Scrivner Award for Creative Grantmaking. One hundred years ago, the first community foundation was established in Cleveland, Ohio. From its origins under Frederick R.
Goff in to today, the Cleveland Foundation has produced individuals of stellar accomplishments—people with long careers at the top rung of the foundation, such as the widely admired Steve Minter himself a Distinguished Service Award winner in , and many younger and not-so-young foundation grantmakers whose grantmaking skills and creative problem solving were supported there.
Among the former Cleveland Foundation staff who have helped educate the field—and this author—about the important nexus between philanthropy and social change nonprofits are, in our experience, India Pierce-Lee, Gita Gulati-Partee, and Jay Talbot, to name three.
With the energy in the community foundation world due to the centennial of the Cleveland Foundation, community foundation leaders are well reflected in the nominees for both awards. There may be a reason beyond the fortuitous community foundation timing. For most of the public, the work of foundations and the people in foundations is murky. Community foundation leaders like Distinguished Service nominee Paul Grogan of the Boston Foundation [full disclosure: this author worked for Grogan at the Local Initiatives Support Corporation] are locally visible players.
In the case of Distinguished Service finalist Steve Seleznow, that visibility came from the management of a significant evolution for the foundation.
