Leadership is plentiful in every community, but often narrow in focus and limited in reach.

New forms of leadership are needed to kindle new forms of civic dialogue and engagement – leadership that is visionary and inclusive, capable of transcending single issues and partisan politics, grounded in clearly articulated values, and deeply committed to improving the quality of community life.

The Door County Community Foundation is taking unprecedented leaps into this leadership breach, developing and using our knowledge, networks, reputation, ability to contribute and leverage resources, and growing political acumen to drive change in Door County.

Whether by commissioning studies, creating indicators projects, conducting stakeholder interviews and focus groups, or convening all of the known organizations and entities that deal with a particular issue, the Community Foundation is acquiring a deep understanding of our community. We also recognize that expertise comes in many forms and includes the practical knowledge gained by people whose daily lives are affected by the issue being addressed.

The Community Foundation is mindful of the privileged position we occupy thanks to the remarkable generosity of the people of Door County. We fully recognize our obligation to attend to the well-being of the entire community. We understand that our endowment funds afford us the luxury of the long view in a society with a short attention span.

Our Board of Directors has set forth a directive wherein the Door County Community Foundation aims to become the nexus where the energy, talent, ideas, and resources of those who care passionately about our community converge to meet the opportunities and challenges facing Door County.

To learn more, contact us at the Door County Community Foundation. We hope you’ll join us on this journey.

Other Grants & Projects – Component Funds

There are several projects, programs, and granting opportunities that operate as component funds of the Door County Community Foundation, Inc.

These component funds are integral parts of the Community Foundation. They enjoy 501(c)(3) public charity status because the operate as a part of the Community Foundation, but each has their own unique brand. We encourage you to explore these component funds to determine whether their granting programs and/or other activities might be relevant to you.

If you have any questions, or would like more information, please contact us.

Philanthropist of the Year Honorees

Each year, the Community Foundation honors Door County’s great philanthropists.

But how exactly do you define a philanthropist?

Donating to charity makes one a donor, and that is a beautiful thing to be. It’s critically important to our community that we all give to charity on a regular basis. But simply writing a check is not sufficient for a person to become a philanthropist.

Next to our love, the most precious thing we have to give is our time. A philanthropist is one who gives generously of both of these most valuable of treasures. They see an issue (or an opportunity) and cannot sit idly by while that condition exits in the world. So they must act.

A philanthropist is born when a donor’s passion compels them to give more of themselves than merely money.

They give of their time to the charities they care about. They share their wisdom as members of boards of directors. Philanthropists champion the causes that resonate in their heart and cannot help but openly share their passion with those around them. Their enthusiasm for community service is contagious.

Perhaps most important, a philanthropist is one who believes that the best way to lead is by serving others. These are the qualities the Community Foundation seeks in the people it honors.

 

Donald and Carol Kress
2023 Philanthropists of the Year

Just five years after the doors of the Donald and Carol Kress Pavilion opened in Egg Harbor, it’s hard to imagine Door County without it. 

Weddings and town halls. Environmental presentations and cabarets. Concerts and meditative yoga. Housing forums and writing conferences. The list of events that have taken place in the great hall is long and, more impressively, wildly diverse. And to the couple primarily responsible for making it possible, it remains a shock. 

“We could never have imagined the use it gets,” Donald Kress said as he sat by the fireplace on the first floor of the pavilion with his wife, Carol. “Sometimes we drive by at night and the lights are on and we wonder, ‘What is going on up there tonight?’ We can’t keep up with it.”

Seeing that use from all corners of the county gives them great pride. Donald said he always thought of it as a place for the entire county, not just Egg Harbor, and it has certainly become that. 

The couple was instrumental in the pavilion’s creation not only through substantial monetary gifts, but also through its design. Carol’s fingerprints all over what quickly became one of Door County’s most recognizable and admired buildings. 

“I was a library kid,” she said. “My mother took me to the library all the time, and we took our kids to the library all the time. As a child, going to the library was huge for me. My heart was in here because of that.”

The building’s first floor is home to the Egg Harbor Library, the Egg Harbor Historical Society’s history room, a children’s play and reading area, a business center and a maker space. 

Those areas were developed with input from a wide range of community members during a process that began when the village bought the property that’s best known as the former Lena’s Sip and Chat on Highway 42.

“Everybody’s opinion is in this building somewhere,” Carol said. 

The village board intended to build a community center and library on that lot, but as planning proceeded, the Kresses’ eyes wandered to a different location along Church Street.

“Everything in Egg Harbor was linear, along the highway,” Donald said. “Egg Harbor was a place you drove through to get to Fish Creek or Ephraim. Carol saw this property and said, ‘It’s gotta be here.’”

As the committee coalesced around a design created by the firm of Hammel, Green and Abrahamson that was inspired by the Thordarson Boathouse on Rock Island, Carol insisted on a siting detail that has come to define the structure: Rather than situating the building perpendicular to the bay, she wanted it turned to sit parallel to it, affording a wider panoramic view of the village. 

The result is that one can now stand in the center of the second-story great hall and view orchards to the west, woods and the Niagara Escarpment to the south, and the bay to the east – four of the pillars that define Door County’s natural environment. 

But it wasn’t smooth sailing. Many people – including this writer – questioned the need for a large library and community center in Egg Harbor, a village of just 361 residents. A small group even sued to stop construction at one point, concerned that the building would become a costly albatross for the village. 

Ryan Heise, who was the village administrator throughout the project’s design and building phases, said the doubters only inspired Donald more. 

“When it got hard, when there were people who were coming out to challenge it, Donald doubled down,” Heise said. “He was determined to make it happen and make it beautiful. But [the Kresses] were very good about getting other people’s ideas into the project.” 

Donald and Carol Kress, named the 2023 Philanthropists of the Year by the Door County Community Foundation, have given generously to several community organizations, but the pavilion that bears their names has become a legacy beyond their expectations. 

Donald has been connected to Egg Harbor since childhood, when his father would bring his family from Green Bay to a summer home in the village. Donald said the peninsula is unlike any other place he’s been.

“Here you’ll find artists and writers and musicians,” he said. “North of Sturgeon Bay, there are no Walmarts, no McDonald’s. Door County has grown and it has changed, but in many ways, it’s still the same peninsula I knew when I was 5 – the beauty and the peacefulness. We felt we wanted to be a part of it. We wanted to give back to a place God has blessed geologically and culturally. My dad always said that the one good thing about making a lot of money is being able to help other people with it.”

Donald said he remains a little uncomfortable having his name on the building because he said that donations, input and courage came from all corners. 

“It isn’t really the amount of money you give, but why you give it,” he said. “People who gave $100 or $1,000 that was a reach for them, and they had to give up something they wanted to give that $100, they are the ones who really deserve to get the honors.” 

But he knows that’s not how these things work, and he hopes the honors serve to inspire others to give. The greater reward comes in other ways, Carol said. 

“I was at the hardware store one day, and a young man who was probably 18 or 19 asked if we were the ones involved with the Kress Pavilion,” she recalled. “I told him we were, and he said, ‘I want you to know that it’s because of that place that I’m able to go to college. I can go there and take my classes online, and I can’t do that at home.’ I went home, and I just cried. To know it made a difference in that young man’s life, that’s more than we imagined it could be.” 

The Door County Community Foundation is pleased to honor Don & Carol Kress as the 2023 Philanthropists of the Year.

Previous Honorees

The Community Foundation would like to express its sincerest thanks and appreciation to the following sponsors which allow this event to be a free and honest celebration of giving:

 

Confidential Peer Advisors for Non-Profit Leaders

Working for charity in Door County can be challenging.

The non-profit organizations of Door County work with some of the most savvy and sophisticated donors around. Our volunteers and board members are far more experienced than in most counties of our size. Our seasonal community presents unique challenges.

There are some questions that Google just can’t answer for you. We need colleagues and networks to advise us and keep us on track.

While many of Door County’s non-profit leaders turn to their boards or even the Community Foundation for counsel, sometimes you need a confidential outside perspective from someone who’s been there. Someone like a retired leader of a Door County non-profit organization.

Door County Non-Profit Senior Leadership Advisory Council

The Community Foundation periodically convenes a group of experienced non-profit professionals to provide advice and guidance to our organization. What quickly became clear is that the talent in the room could be useful to charities all across our community.

All of the members of the Non-Profit Senior Leaderhip Advisory Council have three things in common:

They are talented and experienced charitable professionals

• They previously worked in a leadership position at a Door County charity
• They are willing to help you

Confidential Peer Advisors for Non-Profit Leaders

A Confidential Peer Advisor is a retired executive from a Door County charity that is willing to provide confidential advice and counsel to a current Executive Director or President/CEO. This isn’t a mentoring program. It’s not a training program for volunteers. It’s an opportunity for the paid staff leadership of Door County’s charities to have private, confidential discussions with someone who’s been there.

Perhaps you have a board member who’s brought expectations from the big city to your charity in our little community. Or maybe you’re not sure how to deal with staffing a small office. Or perhaps you just want to talk about building a fundraising strategy in a seasonal community. Whatever your issue, you also want your conversation to remain confidential.

That’s why we created the Confidential Peer Advisors program. It’s your opportunity to talk quietly and privately with someone who knows the Door County landscape and can provide you with an outside perspective on an issue you’re facing.

How We “Match” You to a Confidential Peer Advisor

The Community Foundation facilitates the “match,” but our involvement ends there. What you discuss, and when you discuss it, is between you and your Confidential Peer Advisor. All the volunteer Advisors will sign a confidentiality agreement with you upon your first meeting. That might seem awfully formal, but we believe it is important to stress that your conversation with your Confidential Peer Advisor should be shared with no one.

The match process itself is simple and confidential as well.

First, send an email and a short one or two paragraph description (in general terms) about the issue or opportunity you’d like to discuss.

Second, the Community Foundation sends your description (but NOT your name) to the Senior Leadership Advisory Council to seek volunteers that are willing to talk about that issue.

Third, the Community Foundation gives you the names of the volunteers who are willing to chat. This gives you the opportunity to decline to work with a volunteer that you might know too well personally, or the chance to select the volunteer that you think would be most helpful. If you don’t know any of the volunteers, we’ll help you make a match.

Fourth, we connect you and your new volunteer Confidential Peer Advisor, and you folks take it from there. Schedule a cup of coffee, a lunch, or whatever works best for you. The other volunteers with whom you were NOT matched will NEVER know it was you who is seeking counsel.

Where do I sign up?

If you’d like to be matched with a Confidential Peer Advisor, send an email and a short one or two paragraph description (in general terms) about the issue or opportunity you’d like to discuss to match@givedoorcounty.org. We’ll reach out to volunteers and get you set up with someone who can help.

If you’re a retired senior executive from a Door County charity and you’d like to get involved with the Senior Leadership Advisory Council, send an email to match@givedoorcounty.org or call (920) 746-1786. We’d love to have you join us.

Providing Education and Counsel to Door County Charities

We work hard to be of service to those who serve.

In addition to offering grants, the Community Foundation also invests its dollars and staff time providing education and counsel to local charities.

The Community Foundation has sponsored and/or directly offered educational workshops in outcomes measurement, board development, grantwriting, major gift fundraising, planned giving, and a variety of other topics relevant to the charities of Door County.

Schedule permitting, the Community Foundation’s professional staff also offers training and counsel to local charities. We’ve provided customized training for individual boards of directors, assisted with strategic planning, and offered guidance on a wide range of management issues related to philanthropy.

If you’d like to be kept informed of the next educational session or workshop sponsored by the Community Foundation, please join our email list. And if we can be of counsel to you or your charitable organization, please don’t hesitate to contact the Door County Community Foundation.

There is generally no charge for these services. It’s just another way we try to be of service to Door County’s non-profit community.

“They is Us” is the title of the summary report from Discuss Door County, our county-wide conversation about growing older in our community.  If you’d like a copy of the report for yourself, a handful to share with your friends and neighbors, or an entire case to put out at your place of business, please pick up your free supply at the Door County Community Foundation, located at 222 N 3rd Ave in Sturgeon Bay.  

Discuss Door County: A Conversation about Growing Older in Door County

From the people who live here to the place itself, there’s so much we love about Door County. Yet our aging population and changing demographics now confront us with an uncertain tomorrow. We believe that the best way to predict our future is to create it for ourselves. “They is Us” summarizes the common themes we heard in conversations with literally hundreds of full-time and seasonal residents. From Washington Island through Sturgeon Bay and into Southern Door County. From our wealthiest families to struggling individuals. We had a conversation with folks from virtually every part of our community.

This was NOT a strategic planning process. It wasn’t an effort to define a work plan to achieve a predetermined goal. Nor was it an attempt to convince the community of the righteousness of a particular course of action. This was a genuine opportunity for the people of our community to come together and talk about what we want for Door County as we grow older.

Eventually, we hope that many different organizations and citizen groups will develop their own strategic plans, each working to realize that part of our shared vision which most resonates with them. Yet that future work draws its power and legitimacy by being deeply rooted in our shared aspirations for Door County.

If you’d like additional free copies of “They is Us” – be it a handful to share with your neighbors or an entire case to distribute in your place of business – stop by the Community Foundation at 222 N 3rd Ave in downtown Sturgeon Bay (by the Old Bell Tower).

 

What is Discuss Door County?

Discuss Door County is the banner under which the Door County Community Foundation listens to the community.

Growing numbers of community foundations of all sizes are taking unprecedented leaps into the leadership breach, developing and using their knowledge, networks, reputation, ability to contribute and leverage resources, and growing political acumen to drive change in their communities. Foundations across the country are harnessing the collective influence and access of their boards, donors, volunteers, grantees, partners, and professional staff to tackle persistent problems that defy simple solutions.

Among the most important qualities that the Door County Community Foundation can cultivate is curiosity about the community we serve. Among the most important skills we can develop is the ability to forge consensus. Community leadership issues often require understanding and skills beyond our ken. Whether by commissioning studies, creating indicators projects, conducting stakeholder interviews and focus groups, or convening all of the known organizations and entities that deal with a particular issue, the Community Foundation is acquiring a deep understanding about our community. We also recognize that expertise comes in many forms and includes the practical knowledge gained by people whose daily lives are affected by the issue being addressed.

The Community Foundation is mindful of the privileged position we occupy thanks to the remarkable generosity of the people of Door County. We fully recognize our obligation to attend to the well-being of the entire community. We understand that our endowment funds afford us the luxury of the long view in a society with a short attention span.

Our Board of Directors has set forth a directive wherein the Door County Community Foundation aims to become the nexus where the energy, talent, ideas, and resources of those who care passionately about our community converge to meet the opportunities and challenges facing Door County.

To learn more, contact us at the Door County Community Foundation. We hope you’ll join us on this journey.