee Foster Reading Center Fund our general endowment to meet Moragne Memorial Susan Willis Heiberger community needs through grants Scholarship Fund Memorial Garden Fund inclusiveness and programs Unterman Fund for ETHS Mr. and Mrs. Carlyle Rayna and Marvin Miller Fund Anderson Fund Barry Zwick Football for Open Communities funds of the Scholarship Fund Bruce E. Mitchell Short Story Fund Natasha S. Deutsch Fund Evanston Environmental Chuck Remen Memorial Fund foundation: Evanston United Way Fund Education Fund Martha and Don Farley Fund Norman W. Thomas Jr. Evanston Fourth of July Memorial Scholarship Fund Rees-Servillo/Jan Heffernan Association Fund NEW 10 Rose and Andy Thomas pooling resources for Memorial Dinner Fund Evanston Symphony Orchestra Educational Fund annual fund Association Fund supports the full range of current Fund for Women & Girls a big impact Grady Bird Sanctuary Fund grants and activities Green Communities Fund for the Evanston donor-advised funds We’re here for good: Leadership Fund Environmental Association ABS Fund board-directed Leadership Chairs Literature for All of Us Fund B & J Fund The Foundation is your locally based Challenge NEW broad-purpose funds North Shore Village Edelstein-Berkson Family Fund way to pool gifts that build permanent Acorn Fund Marybeth Schroeder Fund Endowment Fund NEW Sally and Richard Ennis Fund for Leadership charitable funds—a way to give back All Our Sons Roycemore School Friends of the Arts Fund Lydia Martin Memorial Fund Endowment Fund Goodman/Weinberger Fund and look ahead. Arts in Community Fund for Children and the Arts Eisner Endowment for Gratch Family Fund Balkcom Family Fund for Lorraine Hairston Morton Fund Roycemore School Jon Kimmel Memorial Fund Literacy and Affordable for Youth Housing Youth Job Center Endowed Avi Kurganoff Memorial Fund asset growth Skokie Community Fund Fund NEW Lytle Family Fund $15.0 Communityworks Fund Sweers Fund for Children Joe “Butch” Martin Fund Pearl & Sander Davis Fund and the Arts donor-designated Partners for the Future Fund Cultural Diversity Initiative Faith Vilas Fund for Youth Plumtree Fund Evanston Realtors Fund funds Mary Laflin Rockwell Fund $10.0 Weisblat Family Fund George Cyrus Memorial Fund Virginia L. and William K. organizational Beatty Volunteer Service Award Zunamon-Cunniff Family Fund Evanston Swims Fund NEW endowments Beatty Family Scholarship Leonard Fisher Fund for Fund Nursing Education Center for Independent funds for foundation $5.0 Futures Fund William K. Beatty Medical Foundation Fund History Prize initiatives provides for ECF’s infrastructure; Chessmen Legacy Fund Evanston150 Project our own endowment Chicago Urban Youth ETHS Educational Scholarship Fund Evanston Climate Action Fund Jim Kogen Foundation Foundation Fund Spirit Fund Fund for Curt’s Café NEW Evanston Gun Buyback Fund NEW

millions $ Margaret Gunn Scholarship 03 12 Gene Lavengood Fund Endowment at ETHS Evanston Police and Fire Fund Early Childhood Fellowship competitive and strategic grant recipients April 2012 to March 2013

Barr-Harris Children’s Grief Center Evanston Day Nursery Lake Street Church Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago Evanston History Center McGaw YMCA Center for Independent Futures Evanston Mentors Mitchell Museum of the American Indian Changing Worlds Mudlark Theatre Company Childcare Network of Evanston Evanston Rebuilding Warehouse Next Theatre Company Children’s Advocacy Center of North and Evanston Scholars North Shore Village Northwest Cook County Evanston School Children’s Clothing Piccolo Theatre Connections for the Homeless Assocciation (ESCCA) William Burlingham primary photography: Rebuilding Together North Suburban Chicago | Curt’s Café Evanston/Skokie District 65 Family Center Saint Nicholas Church Edible Evanston Evanston/Skokie District 65 LakeDance Shorefront Evanston150/Celebrate!2013 Evanston/Skokie District 65 21st Century The Talking Farm Community Learning Centers Evanston Art Center Theatre and Interpretation Center Family Focus at Family Promise Chicago North Shore University of Minnesota, for Evanston Frances Willard Historical Association Parent-Child Centers design: chrismer+mardock communication design design: evanston!communityfoundation Grandmother Park Initiative Warren W. Cherry Preschool | The Harbour, Inc. Youth Job Center 1007 Church Street Suite 108, Evanston, Illinois 60201 Infant Welfare Society of Evanston Y.O.U. (Youth Organizations Umbrella) v 847.492.0990 f 847.492.0904

e [email protected] James B. Moran Center for Youth Advocacy YWCA Evanston/North Shore Kendal Gladish writing: evanstonforever.org