History

The M&M Area Community Foundation is an autonomous, non-profit organization with public charity status. It was incorporated primarily through the efforts of David Higley, Don Gehrke, and Wes Hoffman, three members of the Menominee Rotary Club. They drew up articles of incorporation, applied for non-profit status, and filed requests for their permit for charitable solicitation and eligibility for the special Michigan Community Foundation tax credit. The Foundation was incorporated as the Menominee Area Community Foundation August 30, 1994. The Menominee Rotary Club made one of the first donations to the Foundation’s permanent endowment.

It soon became evident to the initial organizers that a community foundation needed to serve its entire community which, in this case, included both Menominee and Marinette counties. Also, the potential for fund-raising would be greatly improved. Although Kellogg had intended its challenge grant to be available only to foundations which served Michigan residents, an exception was made for Menominee, and the articles of incorporation were amended January 24, 1996, to include Marinette county in the Foundation’s service area and rename it the “M&M Area Community Foundation”.

The Foundation is governed by a Board of Directors made up of area business and civic leaders. The founding board of directors included Roger Derusha, Don Gehrke, David Higley, Wesley Hoffman, Katie Jones, Matt Minor, Randy Neelis, John Reinke, John Seaborg, and Mary Staudenmaier.

The founding board members, and those who joined later, were instrumental in raising a total of about $1,300,000 to establish the Foundation’s endowment, which was matched by a 50% challenge grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The Kellogg challenge, which ended in 1999, was responsible for the establishment of many community foundations across the Upper Peninsula. The M&M Area Community Foundation has continued to build from that challenge with a series of fundraising goals. It is now one of the three largest foundations in Upper Michigan with an endowment of $5 million.

Because grants are made only from the earnings and increase in value of the original gifts to the Foundation, its endowment is a permanent resource for funding all kinds of worthwhile projects. Investment earnings from the endowment are used to make grants to a wide range of non-profit, charitable, and volunteer organizations in the Foundation’s service area.

In 1997, the first year the Foundation awarded grants, it gave a total of $7,290 to area volunteers and non-profit organizations. By the end of 2006, total grants amounted to over $978,000. The outlook for 2007 is that a number of grants will again be given as the Foundation’s endowment continues to grow. The intent of the Foundation’s directors, present and future, is to protect the endowment and use its earnings to make life better for everyone in Marinette and Menominee counties far into the future.

The Foundation has no political or religious ties, and is free to work on behalf of all segments of our communities. And, because the endowment is permanent, communities can count on support from the Foundation in perpetuity. The M & M Area Community Foundation continues to grow in size and responsiveness. Its competence has been demonstrated as a grant maker, a steward of corporate funds, and a source of creative solutions for community problems now and in the future.