What is community philanthropy and how has the PHF begun to strategically plan for impactful reinvestment in the community?

Philanthropy can play many roles within the community. Here, at the PHF, we are more than a charitable organization that receives and gifts monies. We believe that we can be a change-agent in our community as we work to expand and leverage the financial resources in order to affect change in our community's healthy lifestyle landscape. We know that as a gifting organization that we have an obligation to be deliberate and expect a return on the reinvestment made back into the community. That is our obligation to the community - to steward the assets we manage with integrity and with deliberate consideration on how the use of these assets will best influence and be most impactful in our community.

Over the past many months we have been working to strategically assess community need as it relates to the overall health of the community and individuals living here. We have taken a very deliberate approach to our planning process (see infographic) to ensure we are taking into consideration all perspectives.

Innovation and Community LeaderShape

Community Philanthropy today is a much more comprehensive approach to leveraging capital for the good of the community beyond simply being a granting organization. In fact, the Monitor Institute, a think-tank for community philanthropic organizations throughout the world recently released a document that clearly articulates the ten (10) core cluster roles community philanthropy plays within community development and the support of healthier communities.