- Coming up next, a celebration of 30 years of philanthropy in greater Detroit.

We're gonna take a look at how charitable giving has evolved and what the future may hold.

Plus, we'll learn about a group of nonprofits that are working together to address Michigan's opioid crisis.

And we'll hear from the incredible people and organizations who are committed to giving of their time and money to make life better for others.

So sit back, relax and enjoy this special program, National Philanthropy Day 2021, Stronger Together.

- [Narrator] Support for National Philanthropy Day 2021, Stronger Together is provided by Ralph C. Wilson Jr Foundation, Beaumont Health, Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, Delta Dental, DTE Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, Non-Profit Personnel Network, Plante Moran, PVS Chemicals Inc. and by these sponsors, the Remington group, Wayne State University, Ascension Southeast Michigan Community Health, Autism Alliance of Michigan, the Children's Foundation, Detroit Public Television, Hammond and Associates, Hope Network, Maxim and Marjorie S Fisher Foundation, Schoolcraft College Foundation, Advantage Health Centers, ACLU of Michigan, Cranbrook Educational Community, Detroit Zoological society, Judson Center, Leader Dogs for the Blind, Marts & Lundy, Steve Ragan, Samaritas, Starfish Family Services and McComb Community College Foundation.

The Association of Fundraising Professionals Greater Detroit Chapter presents National Philanthropy Day, 2021, Stronger Together.

- Good evening, and welcome to the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Greater Detroit Chapter, 30th annual National Philanthropy Day.

I am Mara Casey, Managing Director and Chief of Staff at Teach for America Detroit and one of the co-chairs for tonight's event.

- I'm Mark Berke, Chief Development Officer for the Autism Alliance of Michigan I'm also co-chair for tonight's event.

- We are excited to share this evening with you and to celebrate the incredible contributions of the philanthropists and volunteers and nonprofits from across Southeast Michigan, who make us stronger together.

- We are still living in unprecedented times as evident that we are once again having a virtual program, instead of all of us being together to celebrate the accomplishments of our community.

As a professional organization, AFP of Greater Detroit seeks to foster the professional development and growth of fundraising professionals to preserve and enhance philanthropy and volunteerism, and to promote the highest ethical standards in the fundraising profession worldwide.

- The celebration this evening, National Philanthropy Day was originally conceived of and organized by Douglas Freeman in the 1980s and the first official events were held in 1986 after President Reagan signed the official National Philanthropy Day proclamation.

The day provides an opportunity to reflect on the meaning of giving and all that it has made possible.

National Philanthropy Day celebrates the endless daily contributions, individuals and organizations across the world make to countless causes and missions.

- When the first National Philanthropy Day was held in Detroit 30 years ago, they honored the notable contributions of organization and philanthropist whose impact we still recognize to this day, including the Kresge Foundation, Art Van Elslander, David Harmelin and Joseph L. Hudson Jr. - Well, we wish we could all be together celebrating in person, the Association of Fundraising Professionals is proud to share this digital celebration with all of you from the comfort of your homes.

- It has been our honor to co-chair this year's event, and we hope you enjoy tonight's program as we celebrate the contributions of so many.

What our community has shown during these difficult times is that we are truly stronger together.

It is now our pleasure to introduce tonight's host for the evening, Stephen Henderson.

- Thank you, Mara and mark, and good evening.

I'm really pleased to be your host for tonight celebration of philanthropy.

For the past 30 years, the Greater Detroit Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals has recognized National Philanthropy Day with an awards dinner and program that honors philanthropists, volunteers, and fundraisers.

But for the second year in a row, we are bringing this special event to you in the comfort of your living room as we continue to maintain safety measures during the global pandemic.

AFP Detroit has teamed up again with Detroit Public Television to present tonight's program National Philanthropy Day 2021, Stronger Together.

Over the next 90 minutes, we're gonna hear from the people and organizations who are making a difference in the lives of Southeast Michigan residents through volunteerism, financial support and in kind services.

We're gonna take a closer look at philanthropy over the years and how charitable giving has changed with the times and we'll hear how a unique non-profit partnership is battling one of the community's greatest issues, opioid use disorder.

And throughout the evening in celebration of 30 years of AFP's National Philanthropy Day, we have invited past honorees to introduce some of this year's award recipients.

So let's get started with our first award tonight.

It's named after former Michigan governor George W. Romney, who was a passionate advocate for public service and for volunteerism, this year's recipient of the George W Romney Award for lifetime achievement in volunteerism is James Kelly, a trustee of the Cranbrook Educational Community.

He's a well-respected national leader in education policy, reform and finance.

- Well, I bring it to my volunteer role as a trustee, I bring a long lifetime of experience working in the nonprofit sector as I worked as a program executive at the Ford Foundation in New York city for many years.

And so I saw the philanthropic and charitable sector of the United States from the perspective of a major, a major national foundation.

I then ran a national organization in the field of education that had to raise ultimately a couple of hundred million dollars.

And so I learned what it was like to need that kind of money running an organization, and what was involved in building the staff and the volunteers and the credibility to raise that kind of money for an educational activity.

And I've been involved in other kinds of volunteer activities that relate to the experience that I can bring to Cranbrook.

It's a pleasure to be a volunteer, trustee in an organization as well-run and well led as Cranbrook as it is by terrific professionals, because otherwise volunteerism doesn't really connect.

It's got to be a team of the professionals assisted by and helped by volunteers.

And Cranbrook is helped by hundreds and hundreds of volunteers who donate thousands of hours of their time every year, as docents at museums, hundreds of people working on the gardens of Cranbrook and many dozen of us serving on the various boards to keep the various museums and academies and schools at Cranbrook all running.

The volunteer aspect of it is simply that we come to the table and tell it like we see it, try to help in any way that we can.

It's got to be a partnership between knowledgeable experienced volunteers on the one hand and the seasoned real pros who actually run outstanding nonprofit organizations and the Cranbrook has a wonderful team of senior leadership on the staff side, or the entire nonprofit sector pay is less than the for-profit sector, there are big annual bonuses and financially and so forth.

And we're very fortunate at Cranbrook to have just across the board some terrific people running the various parts of Cranbrook.

And the voluntourism is a unusual activity if you look across the world, but it's not unusual in the United States, it's a very prominent part of the entire history of the United States, where people are involved in their local communities, we're a nation of joiners, of people who join organizations by the hundreds, and by the thousands, and by the tens of thousands of organizations that function to make America what it is, religious, a strong de-centralized, but vital and energetic and energized culture of people who get involved in local, and state and national organizations, but do so as volunteers.

I just happened to be wearing the hat for this award, but it is important because of what it means to in the United States for every single day thousands and thousands of volunteers help out in schools and hospitals and museums and other nonprofits for no pay and it's in that spirit that I'm proud to wear the award.

- Hello, I'm Nina Holden, Senior Vice President and Chief Development Officer with the Detroit Institute of Arts.

I was honored to receive this next award, the Dr. John S. Lore Award for Outstanding Fundraising Executive in 2016.

When I had the pleasure of reviewing the letters of support for this year's awardee, I was really impressed with the number of donors, colleagues, former bosses, and mentees that this year's awardee has touched through his work.

This year's Dr. John S Lore Award is being presented to Steve Ragan, a long time fundraising executive in our community and immediate past president of our chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

Steve is admired by his peers and colleagues for his leadership skills and tireless commitment to our community and many communities.

And I am honored and grateful to be able to present this year's award to Steve Ragan.

- Well, you know, I've actually been doing this 30 years, which is a coincidence because it's the 30th anniversary of National Philanthropy Day in Detroit.

I think that when I started, a lot of people thought about fundraising as sort of an old boys network, that a lot of the people who came into the profession came in by accident through well-established networks.

And we've invested a lot of effort in trying to diversify the profession, and I think we've made some progress, but we still have a long way to go.

I think the other thing we've done is, you know, it's been professionalized quite a bit.

There's I think a lot more rigor applied both to, you know, the profession of fundraising and also to philanthropy in general.

Donors, whether they're individuals making a casual gift or large foundations have a greater expectation of transparency and accountability.

So I think one thing people forget a lot of the time and we call it development because so much of our work is spent working with the individuals that lead programs.

And we really, as fundraisers have to be really well-versed in the work that we're doing and be able to articulate that to the donors and the community.

Well, why did I become a fundraising professional?

I'd always been involved in my community and I'd been out of college a couple of years, and I received a call from John Lore, this award, the Outstanding Fundraising Executive is actually named for John.

And John just called me up one day and said, that asked if I'd ever considered a career in development.

To be honest, I thought he meant real estate development, but over the course of the next few months, I met John regularly for breakfast and John was an icon in the nonprofit sector.

And John just really taught me a lot about what was involved in the profession and the kind of impact I could have.

And ultimately that led me to my first position as a college development director for the college of arts and sciences at Eastern Michigan University.

And within a few years, I became director of their first capital campaign that when I look back at the organizations I've worked for, where I think I'm most proud, I think it's been like a lot of fundraisers where, and donors where we've addressed the greatest challenges I think and Detroit is again, and again, proved to be one of the most generous communities, even during our most challenging times.

And I think that sometimes we take that for granted.

We forget how much of the work that occurs in our communities day to day is done by nonprofits.

Much of it happens sort of invisibly, but it really isn't invisible, it happens with the volunteerism and the generosity of millions of individuals every day.

And there are professional fundraisers and staff.

I mean the real champions, I mean, as a fundraiser, we're really champions for the people that are on the frontline doing the work and the donors that are making the gifts.

And our job is really to connect those two groups.

You know, I was nominated both by my professional colleagues and by donors that I've worked with over the years and that was very meaningful.

The fact that this award is named for someone who had such a direct and personal impact on my life and in my involvement in this profession and who set such a great example and standard that we named our, you know, our top professional award for him, that means a lot.

And I guess it just puts a burden on me that you know, that I have to continue to try to live up to that that honor, but means a great deal.

- Throughout tonight's program, we're gonna recognize AFP Detroit's distinguished volunteers and donors.

Now these are the people who inspire others with their passion and commitment to giving.

You're gonna see their names and photos on the screen at various times tonight, plus you can find their full profiles at npddet.org.

Here's our first group of recipients along with a look at the supporting sponsors of AFP's National Philanthropy Day.

(upbeat music) - Hello, this is US Senator Gary Peters, and I'm pleased to join you to celebrate National Philanthropy Day.

I first wanna say thank you, for the amazing work that you do to lift up our state.

Philanthropy is the glue that binds communities together, and your work has played a critical role in ensuring communities across Metro Detroit can rebuild and grow, not only throughout the pandemic, but across generations.

Your dedication and ability to bring Michiganders has made a difference and people from all walks of life, and I'm committed to ensuring that you have the support to build on this success for another 30 years and beyond.

I look forward to continue working with all of you to help our communities emerge stronger from this pandemic and make our state an even better place to live, to work and to raise a family.

Enjoy the event.

- Philanthropy today looks really different than it did 30 years ago when AFP Detroit began its annual celebration.

Joining me now are five leaders in Michigan's philanthropic community, Rip Rapson of the Kresge Foundation, Ryan Daly from Beaumont Health Foundation, Carmen Argersinger with Delta Dental, and Gary Dembs from the Non-Profit Personnel Network, also with us is Lynette Dowler from the DTE Foundation.

Welcome all of you.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

- So let's start with this, 30 years ago, like I said, philanthropy looked really different than it does now.

You and I have talked about this a number of times about the role that philanthropy is being called on to play differently than it was then, talk about what that looks like today.

- Well, the ecology is completely different.

I mean, we've always had individual donors, we've always had legacy foundations, corporate foundations, but the proliferation of different types of foundations, community foundations, family foundations, new wealth donors, I mean, it has completely changed the landscape.

And with the change in landscape, I would argue that the functions have changed is that you've gotten sort of both much greater variation among what different kinds of foundations do, but also a sort of a new focus on sort of how philanthropy can sort of move into the sort of the toughest issues of communities.

And I think if there is one sort of big change in the last, I would say even 10 years, it is philanthropy is willingness to sort of wade into these really messy, gnarly issues of day-to-day life that we all face, housing, transportation, childcare, you name it, philanthropy is engaged in.

- Yeah, Ryan at Beaumont what's this look like?

- I would say, are there three themes that emerged to me when you look at, looking historically at philanthropy, you've touched on it Rip, growth in the industry, I would say the sophistication of the industry, as well as impact.

And those three themes I think continue to resonate.

When you just look at the nonprofit sector, there's been tremendous growth.

The last 40 years, we've seen year over year increase in charitable giving trends the United States with every year with the exception of three years.

In addition, the US economy has, or philanthropy has played a much larger role in the US economy.

And I think it was in 2019, the nonprofit sector was the third largest employer in the US sector.

So you couple that with greater sophistication by funders, by nonprofit organizations and all of that has resulted in greater impact for the organizations that we all serve.

Take it locally at Beaumont, for example we've had 27 consecutive years of national rankings and clinical excellence, that has coupled, been coupled every year by the philanthropic investment by our donors continuing to invest in high quality healthcare to ensure that all of our communities have access to great care.

As Rip said, I think healthcare is an example, but the nonprofit industry has stepped into a lot of different issues that affect society and is playing a much bigger role in trying to help address those issues.

- Carmen.

- I think when we look at trends in the nonprofit world, I don't think we can overstate right now the lift our nonprofits have had in embracing the digital communications.

I mean, they, that has been a trend over the last several years, but just in the last 19 months that has really accelerated.

They've had to be more adept at communicating digitally with funders, with the, excuse me, the client base that they're serving and with one another to collaborate.

So that has been a very, very impressive change that I've seen.

- Yeah, yeah, Gary.

- Well, when we started this National Philanthropy Day, 30 years ago, I was on the original committee.

People couldn't even say the word philanthropy, now they can say the word.

And it's really what I see as the biggest trend is the cross sector collaboration between government, business, nonprofits, all coming in for the greater good.

And the way money comes into nonprofits is much broader than it's ever been, venture capital money.

So I think there's a really big need for people to understand that and see what their role is, and really become more of a fabric of the community.

It's much different than it used to be.

I think we're seeing it on all levels.

- Yeah, yeah, Lynette.

- So one of the things that I am excited about relative to the trend in philanthropy is how our region, Detroit, our region in the state really is becoming known for being collaborative philanthropists, like the philanthropy in our region we talk to one another on a very regular basis, we get after really difficult issues and I think about the connected futures, laptop and connectivity that we came together on in the city of Detroit for DPSCD last April.

We are in our region looked upon by other states in a very different lens than we were looked upon in years past.

And I think its secret sauce, I think it's magic and I think that philanthropy working together with the strength of our nonprofits that just continue to do amazing work in our communities is a trend that we're gonna see for a very long time moving forward.

- Yeah.

So I think we can't talk about anything these days without talking about COVID, but I think especially we can't talk about philanthropy and the effect of the pandemic on the demands I think on philanthropy and the way it's changed the approach of so many foundations to try to meet those needs.

Rip as we maybe cross our fingers coming out of the worst parts of the pandemic, talk about the effect on philanthropy and what philanthropy needs to be focused on to make the most impact.

- You know, one of the things I think we've learned from the last 18 months is that we've actually been struggling through three pandemics simultaneously.

You certainly have the health pandemic, you had the economic distress pandemic, and you had the racial reckoning pandemic and they are completely intertwined.

And I think if we look into the future, I think given the sort of the themes that people have already sounded the idea to sort of set a problem and then sort of reverse engineer it, engineer it with the public sector, the private sector, the philanthropic sector, the nonprofit sector is the only way you're gonna crack these really complicated issues of public health, of racial opportunity, and racial equity, of rebuilding an economy that has been sort of brought to its knees or at least fundamentally recalibrated because of COVID.

So on the one hand, it's an enormously difficult sort of uphill challenge to sort of re-imagine systems and to pull different sectors together, to try to figure out how to remake them in a better way.

But it's also an enormous opportunity, I don't mean to be sound like a Pollyanna but it really is.

You've got all of this federal money coming down, you've got all of the energies locally to sort of be imaginative and creative and innovative, you've got this ethic of cooperation.

I think it's actually gonna be a very interesting next five to six years for philanthropy and trying to figure out how do you reinvent the public health system?

How do you create new structures of economic opportunity and how do you ultimately pave a different way for sort of inclusive growth that includes all members of the Southeast Michigan community and improving their lives?

- Yeah, yeah.

Ryan, of course, Beaumont itself sits at the nexus of the public health part of the pandemic.

Talk about from a foundation perspective though, what changed for you guys in response to COVID?

- What's important about looking at the non-profit sector looking forward is that you respond that you also lead by getting into the issues and you'll come up with solutions to address these issues.

From a healthcare perspective at Beaumont, an example of this I would say is in early on in the spring of 2020, we had a group of our physicians and researchers come to the foundation with an idea that they wanted to launch a research project to better understand COVID, how do we better treat COVID?

How do we better mitigate the spread of COVID?

And we responded by creating a series of a virtual presentations and meetings with our donor base to educate them about this research project.

And very quickly, the donor base stepped up immediately and provided significant funding to create what was the largest, the nation's largest serological testing study at the time to say, here's how we can better address this pandemic going forward.

And it produced a significant results that were later published in the journal of infectious disease medicine later that same year giving real data that masking does work masking prevents the spread of COVID.

And it wasn't, it was nice to have the proof to show the public that the data really exists to show that here's one way we can mitigate the spread.

- Carmen, I know that at Delta, you guys have been really focused on access and the importance of access that has not been made any plainer than it ever was before than it has during COVID.

- Absolutely, we've really, you know, taken some time during the pandemic to examine that.

And it became very obvious that access to high-quality healthcare is not equal for everyone.

And so given that, you know, we have a small niche in that market, but we've made some strides to address that and actually been able to introduce an enhanced benefit over the pandemic to increase access to oral health care for people in the special needs population, and we're very happy about that.

You know, as we enter the pandemic, we had some really honest and open conversations with our nonprofits and we heard how much they were struggling and it made it a little bit easier to look at that application process and that reporting process and ask ourselves, what do we really need?

What hoops can we get rid of to make this easier for our nonprofits to provide those services to people that need it.

And I think that's been a great help.

- Gary.

- I think people understand that philanthropy has nothing to do with money.

Philanthropy means the love of humankind.

And so I think bringing all people to the table is something that this pandemic has sort of uncovered in a good way.

And I think you're gonna see a lot more people coming to the table as philanthropists.

And I think that's a good thing across the board, whether it's for religious reasons or bypass or whatever it is, you're gonna see more people coming to the table and more institutions coming to the table, more money coming to the table to solve some of these intractable issues.

And I think that's a good thing.

- Lynette.

- You know, the American rescue dollars are gonna be coming into our state in droves and in the midst of that funding coming in, we have students and workers that have been on a bit of a bumpy road for the last two years.

So our focus is really gonna be around making sure we get ourselves on track with education, stay on track with education and remove barriers to education a, and then b, ready our workforce to be able to actually execute on the dollars that come into our state.

Workforce development and education I think are gonna be really the game changers for us to be able to step back in and really run once we get past the pandemic.

- Hello, I'm Dustin McClellan, Founder and CEO of the Pontiac Community Foundation.

Last year, we received the Inaugural Spirit of Philanthropy Award from AFP's Greater Detroit Chapter.

It meant so much to our young organization to receive this amazing accolade and to be rewarded for our efforts to build a brighter future for Pontiac.

We are continuing those efforts now and to bring neighborhood investment, economic vitality, civic engagement, and racial equity to the city of Pontiac.

This year Spirit of Philanthropy Award goes to three young ladies who are the next generation grant makers in their family's foundation.

Riley, Sophia and Breanna Patzer are making a huge difference in the community.

Congratulations to this trio of philanthropists.

- I believe the Abram's Foundation mission is really to just make a difference, a difference in lives, communities, really anything that we possibly can.

As next generation grant makers, it's really our first chance to influence the direction of our family foundation and through that, we really get an opportunity to explore and develop our own passions.

I think our goal as next generation grant makers is not only to move our family foundation forward, but also to just show and demonstrate to others, especially others our age, both the need and the ability to make a difference.

For us as grant makers, we get the opportunity to impact the organizations that we're passionate about, and through that act, act as examples for others of the possibilities and importance of making differences.

- I grew up loving puppies.

So when I was looking for organizations, I knew that Leading Dogs for the Blind was like the one for me.

I'm like, I should go for that.

And they've always been so nice to me and like use my love for things as their grants.

Like the first year it was called puppy toys and then the next year it was training tools, and then the third year they knew that I was starting to, like, they knew that I wanted to become a vet because when I go to a meeting with them, I told them that I think that I wanted to be a vet when I grew up, and they told me everything, they give me a tour of their vet stuff and they gave me a tour of everything.

So that year they asked for a veterinary equipment and it kind of just continued a partnership from there.

My family actually raised a leader dog named Harley.

And when we went everywhere, so like we went to training, like training stuff, and then we went to like stores and every single time that we would go to those we'd get questions.

So we got to spread the word about Leader Dogs and the Abrams foundation, and then at the end, when we returned Harley, she became a breeding dog.

So now that is kind of cool because puppies that Harley, like Harley gave birth to will be the future of leader dogs.

- A lot of my work with nonprofits has been around Special Olympics Michigan.

They've been a really amazing partner.

I've played travel softball since I was eight.

And I was fortunate enough to participate in the peer to peer programs what my middle school and high school.

And so it was a natural fit when I was looking for an organization to pair with and Special Olympics Michigan utilized our grant for the softball fall games.

And that really gave me a big opportunity to volunteer with them because of the connection that softball brought.

My family and I volunteer every year with those special Olympics games, specifically the softball games.

And you can see the impact of the financial grant makes as well as the smiles and relationships through volunteering, the relationship with the people, especially the athletes is the part I love most just because you get that greater connection over something that we both love.

It was really exciting when we found out we won the award because you don't do this to get recognized at all, you do it because you love to do it and you love to help people.

So we never do it to get recognized at all, but it was nice to see that we are making a difference and that people are recognizing that.

- Winning this award has opened up a lot of conversations I know for both Riley and Breanna and myself, with our friends about what we do as the Abrams Foundation and why we as a family are so beyond passionate about philanthropy.

- Hello, I'm Priya Mann, a reporter and anchor with Local 4 WDIV in Detroit.

Last year, I was honored to receive the Neal Shine Award for Media Commitment to Philanthropy.

The late newspaper executive was well-known for his commitment to giving back.

I was so humbled to be nominated by the Girl Scouts of South Eastern Michigan, an organization that's really making a difference in impacting the next generation of future leaders.

Tonight, I am pleased to introduce this year's recipient of the Neal Shine Award, Ken Daniels.

Ken, of course, is the Play-by-Play announcer for the Detroit Red Wings.

He lends his voice and influence to a cause that is close to his heart, substance use disorder.

Ken, thank you for all that you do.

- It's not lost on me that being in the position I'm in and so fortunate to have this job now for 25 years with the Detroit Red Wings, that ultimately it gives me a platform to do what we do with the Jamie Daniels Foundation, because my name is out there.

It used to be when I'd walk somewhere or in a mall somewhere, and people would say hi to me, and they'd say, oh, that's the Red Wing guy, that's Ken Daniels.

And now, and after Jamie passed, I think people were saying, oh, that's the guy who lost his son, and that's Ken Daniels who lost his son.

And that's how I become no one because of what I do with the Red Wings.

That's okay, because this has given me a platform.

While like so many families who go through this and have one suffering from substance use disorder, it's the shame and stigma that can preclude recovery.

And back in 2015 and 2016, when Jamie was going through what he went through, no one knew about it, except Jamie's mom, me, Jamie obviously who wanted to hide it, didn't wanna be judged, and his sister Arland.

So we went through this alone basically, even our immediate family did not know.

So you can imagine their horror when we told them that Jamie had passed.

And obviously even when he passed people probably likely deduce that drugs were involved although Jamie was patient brokered in Florida and the seedy side of the recovery business got the best of him after he'd been sober for more than 200 days.

But ultimately when we found out entoxicology reports and what had happened, and he took something he ingested that it happened to be laced with fentanyl in a home that was anything but sober, when those results came out and people started to know it wasn't until September of 2017, some nine months after Jamie had passed that Craig Custance from the athletic sports subscription service called me to do a story about a book that I had coming out called If These Walls Could Talk.

And then at the end, he said, tell me about Jamie, what's going on there?

And it was like, there was a voice in the back of my head, some nine months after Jamie had died, that said, it's okay dad, you can tell him and I did.

And at the end of telling Craig that story, he said, holy crap, we need to tell a story about this.

And he did and it went public.

And it wasn't really almost until a year and a half after Jamie died, that we started the foundation to raise funds so that others don't have to go through what Jamie went through.

So what we're doing is educating, we're writing grants, hiring recovery coaches, and we're built, we're looking to build long-term safe recovery housing in Jamie's name in Southeast Michigan and at JamieDaniel'sfoundation.org, we also have the resources listed where we vet the places that you can go.

We have questions to ask because there are so many when you're going through this as a family, as we did back in 2015 and 16, we didn't know what to do, we didn't know the questions to ask, you need that information so you don't wind up ultimately in a place for your child or even an adult to recover that is in it, just for the money, in it just for the greed, you need to know what you're getting into, you need to do your due diligence, and that's what we're helping at the Jamie Daniel's Foundation.

- Ken Daniels is not alone in his efforts to provide support and resources to people with substance use disorder.

Recognizing that we are Stronger Together, the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan created the Michigan Opioid Partnership to improve treatment and find solutions.

We spoke with members of the group, Amanda Reed, from the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, Michael Rafferty of New Detroit, and Julie Rwan from Vital Strategies.

- The Michigan Opioid Partnership is a public private collaborative that includes the state of Michigan and several key philanthropic organizations who all share the goal of decreasing Michigan opioid overdoses and deaths.

So the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan is home to the Michigan Opiod Partnership because of the community foundations unique ability to be a home to collaborative funding.

So that means we can take in money and we can also grant it out.

And with limited philanthropy in state funding, the Michigan Opioid Partnership piloted a project in emergency department, which resulted in a large grant from MBHHS, Michigan Department of Health and Human services to expand the work across Michigan, and then we were able to leverage Vital Strategies funding to fill in any funding gaps and put greater emphasis on racial disparities.

- So the scale of the overdose epidemic is increasing from year to year.

And in 2020, we saw over 93,000 deaths across the country.

And in Michigan, as in the rest of the nation, we're seeing that overdoses are the leading cause of injury deaths.

So more than car crashes, gun violence and suicides, and in 2020 Michigan saw more than 2,800 deaths, which represented almost a 19% increase from the previous year.

And another thing we're seeing in Michigan is that Black Americans are disproportionately impacted by overdoses while overdose rates in 2018 decrease for White residents in Michigan, we saw a significant increase in Black residents.

- As long as we've been dis-aggregating and analyzing data by race, you know, we've seen statistics that validate the lived experience of racial inequity in America.

And we've seen more acutely that racial disparities are systemically rooted.

When we look at the healthcare system first, you know, just as an example one statistic jumps out that says that racism is a public health crisis.

You know, on average Black women die at a rate two and a half times at a White women during childbirth.

And if we look at a lot of other statistics, we've seen them play out during the pandemic.

It's obvious that both policy and practice within healthcare is something that needs to be understood and radically addressed in order to make sure that gaps within (mumbles) are closed.

- The gap that we were seeing was that it was difficult to find nuance, interactive training for emergency medicine healthcare providers, to address both the combination of stigma and implicit bias.

When, you know, especially when interacting with Black patients with opioid use disorder.

And so stigma is when someone views you in a negative way, just because of her particular characteristic or attribute, it implicit biases, you know, unconscious associations, whether they be positive or negative that can affect our decisions, behaviors, or interactions with others.

And because of that, we know that this can have harmful effects when, you know, influences someone's behavior or decision-making, you know, an oath is taken for healthcare providers to treat every patient with equity and there's a certain stigma associated with people who use drugs and based off of the statistics that we've seen, people are not being treated, unfortunately, you know, with the same level of care.

- Yeah, so New Detroit was honored to join a community foundation and the partnership more broadly, because we understand that in order to address a systemic issue, you have to work holistically and you have to work incrementally.

And as we focus exclusively on healthcare and realize that it's the policies that exist within the industry and behaviors that exist within individuals, we realized that we needed to have, you know, I would say a tailored and effective intervention to make sure that, you know, the experience of health care is equitable.

- Overdoses are more than just numbers, we're talking about people in our communities who are dying of a very preventable issue, a health issue that needs to be treated as a health issue instead of criminalized or moralized.

And part of the solution is to address the systemic root issues that lead to stigma, that lead to racism, implicit or explicit within healthcare systems.

So that when people are in a vulnerable situation, such as recovering from an overdose that they receive quality care and they receive opportunities to learn about prevention, harm reduction, and treatment opportunities that could help keep people well.

And so I hope to see in Michigan that local philanthropy continues to partner with amazing organizations in the community who do anti-racism work such as New Detroit partner with community foundations, local state government to continue to fund and support and grow programs that are rooted in evidence to reduce harms related to drug use, but also to support people, meet people where they're at for those individuals who are continuing to use drugs and it's still important to keep folks well in life.

(upbeat music) - Hi, I am Angelique Power.

I am the President and CEO of the Skillman Foundation.

AFP Detroit's Outstanding Foundation Awards sponsored by Plante Moran recognizes a private foundation, deeply committed to supporting the community and encouraging philanthropy, and Skillman was proud to receive this award in 1995.

Well, I have only just begun my role at Skillman.

What I can tell you is that to be honored for philanthropy in a city of philanthropic giants is saying something.

Detroit is filled with philanthropists, from the individual who made their money from a mom and pop enterprise, to the company that knows that unless Detroit succeeds, none of us succeeds, to the teacher who gives endless time outside of the classroom to every student, to every lesson, to every parent, ensuring our children grow up to change the world.

These are all ways that philanthropy shows up in this amazing city.

It is my absolute honor to introduce this year's outstanding foundation, the Ralph C. Wilson Jr Foundation.

Since its launch in 2015, the foundation has been dedicated to improving the quality of life for families in Southeast Michigan.

I offer my congratulations to the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation and to its President and CEO, Dave Egner, with his quiet genius and expansive heart, Dave is a gift and the foundation is a treasure.

- The founding of the foundation is a very interesting story, and it attributed to a man who was looking at the future, not just looking at his own legacy.

Mr. Wilson appointed four life trustees long before his staff to oversee the trust, the sale of the Buffalo Bills and other assets that would ultimately lead to the formation of the foundation.

And instead of picking direct interest areas, goals, and funding that would take place geographically, he said, you all know me, it's up to you.

So those four trustees who were very different thinkers, all very close to him, Mary Wilson, his widow, Mary Owen, his niece, Jeff Littmann, his closest business partner, and Eugene Driker, his attorney, they came together for a year to determine how the foundation would work.

So Mr. Wilson passed in '14, the foundation was formed in early 2015.

They determined that we'd concentrated in 16 counties, seven counties in Southeast Michigan, nine in Western New York.

And that we would focus on four areas of operation active lifestyles, which is parks, trails, youth sports and recreation, preparing for success, early childhood through afterschool to young adults and working families to create pathways to prosperity.

Caregivers, people who give care, not receive care, a very interesting area and entrepreneurship and economic development.

And then the only other thing they had to do through Mr. Wilson's mandate was spend all of the resources in 20 years.

At the core of Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation's work is this value of engaging community.

My experience, if a foundation has a great idea and throws it on community, because they've got the solution, the idea is never owned by community and seldom is supported by community and it dies when the funding ends.

So one of our core practices is community engagement and engaging community in the work that we do, a prime example in Southeast Michigan, Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Centennial park, which is being built on the west riverfront went through an extensive, really gold standard community engagement process, which included community voice, it included us shipping a number of community members to various parks across the country to look at best practices and models that could be adopted here, and the design was, I think was a co-design process.

Oh, philanthropy is tremendously different today than it was 30 years ago.

I think it's safe to say that the way that foundations work 30 years ago, before internet, before you could gather people virtually, before you could take advantage of what was the shift in federal and state funding streams tend to work in isolation.

There was less philanthropy, organized philanthropy, so you had less large foundations working together.

We've gone through a period of learning how to work together, the grand bargain in Detroit is a great example.

The new economy initiative, that's foundations coming together to respond to community needs.

It's an honor to receive the National Philanthropy Day Outstanding Foundation Award, especially at this moment in our history, we're only seven years old, six years as a staff foundation.

So to be recognized by our nonprofit partners and nominated is an honor for us.

Now, we've only got 13 years left, even though were through seven and I hope that our impact moving forward can be even greater than it's been in this first seven years.

- Hello, I'm Matt Cullen, Chairman of Jack entertainment.

Nine years ago, I was proud to receive the Edmund T. Ahee Award for outstanding volunteer fundraiser.

The award is named a memory of the late jeweler who was exceptional at fundraising and motivating others get involved in community activities.

It was certainly an honor for me, when I joined the prestigious list of recipients for this award, it really meant a lot to me and my family.

And so tonight I'm really pleased to be able to introduce my friend, Dave Meador, Vice Chairman of DTE Energy as a recipient of this year's Edmund T. Ahee Jewel Award.

Dave, his wife, Peggy are deeply involved in a wide array of civic and charitable causes.

Dave is a real leader in our community, a catalyst for change and truly tireless in his efforts.

So Dave, congratulations and is really well-deserved honor.

- Winning this award, it's really, really wonderful.

You know, none of us that do work in this space, do it for recognition, that's not the reason to do it, but we put a lot of time and effort into it.

And the pride is really looking back and saying, you know, I did this and I passively impacted the lives of people forevermore.

So, you know, the autism legislation work and the work we do there, I know in my heart that there are thousands of families that are better off because of the work we did.

Almost 25 years ago, my wife and I adopted a baby girl from Guatemala and she came home, and we were excited.

We had three older boys and her name is Maribel, which is her birth name.

As Maribel was developing, we noticed she was missing her developmental milestones and started to do research to try to understand what was going on.

We eventually figured out it was autism, but it was a real difficult journey to get there, including misdiagnosis.

And when we eventually wanted to go to an autism center at that time, we were told it was gonna be a year wait to get a diagnosis.

There was one center told us to come back in four years, and I remember thinking at the time, what other medical condition do you have a concern about you're told to come back four years from now?

And that was just the beginning of the journey on autism and what we found at every step of her life, things were very, very difficult.

I eventually ran into a colleague, Steve D'Arcy, who had an older son that has autism and Steve and I started talking and he was like, Dave, you know, my son's 10 years older than your daughter and it doesn't feel like things have gotten better at all and let's do something about it.

So we formed the Autism Alliance, knowing that, you know, there are organizations working on the cause and the cure, and we did not wanna do that, we wanted to basically help families navigate through this process, starting with early childhood all the way to adulthood.

And so this nonprofit started from nothing to now annually we're fundraising, you know, 4 to $5 million a year, and still would like to raise more money beyond that.

And so in the 10 plus years, we raised probably over $40 million in addition to working on autism and the connected futures, which was the Detroit public schools tablet project, you know, I've been fortunate to get pulled into other, other efforts off also, some of these efforts are, are bigger and more complex than others.

And working on the Joe Louis Greenway and the riverfront is, you know, the biggest effort that I've been pulled into.

You know, we are trying to work with various groups of stakeholders at the city, the county, the state level, but also corporations and foundations to piece together over $300 million fundraising effort to not only build out the Joe Louis Greenway and finish the riverfront but then also they have money set aside in an endowment for funding maintenance forever.

So it's important to me to promote, you know, fundraising and asking people to donate money and make grants to the companies and foundations and also volunteerism, because this is all about making this region a top 10 place to live and work and raise a family.

And for me, raise grandkids and philanthropy, whether it's coming from foundations or corporations or individuals is a key component to making this all work.

You know, some of the money can come from government, but without philanthropy, it's, you know, the good things that we have done and the great things we wanna do, won't happen.

And we're, but we're really, really fortunate here that the Detroit area community is a very generous community.

(upbeat music) - Hi, I'm Luca Garza with the Detroit Pistons, and I'm thrilled to be here to help celebrate the Association of Fundraising Professionals, 30th anniversary of National Philanthropy Day.

Congratulations to all of the awardees and distinguished volunteers for this evening.

Your contribution and dedication to our community is truly inspiring.

Detroit is a city full of innovators, thinkers and go getters.

People who love the place they call home and want the best for their communities.

Metro Detroit has shown through both good times and tough times that we are truly Stronger Together.

Hope to see you at LCA, go Pistons!!

- We're gonna take a few minutes now to recognize the National Philanthropy Day committee for the AFP's Greater Detroit Chapter.

In addition to working on this annual event, each member contributes to a variety of causes in the community every day, take a look.

- My name is Sommer Brock, I'm president of the Greater Detroit Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, and I'm Vice President of Development for Pontiac Community Foundation.

I raise money for the Pontiac Community Foundation because people in Pontiac deserve access to quality recreation, economic vitality, and investments into their community.

- I'm Marc Berke from the Autism Alliance of Michigan, and I raise money to ensure that people with autism lead lives and meet their greatest potential.

We are stronger together by connecting families all across Michigan with critical providers and services.

- I'm Marah Casey and I raise money for Teach for America, Detroit, so that all children across Michigan have access to an equitable education.

We're stronger together when all kids can have the opportunity to learn and thrive in every environment.

- I'm Erica George, with the Empowerment Plan.

And I raise money to help create pathways out of homelessness and poverty, because we all deserve a chance.

- I'm Nancy Gray from Beaumont, I raise money for the Beaumont Health Foundation because it provides the needed resources, fortified programs and services when they're in our facilities and communities.

What we do every day provides us an opportunity to work with others both locally and in the broader community to make a difference.

As we know, we're stronger together when we partner with others.

The important thing to remember is that we do certain things very well and others do certain things very well.

However, it's always best to work together as it makes those changes so much better.

- Hi, my name is Terrel White.

I'm a philanthropy officer at the Wayne State University, College of Nursing.

I raise money to support students scholarships and support initiatives through the college.

And it's something that I love doing because I actually am a first generation college student and creating opportunities for students to attend the university has been an amazing way of giving back, and it's something that I truly enjoy doing.

- I'm Alexis Weisbrod from Cranbrook Academy of Art & Art Museum.

I raise funds for the arts because art and design archive our history, create a more robust and colorful present and drive innovation and creativity that leads us into the future.

- I'm Dr. Mary Welsh from Susie Q's Kids and we provide comfort bags to children in need in our community because children are our future.

The bags go to children that are in hospitals, shelters, foster care, those that are grieving the loss of a loved one.

Our children need to feel loved and that they got this.

Imagine their smile with a teddy bear and a blanket.

Together we can make a difference in our community and the life of a child by providing them with a comfort bag and hope and healing.

- I'm Tricia Brosnahan with Catholic Charities of Southeast Michigan.

I raise funds and awareness for the critical human services programs that provide help and give hope to over 20,000 people throughout Southeast Michigan each year.

I love to do this work because it's my privilege to connect supporters to the mission and the issues that are important to them, helping them make the difference in impact on our community that they couldn't otherwise make on their own.

It makes us all stronger together.

- Hi, I'm Autumn Parrott from Cranbrook Educational Community.

And I raise money for Cranbrook Academy of Art & Art Museum because art and art education matter.

Art builds communities contributes to the creative economy and makes Detroit a city where people want to live, work and create.

- Hi, this is Justin Remington.

I'm a Chief Operating Officer with the Remington group.

We're a fundraising consulting firm that helps strategize and raise money for nonprofits in this area.

The reason that I love to raise money and to help in any way I can, is to help with the impact that so many nonprofits have in this community, without these nonprofits, so many constituents and people would be left behind.

So thank you to all of the amazing nonprofits and all of the amazing work you do.

This community would not be the same without you.

- I'm Kelli Dobner from Samaritas.

I raise money to create homes and strengthen families because when you have healthy thriving families, living in a solid home environment, you build stronger communities across Metro Detroit.

- Hello, I'm Emily Rathoo, from Forgotten Harvest.

I raise money to fight hunger and food security in Metro Detroit.

Forgotten Harvest feeds children, families, veterans, and seniors by rescuing surplus food.

Not only are our neighbors able to be fed, but our efforts ensure that nutritious food isn't wasted by being sent to a landfill.

I'm incredibly proud to work with an organization full of caring donors, volunteers, and staff that care deeply about those that are in need of a helping hand.

Every day I feel fortunate to be a part of the best team working towards the best mission.

We at Forgotten Harvest are stronger together because of the support of our community partnerships.

Thank you to everyone that makes us work possible.

With you so much can be accomplished.

- Hi everyone, this is Caleb White.

And in 2017, I received the Sparky Anderson Award for youth and philanthropy for my work with my organization, the Caleb White project, which is a twofold non-profit dedicated to helping the homeless and engaging youth volunteers.

Sparky Anderson Award recognizes philanthropic young people and inspires you to give out their time and effort.

It was named after the late Detroit Tigers manager, who was extremely passionate about caring for the next generation of kids.

It's my honor to introduce this year's recipient of the Sparky Anderson Award, Maansi Nema, CEO, and Co-Founder of STEM Without Boundaries.

Maansi was selected for her commitment to helping young people realize their potential.

Great job Maansi.

- I'm incredibly honored to win this award.

It truly recognizes the work that I've been doing with STEM Without Boundaries.

And I obviously, you know, think a huge credit goes towards my mentors and supporters at Girl Scouts of Southeastern Michigan, as well as my entire team at STEM Without Boundaries.

We are a team of 50 high school and college students and adults that are just really, you know, looking to encourage young students to explore different careers in STEM.

And I think that it really just, this award means a lot because it shows that, you know, other people also believe in our goal and our mission.

What led me to creating STEM Without Boundary is actually through my girl scout project.

I've been a girl scout since I was in kindergarten, and it's definitely been a huge part of my life growing up and for my Girl Scout Gold Award, which is the highest award in girl scouting, I decided to focus my project around introducing more young women to the field of STEM, just because while I was growing up, I felt like I didn't have role models or people that you know, that I could look up to and join the field of STEM.

I feel like it's very important to, you know, have role models in industry because you can't be something that you can't see.

So through my girl scout project, I decided to host a STEM night because it's a very fun, it's I like to call it like a STEM carnival.

It's a very fun way for students to get excited about STEM.

So as they're hosting STEM nights in my community, I saw the impact that it made and it really brought my community together by bringing together hundreds of people and it was just so amazing to see the impact that I was able to make.

And I really wanted to make sure that, you know, not only in my community do I have this, but also communities across the country where students can go and host these STEM nights.

So that's how STEM Without Boundaries started, and ever since then, it's just been amazing to see the impact that we've been able to make across the country as we now have over 20 chapters in 11 different states and two countries.

And it's just amazing to see that, you know, all these, like despite the pandemic, we're still able to have such a great impact in STEM space.

One piece of advice that I have for, you know, students that are interested in philanthropy and volunteering work in their community is that really never be afraid to just go out there and take risks.

And don't be afraid of, you know, where your passion might take you, everyone here on STEM Without Boundaries is so incredibly hardworking and talented, and it's so inspiring to work alongside people that really care about a common goal and a mission, and kind of, you know, encourage you to be a better person and grow.

Not everything is always, you know, gonna go according to the plan.

But if you can surround yourself with people that are, you know, gonna be there to support you and encourage you is really the most helpful thing I would say as well as just not like giving up and continuing to always believe in yourself and know that, you know, you have what it takes to make a difference in your community.

- Good evening.

My name is David Nicholson and I am president of PVS Chemicals.

Our company was proud to receive AFP Detroit's 2019 Outstanding Corporation Award.

The award recognizes companies provide financial support and encourage others to give.

PVS is incredibly proud to be associated with AFP and the network of companies that give back to our community.

This year's Outstanding Corporation Award goes to Delta Dental, the company has given generously to make our community healthier.

I'd like to congratulate Delta Dental, and here is the VP of strategic partnerships, my friend, Margaret Trimer.

- Delta Dental really puts forth an effort to build healthy, smart, vibrant communities for all.

We invest in oral and overall health initiatives, education and the development of the talent pipeline, and economic development, the vitality of our community.

And of course, everything we do has to be done with an eye toward inclusion.

And if we do it and do it well, we believe we are setting the stage for our customers to succeed in the communities where they do business.

And really it is that partnership.

If our customers are successful, if our communities are successful, we all rise.

And so our effort to be a force for good in the community is driven by that.

Yeah, we're very involved in youth oriented nonprofits from big brothers, big sisters, to junior achievement, to actually the riverfront.

We're building a children's park, a play garden on the Detroit River Front, because we also believe that if our children are well and healthy and given opportunities, our community's future is much more secure.

And so we spend a lot of time in youth initiatives.

We've been working very hard with our healthy kids dental contract with the state of Michigan, to ensure that families know if they have Medicaid, their children are covered and their oral health can be tended to for free until age 21 under that benefit.

So we are really knocking on doors on the streets, getting out the word that that's available.

Oral health care is obviously our core business and so we care deeply about making sure that people understand the importance of that.

One of the things that puts children out of school, more than anything else is oral health pain, and untreated cavities, believe it or not, are the number one reason why children miss school.

And so we're very attentive to those issues and other social determinants of health.

We have to be about fixing those gaps so that families can access the care that they need.

We've also worked with Samaritas on some of their foster care initiatives, and we've connected with Samaritas on some of their senior citizen work doing in the community to help support low-income seniors, to help build healthy housing and opportunities for our seniors to live well in those often frail years.

So we've involved ourselves with Samaritas on multiple different dimensions.

When the pandemic started to settle in and we realized this is not a short-term crisis, we recognized our nonprofits were likely going to struggle.

So we maintained our financial commitment to every single one of the nonprofits that we had already been engaged with, and we stepped up our giving in the basic needs arena.

When it comes to food insecurity, housing, those areas, we absolutely amplified our work in the community because it was clear those who were just barely hanging on we're going to be hurt even more desperately than others during the course of the pandemic.

We also worked very closely with our non-profits to pivot.

And for those who had in-person galas that we could no longer attend, things that had to be canceled, we helped them brainstorm new ways of doing what they couldn't do in person.

Changing lives is really what we believe our purpose in this work is.

And if we're not changing lives, if we're not driving an agenda forward, then we have to go back to the drawing board.

So that remains a commitment of ours to have high impact and intensify that engagement.

(upbeat music) - Our final award tonight celebrates the life and legacy of philanthropist Max M Fisher.

The late businessmen was well-known to Detroiters as a major supporter of charitable causes in the city and all around the world.

Today, the Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation continues to empower families and children.

This year's Max M. Fisher Outstanding Philanthropist Award goes to Hannan and Lisa Lis.

The couple are active in several local organizations, including Detroit Public Television and the Detroit Zoological Society.

Hannan and Lisa were selected for generously giving of their time, their money and their talent.

- Being a philanthropist is not just about the money that you raise and you contribute, it's about the consciousness that you bring to the causes and issues and the fact that you really have the philosophy that the tide lifts all boats, and that's our role in life to make sure that the tide does lift all boats.

Otherwise, so many of us will remain behind.

- I truly believe that we are here on this earth for two reasons.

One, to truly enjoy the glories of what life has to offer, and the second reason is to make it a better place than when you arrived.

And it's our responsibility to make this community, our state, our country, our nation, our world, a better place during the time that you have to live on this earth.

- We've gotten involved with Forgotten Harvest about 10 years ago and we hosted a fundraiser at our home for Forgotten Harvest, which kind of educated us about their mission and the lack of food security in this region.

The fact that so many people in Michigan experienced daily food insecurity and the level of hunger was a shocking revelation to us.

After the fundraiser, I was asked to join the board, which I was happy to oblige.

And eventually I was asked to become the chairman of the board of Forgotten Harvest, which I agreed to do, and was very involved in understanding the issues of hunger and food insecurity in this region.

- We have a philosophy and it's a Jewish philosophy of tikkun olam, which means repairing the world.

And any time there is need in our community, we try and step up to the plate and take our responsibility seriously.

And especially during COVID, when times were so tough for so many people, we feel Forgotten Harvest really helped so many people become less food insecure by reaching out to all the different communities throughout our state or our region and provide the food necessary to live a dignified life.

- So one of the other organization that I've spent a lot of time assisting is Detroit Public Television, DPTV, which is more than just a TV operation.

I'm also a past chairman of that organization.

Again, it's an organization that's dedicated to reflect the values of our community.

We broadcast our signal over the air and through the web, and what I've tried to help Detroit Public TV is achieve is to become relevant into 21st century.

We operate to educate, inform, and connect and engage for everyone regardless of their income, race, their gender.

We really strive to make information, news and education available throughout our focus area and actually throughout the state.

- I've been privileged enough to help fundraise for many organizations in our community.

I was the past chair of the Jewish women's foundation, which helped bring grants to Jewish women and their families who are in need.

I currently sit on the board of the Zoo and chaired the development committee to help raise awareness of all of the amazing initiatives that the Zoo provides in terms of welfare for animals, conservation, environmental needs, and various protections of different animals and our environment.

And I also sit on the board of Tamarack Camps, which provides camping experiences for all kids in our community, especially the ones who can't afford it.

- Being honored with this award, Max Fisher is both an icon and inspiration for so many people in the general community and especially in the Jewish community.

My parents are survivors of the Holocaust, even then Max Fisher was active in helping to raise funds and help rescue people.

In some way I'm alive because of the efforts of Max and people like him, and the fact that we were selected to receive it, it's a humble reminder of how far this area and the world has to go to really help so many people.

(upbeat music) - This year, Giving Tuesday falls on November 30th.

That is the day when people around the world are encouraged to give, collaborate, and celebrate generosity, whether it's a donation, volunteering or lending your voice to an important cause, the holiday season is a great time to help others.

AFP Detroit President Sommer Brock from the Pontiac Community Foundation, talked with Erica George of the Empowerment Plan and Kellie Ray from Plante Moran about the importance and benefits of year end giving.

- As the year end approaches, can you speak to the importance of year-end giving for local nonprofits?

- Definitely, so almost a third of all giving happens between Giving Tuesday, which is the Tuesday after Thanksgiving and the end of the calendar year.

So I think that alone speaks to the importance of year-end campaigns and annual giving for nonprofits.

I know I can speak for Empowerment Plan, you know, last year was our biggest year end campaign that we've ever had.

And I think that was in large part due to a corporate match gift that we received from the Ford Motor Fund.

So I think for donors to also see that there's local businesses getting behind the mission and knowing that their gift is gonna go twice as far is kind of that added layer of incentive to give and get involved, especially during this time of year.

I think these annual year-end campaigns also are really important for nonprofits because a lot of times they help with the operating expenses, which you know, is not the most attractive bucket for fundraisers and for donors that to want to give to, but it's critically important for the nonprofits to be able to raise these operating funds as well.

So we've had great success with these kind of more general annual giving campaigns.

So, you know, as a fundraiser, you know, I would urge all of you that are watching to really do some research and really think about how you can elevate your year-end giving this year to really help those causes that you care about.

- Yes, truly.

Thank you so much for that.

I mean, I can't imagine with a third of revenue coming in during such a short period of time, what planning must be like for nonprofits.

And so it was so important.

So thank you all for supporting our local nonprofits.

Kelli.

- Yeah.

- Can you talk to us a little bit about tax implications.

Have things changed this year around charitable giving?

- Yes.

Yeah, there are several special incentives this year to provide some tax relief to both individuals and corporations that make charitable gifts.

So one of the most significant ones that would have the most widespread effect is the deduction that's given this year, $300 for individuals for charitable giving and $600 for married couples filing their tax return jointly.

These are special deductions, they're available to all taxpayers, including taxpayers who don't itemize their deductions.

So typically only itemized taxpayers would get a benefit from a charitable deduction, this year everybody does, which is really, really important.

And then for those individuals that do itemize their deductions on their tax returns, the charitable giving limit has been increased to 100% of adjusted gross income.

So typically, yeah, typically that's kept in a much lower amount, this year it's unlimited.

So donors who itemize their deduction can get the benefit of all of their charitable giving.

So that applies to cash contributions to eligible charitable organizations.

Then for C corporations, so for corporate givers, the limit has also been raised.

Typically their corporate giving, their charitable deductions would be limited to 10% of their textbook income.

This year if they elect a special rule, they can increase that to 25% of their tax book income and get the benefit of the tax deduction.

- As we come out of last year and hopefully are moving past a pandemic, are there any trends or changes in philanthropy that are worth noting?

- One of the most significant trends that I see having the biggest impact on the not-for-profit sector has been increased trend for donors to provide unrestricted gifts to nonprofits.

So for a number of years prior to the pandemic, the trend was for donors to fund very specific projects or very specific programs of nonprofits.

And what we've seen happen in the pandemic is donors shift much more towards giving unrestricted gifts for nonprofits to use in whatever way they see most beneficial to the organization and to the community or to the sector that they're serving.

And I think that's really important because nonprofits need those unrestricted gifts to fund, you know, their basic operating budget and to fund their salaries and to pay their rent and to pay their utilities.

And, you know, we know that during the pandemic, most organizations have seen significant increases in their operating costs, you know, as they're, you know, purchasing PPE to protect their employees or to protect their clientele or whatever it might be, they've seen increased costs.

And having those unrestricted gifts for operations is really, really critical to their financial health.

So I think that's been an incredibly positive trend.

- Another trend that I've kind of seen is the increase in peer to peer fundraising as well, which has been really beneficial for Empowerment Plan.

You know, having your donors go out and raise funds for you and really serve as advocates for your mission and the community.

I think people are just feeling, you know, extra, just the desire to give and to help has been so great over this last year and I've just, we've really seen a lot of people, you know, step up for us in that way, so the peer to peer giving I think has always been great, but I think it'll continue to be on an upward trend as we move hopefully out of the pandemic.

Well, thank you so much, Erica.

And thank you Kelli, for a great conversation today.

- Thank you.

- My pleasure, thank you both.

- That's gonna do it for this special presentation of National Philanthropy Day, 2021, Stronger Together.

Thanks for watching.

We encourage you to go to npddet.org to watch extended versions of the conversations that you heard tonight about the importance of charitable giving.

It's also where you can read more about this year's honorees.

A special thanks to everyone involved with tonight's program.

Take care of yourself and good night.

(bright upbeat music) - [Narrator] Support for National Philanthropy Day 2021, Stronger Together, is provided by Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation, Beaumont Health, Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, Delta Dental, DTE Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, Non-Profit Personnel Network, Plante Moran, PVS Chemicals Inc. And by these sponsors, the Remington Group, Wayne State University, Ascension Southeast Michigan Community Health, Autism Alliance of Michigan, the Children's Foundation, Detroit Public Television, Hammond & Associates, Hope Network, Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation, Schoolcraft College Foundation, Advantage Health Centers, ACLU of Michigan, Cranbrook Educational Community, Detroit Zoological Society, Judson Center, Leader Dogs for the Blind, Marts & Lundy, Steve Ragan, Samaritas, Starfish Family Services, and McComb Community College Foundation.