February 13, 2018

MCF Blog Will be a Team Effort

Bob Sorge

Welcome to Volume 1, Issue 1 of Madison Community Foundation’s new blog. That’s right—your community foundation just got hip!

We are excited to launch a shared blog, produced by MCF Communications Director Brennan Nardi with content coming from yours truly, as well as several staff members on subjects ranging from grants to donor engagement, nonprofit impact measurement to tax changes, and many other timely topics of interest. We may even have a few guest blogs from people who love this community, know it well, and are committed to making it better. The blog will likely evolve over time, perhaps piquing your interest, answering your questions or providing perspectives you haven’t thought about.

To be honest, we have as many questions as we have answers—and creating a forum to share this information is as much for the benefit of the Community Foundation as it is for you. To be sure—we have plenty to say about the 4,800 nonprofits (IRS data 2017) in Dane County and the extraordinarily generous community that supports the work they do. But at its core this blog is about holding up a mirror to our community—recognizing the great hair as well as the blemishes—and talking about what we might do to advance this special place we all call “home.”

A community is a place-based collection of the individual stories of its citizens and the cultural values that they share. By definition there is no other place like it on earth. I hope this blog reflects that unique sense of belonging that a location can provide—and the responsibility that comes with being part of any community.

I’m currently reading a book called, “A Great and Noble Scheme: The Tragic Story of the Expulsion of the French Acadians from Their American Homeland,” by John Mack Faragher. For full transparency, I’m descended from those French Acadians, so there’s personal appeal for me. However, the book goes into great depth about the power of place and the extent to which the Acadians and Mi’kmaq Indians lived together independently from both the French and the English–creating a unique culture that continues to this day in Nova Scotia and Louisiana (Cajun is derived from Acadian). Together, they created a community that didn’t exist anywhere else, which is exactly what we’re doing right here.

We hope our attempt to identify and highlight the things that bring us together as the greater Madison community resonates with you.

Stay in touch with your questions, comments and observations at mcfblog@madisongives.org.