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, 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.
