The Heart of our Work
Our mission is to foster a thriving Central New York community, inspire greater giving, celebrate legacy and steward charitable resources for today and tomorrow.
Our mission is to foster a thriving Central New York community, inspire greater giving, celebrate legacy and steward charitable resources for today and tomorrow.
We envision Central New York as a vibrant community with opportunity for everyone. Future generations of Central New Yorkers will proudly inherit a hopeful, prosperous region where generosity and collaboration abound to create lasting improvement.
We pledge to be an enduring and compassionate partner in philanthropy, investing in the people and potential of Central New York. We commit to collaborative relationships with
the individuals and organizations that are the heartbeat of our region. We support our fellow community members in becoming authors of opportunity and agents of change. We open our doors to everyone and anyone who aspires to build upon the contributions of the past and present to shape our community’s shared future.
While this year signifies our 90-year anniversary, we also celebrate an exciting evolution. Over time, our focus on encouraging the growth of local charitable funds and distributing grants to improve the quality of life in our region has aligned with our ever-expanding roles as a respected community leader, trusted philanthropic advisor and a powerful change agent across a wide range of issues.
These advances present us with an opportunity to sharpen our focus. In the following pages, we present our Strategic Framework for the next five years. We strive to support our community in the following ways:
This framework is designed to be dynamic — encouraging refinement based on what we learn as we proceed. The following plan identifies how we will rise to the challenge of being a valuable choice for local donors, an impactful force for good and a financially sound, sustainable resource able to serve Central New York today, tomorrow and forever.
Click the buttons below to view our new strategic framework.Â
We will be responsive to the region’s needs, play a community leadership role and vigilantly assess impact. We will engage more deeply in projects and initiatives that have already yielded results — including our work to increase literacy across the lifespan, reduce poverty and address lead paint exposure and vigorously pursue solutions to new community needs that
Support new ideas and scale up projects with proven impact. We will operate a dynamic and responsive grants program that provides nonprofits and visionary leaders with the resources they need to create community impact.
Strengthen nonprofits and prepare their leaders for the future. We will invest in our nonprofit partners by helping them secure the tools and knowledge needed to achieve their missions.
Build, sustain and share community knowledge. We will promote the use of data to convey what is happening in our communities and identify and grow new ways to tackle issues.
Promote collaboration to address community issues. We will invest in initiatives that bring together people and organizations sharing common priorities to coordinate powerful efforts that drive change using the principles of collective impact.
We will work toward continued growth of our permanent endowment, with a focus on attracting funds with broad community purposes.
Develop and maintain relationships among key donor prospects and professional advisors. We will raise awareness of our philanthropic services among those who might partner with us to expand the pool of charitable capital available in our community.
Become a distinguished center for donor legacy planning. We will create a donor-centered program that focuses on documenting the personal stories and charitable aspirations of those who choose us as the home for their legacy.
Attract high-value funds. We will incentivize the creation of funds most helpful to our community and revise our internal processes to increase efficiency. We will also continue to improve our data collection and management systems and use these data to direct our staff time.
We will increase organizational strength through the effective management of our resources and strive for operational excellence through investments in infrastructure, institutional capacity and facilities.
Drive growth in assets and charitable resources through prudent investment management. We will enhance our reputation for effective management of charitable funds and maximize our potential for new gifts.
Implement an impact investment program. We will support impact investments that have a return of capital on a risk-adjusted basis and leverage our community impact in ways we could not achieve through grants or other leadership efforts alone.
Optimize operations, facilities, talent retention and infrastructure for community impact. We will devote resources to supporting excellence in our operations, including systems improvement, staff retention and professional growth, as well as enhancement to our facilities.