Moving into the New Year, fearlessly

Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation (TTCF) was established in 1998 when William Hewlett challenged our region to match a million dollar donation to start a community foundation. Local attorney Jim Porter accepted the challenge by phone before promptly setting out to discover what exactly a community foundation does.

As communities and their needs continue to change, the roles of community foundations evolve. TTCF is no different, and through it all our mission remains the same: to connect people and opportunities, generating resources to build a more caring, creative, and effective community.

How we accomplish this mission depends on the support of our community members as we identify our region’s most pressing needs and approach them with fearless, innovative solutions. More recently, this evolution has meant that we no longer restrict our work to growing endowments and dispensing grants, although we continue to do those things as well.

An example of this broader scope of focus is the 2016 Regional Housing Study. The study was an unprecedented, collaborative partnership between Placer and Nevada Counties, the Town of Truckee, and key stakeholders; TTCF acted as the neutral convener.  This comprehensive needs assessment identified our region’s unique and pressing housing needs by engaging the entire community. Now, with the study in hand, our region’s public agencies, businesses, nonprofits, and community members are moving together towards solutions that will impact everyone who lives, works, and visits here.

What does it mean to have these fearless conversations around topics that feel daunting and insolvable? What we have seen is that when people and resources come together, and the community feels respected and engaged in the process, we can find solutions to these types of community-wide issues.

TTCF looks forward to continue engaging in these fearless conversations with all of you in 2017 and beyond. A sneak preview of more to come includes: forest stewardship, continued strengthening for local nonprofit leadership and volunteer recruitment and retainment, and conscious economic development in a rural region that relies on snow.

In early 2017 we will launch a regional housing council engaging a wide collaboration of regional leaders to help us tackle one of the most difficult challenges of living and working in our region. We will also launch an Impact Agenda for the next five years with a vision for philanthropy and investments to help drive our region.

Our storytelling will continue to unfold with an exciting announcement in the coming months and a deeper look into best practices of nonprofits that operate in a rural region. Check in with ttcf.net and our social media pages as we embark on this exciting year ahead.

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