A Closer Look
To our grantees, partners, and colleagues: Welcome to our new feature, A Closer Look. In an effort to help you get to know us better, we will be posting articles, letters, links, and comments to this space periodically. We hope that this will give us an opportunity to address, in a little more depth, some of the questions about GAR that come up from time to time. We also hope to engage you around issues, elicit your input and ideas, and occasionally even entertain you!
Robert W. Briggs, President
A Word About Our Geographic Footprint...
We often get the question: “Where does GAR fund programs? Can my organization get a GAR grant even though it is not based in Akron?” In times of scarcity, this question takes on new urgency. Clearly there are more good programs seeking funds than there are funders and dollars to support them. We understand this and, with sensitivity to the demands and pressures on nonprofits, we offer this guidance about our where we fund:
Yet GAR also has a long tradition of providing targeted support to some nonprofits that are based elsewhere in Northeast Ohio.
We do not generally make grants to out-of-county organizations that do not serve substantial numbers of Summit County residents. In other words, we do not support out-of-county organizations for their work in their home county.
We do occasionally support out-of-county organizations that have regional impact. The test is whether these organizations serve a substantial number of Summit County residents (either here in Summit County or at a venue in another part of Northeast Ohio).
We are firmly committed to the strength, vibrancy, and health of Greater Akron. This means we enthusiastically support high-performing Summit County-based organizations working in education, health and human services, civic enhancement, the arts, and nonprofit enhancement.
At the same time, we know that Akron does not exist in a vacuum. Akron’s borders with surrounding communities are often meaningless, with residents and workers traveling across those borders many times each day as they live their lives. A stronger, more collaborative region makes a stronger Akron – so we may decide from time to time to support a regional organization that is uniquely positioned to provide top-quality services or experiences to Akron residents. A stronger, more collaborative Akron also makes a stronger region – so we may decide to bring Akron dollars and Akron perspectives to a regional effort that will help the region and its core cities like Akron.
Most importantly, we believe that our founders would want their legacy to be directed flexibly, with an eye toward leveraging great opportunities for Akron and its people. We view all of our grantmaking through this lens.