In 2017, Akron Community Foundation announced a new strategic plan that included the promise of proactive community investment. Going above and beyond the community foundation’s quarterly reactive grantmaking that benefits hundreds of nonprofits throughout the community, this proactive model allows the foundation to collaborate with targeted nonprofit partners to tackle key issues facing our community.
From conducting research through a community needs assessment to hearing directly from the people who live and work here every day through On the Table Greater Akron surveys, Akron Community Foundation is committed to discovering the issues that are most concerning to our community. Through this research, the foundation has identified three major areas that are ripe for community-wide improvement and funding:
- Diversity, equity and social inclusion
- The aging senior population
- Drugs and addiction
In the first year of this initiative, Akron Community Foundation awarded $225,000 in proactive funding to three nonprofit organizations.