This week, we join a nationwide celebration, November 12-18, 2019, to recognize the increasingly important role these philanthropic organizations play in fostering local collaboration and innovation to bring community driven ideas to life.
As part of our local celebration, the Community Foundation honored one of its biggest champions, Kathy Davies, of Plover. Kathy received the 2024 Keystone Award at the Community Foundation’s Gala of Gratitude. The award acknowledges her incredible dedication to the Community Foundation and its regional focus on Portage and Waushara Counties. She’s worn many hats over the years, from stepping in as interim executive director to serving as board president and has always been a strong community leader.
Kathy’s story with the Community Foundation began in 1997 when she created the Laura Davies Memorial Scholarship to honor her daughter. Since then, she’s been a driving force, helping launch the Women’s Fund of Portage County and, with her husband Tom, joining the Living Legacy Society. Her passion for helping others also shines in Waushara County philanthropy, where she’s supported projects in her hometown of Wildrose, the Patterson Memorial Library Fund, and the Kiwanis Club of Wild Rose Fund.
The Keystone Award celebrates Kathy’s deep love for our community and her commitment to making it stronger for generations to come. Each year, this award honors people who give their time, energy, and resources to create lasting change, inspired by those who founded the Keystone Endowment Fund at the Community Foundation.
As community foundations support solutions for communities large and small, urban and rural – it is the collective work of these organizations and people like Kathy Davies that will have the most profound impact. In fiscal year 2024, the Community Foundation and its donors directed $1.5 million in resources to support nonprofits, community groups, and student scholarships. Since its founding in 1982, the Community Foundation has facilitated over $17 million in giving, advancing its vision of creating thriving communities in Portage and Waushara Counties with a strong culture of philanthropy.
For more than a century, community foundations have served as a trusted partner and resource whose effect can be seen in the lives of millions and in the vibrant neighborhoods that continue to thrive through their mission-driven work. Community foundations are independent, public entities that steward philanthropic resources from institutional and individual donors to local nonprofits and represent one of the fastest-growing forms of philanthropy.
Community Foundation Week was created in 1989 by former president George H.W. Bush to recognize the work of community foundations throughout America and their collaborative approach to working with the public, private, and nonprofit sectors to address community problems.