ANNUAL REPORT 2009 LOOK AHEAD Total Assets $110,601,721 Contributions to new & existing funds $ 1,890,087 Contributions Received Investment returns 24.6% Grants and Scholarships Awarded $3,807,506 Number of grantee organizations 357 Number of new funds 8 Total named funds 432 Approved Grants by Broad Category Total Awards $3,807,506 Arts & Culture $591,360 Human Services $1,283,046 Community Development & Religion $344,558 Grants & Scholarships Approved Education Health (includes scholarships) $440,596 $898,197 Environment $249,749 Contributions Number Number of Gifts 1038 Number of Donors 865 Largest Gift $250,000 Smallest Gift $5 Total Gifts $1,890,087 Total Assets Funds by Type (millions) Total market value $107.3 million Scholarship Agency $10.1 $11.8 Committee Advised $2.5 Designated $12.9 Field of Interest $34.0 Discretionary $22.2 Donor Advised By the Numbers $13.7 as of 12/31/2009 LETTER TO OUR COMMUNITY Dear Friends, Once more, we report on a challenging year in which we continued adapting to a turbulent economy. Once again, our model as a community foundation proved its resilience. Although in 2009, donations were the lowest in a decade, the Foundation distributed in excess of $3.8 million in more than 1,000 grants. Your funds have created an endowment that sustains robust grantmaking even in a year of volatile markets and declining gifts. We focused on nurturing our assets, which include not only our endowment but also the depth and reach of our relationships within our city and region. These resources enable us to serve our donors and nonprofits well in times of uncertainty. With our grants and outreach, we encouraged nonprofits to focus on what they do best and enhance their core services. Some are making tough but productive decisions, such as merging with complementary organizations. A Ann Lisi and Joe Salois guide Foundation activities that support number are capitalizing on a rise of volunteerism to recruit nonprofit organizations throughout Central Massachusetts. stronger boards. Your Foundation too is focusing on what you count on us to do, and doing it better. You rely on our knowledge and relationships and our trusted, flexible services to gain the most impact from your grants now and for generations to come. In 2009, we lost a number of close friends, including our president, Peter Levine, MD; and Jack Adam, one of our founders. Their deaths sadden us. Their lives inspire us as we continue the mission that brought us together. We look back on 2009 with gratitude for the relationships that sustain us. We look forward to building on these assets to do even more in our community. Ann T. Lisi R. Joseph Salois Executive Director President Greater Worcester Community Foundation • 2009 ANNUAL REPORT 1 YEAR IN REVIEW Robust grantmaking in a challenging year Managing Foundation Assets Nonprofit Support Center • Increased endowment by 25% over 2008, through • Focused training programs on guiding nonprofits in rebalancing of the portfolio. identifying and enhancing their core competencies rather • Modestly adapted fees that cover only a fraction of than extending into new services. administrative costs, to a minimum of $250 and raised the scholarship fund fee from 1.15% to 1.95%. Grantmaking • Maintained robust grantmaking capacity while adjusting • Despite contributions totaling $1.9 million, the lowest in to a decline in assets by adopting a prudent 4% more than a decade, distributed in excess of $3.8 million, spending policy. including $507,000 in scholarships. • Ranked 97th among community foundations nationwide • Distributed $114,500 from the GLBT Partnership Fund, for the size of the total endowment. Worcester is the awarding grants to seven programs that included six new nation’s 125th largest city. services and events fostering the safety and well being of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender residents. • Distributed $100,000 provided by the Alden Trust to four Services to donors nonprofits for grants supporting basic human services such • Convened first annual roundtable of major health care as food and shelter. funders to identify regional priorities, complementary • Directed a majority of grants to critical community funding strategies and gaps. needs created by a sluggish economy. Grants to the • Hosted our annual Insights Series at YMCA of Central health and human services sector exceeded $1.7 million in Massachusetts for a review of public health initiatives and a 2009, comprising nearly 45% of all foundation talk by UMass Memorial Health Care CEO John G. O’Brien. grantmaking as compared to 32% for the sector last year. Greater2 Worcester Community Foundation • 2009 ANNUAL REPORTGreater Worcester Community Foundation • 2009 ANNUAL REPORT LOOKING AHEAD TOGETHER Collaboration is a force multiplier in uncertain times “Look ahead:” These words convey optimism, Optimism, foresight, enthusiasm and commitment also foresight, eagerness, and staying power. guide the choices of the four donors you will meet on the following pages. These attributes characterize your way of giving through the Foundation. Rooted in a practical optimism, a community Paul Pezzella’s story begins with the aspiration of his foundation grows on faith in numbers. Together with your grandfather, who moved from Italy to make his home in neighbors, you share your good will, insights and funds to Worcester. David Steelman crafts a fund to bring the wisdom accomplish more for your community than you could do on of a revered teacher to future students. Jeanne Curtis eagerly your own. supports nonprofits that meet her city’s urgent needs. Hugh Crawford honors his mother by sustaining her commitment In the process, you build an endowment that enables you to a beloved library. to honor a loved one by strengthening a valued service in And these qualities are true of Worcester itself, which perpetuity. Your impact on the community connects those continues to draw fresh energies from families who arrived long gone with the living as well as those not yet born. here generations ago as well as recent immigrant populations and other new comers attracted to our diverse and affordable Looking ahead while honoring the past and solving community. immediate problems, your Foundation has a unique vantage point. We bring together your diverse perspectives, priorities, Together, we look ahead, with a proven collaborative and resources to move the community forward. We make approach that withstands uncertain times and turbulent investments with a long view while meeting pressing needs markets. through discretionary grants. Greater Worcester Community Foundation • 2009 ANNUAL REPORT 3 PEZZELLA FUND A son honors his parents’ way of life—and abiding values Not long after arriving in Worcester from a town near Naples, Archangelo Pezzella bought two adjacent three- deckers off Shrewsbury St. for his growing family. Among the three generations living in the flats were Paul Pezzella and his siblings, their parents, Pasquale and Theresa, aunts and uncles, and 15 cousins. “Many Italian families shared their daily lives together as we did,” says Paul. Along Shrewsbury St. in the first half of the 20th century, Italian immigrants transplanted a way of life they had known in Italy. Here, they created a neighborhood grounded in family, community, and the Italian-speaking parish of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church. “Shrewsbury St. was the center of our universe,” says Paul. “We had our own social clubs, markets and restaurants. My father was an organizer of the annual San Vataliano Society festival, and so was his father.” Although Paul and most of his family no longer live in the neighborhood, they feel an attachment to Shrewsbury St., where some of the original restaurants and markets remain Pasquale and Theresa Pezzella raised their children in the heart and the church has a Sunday Mass in Italian. Paul and his of a neighborhood grounded in family, community, and the relatives recently gathered at Leo’s Ristorante to celebrate the Italian-speaking parish of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church. 87th birthday of an aunt who still lives in the family’s three- decker. In 1999, Paul established the Paul M. Pezzella Fund in Memory of Patsy and Theresa Pezzella. Its grants support programs of the Italian-American Cultural Center, which In the past 10 years, more than 800 people meets in the church’s recreation center. enrolled in language courses at the Italian American Cultural Center, funded in part by “The Foundation assists people in expressing their values the Pezzella Fund. by what they give rather than what they possess,” says Paul, a Foundation corporator. “This fund honors my family and neighborhood, where we were taught to work hard and share each other’s burdens and blessings.” The Foundation assists people in expressing their values by what they give. Paul Pezzella Greater4 Worcester Community Foundation • 2009 ANNUAL REPORTGreater Worcester Community Foundation • 2009 ANNUAL REPORT STEELMAN FUND A fund brings the wisdom of a revered teacher to future generations As a lawyer and court management consultant with the National Center for State Courts, David Steelman travels the world advising judges in such countries as Egypt, Nepal, Italy, Serbia, and Saudi Arabia. A 1962 graduate of Leicester High School, David still draws on what he learned from Marjorie Frye, a revered teacher who then chaired the school’s English Department. Her lessons fostered commitment and character, not just grammar. “Ms. Frye instilled in us that the rewards of success take effort,” says David, who lives in Manchester, NH, with his wife, Virginia Theo-Steelman, Ed.D. “If we wanted good grades in her class, we had to do extra work. She also insisted that we hone our skills in expository writing, showing us that it is a tool to make sense of the world. These insights from Ms. Frye have stayed with me throughout my life.” In 1999, David established the Steelman Expository Writing Scholarship Fund, which brings the lessons of Ms.