Newsroom
Regional Needs Discussed at Mid-Shore Foundation Luncheon
Easton, Maryland - October 2009
The Mid-Shore Community Foundation hosted a roundtable of professional advisors throughout the region to focus on the urgent need to expand philanthropy targeted to the challenges facing the region. Dr. Memo Diriker, Director of the Business, Economic, and Community Outreach Network (BEACON) at the Perdue School of Business at Salisbury University, briefed the advisors on a project to develop dashboard indicators for rural counties on the Shore as well as on the impact of the recession on the Mid-Shore region.
The dashboard indicators for rural counties is of particular interest to the Foundation and its volunteer network of professional advisors as a means to better understand demographic, economic, and social trends in each of the counties served by the Foundation. The project is a joint effort of BEACON and the Rural Maryland Council.
The professional advisor network consists of five volunteer advisory committees representing each of the five Mid-Shore counties. The committees provide a county perspective on the critical issues facing their communities and help connect philanthropy to the region through the Mid-Shore Foundation.
Dr. Stuart Bounds, current president of the Foundation, briefed the advisors on recent efforts to expand services to the nonprofit community and on the Foundation's accomplishments recently published in a Report to the Community, 2008-2009, including over $2million in grants to the region. According to Dr. Bounds, "The success of the Foundation is directly related to the support and commitment of our professional advisors. Since 1992, the Foundation has significantly increased its permanent funds to address the needs of the Mid-Shore Region, and we have our board and professional advisors to thank for that success."
Copies of the Report to the Community can be obtained by contacting Heather Pickens, Mid-Shore Community Foundation at 410-820-8175, or hpickens@mscf.org.
