What it means to be a resource
By Sue Hafkemeyer / President and CEO
At the Quad Cities Community Foundation, we aspire to be the most trusted resource for community generosity in our area. That means we spend a lot of time thinking about what it means to be a resource—and how we can be a better one for donors and nonprofits in the Quad Cities.
The expertise of our staff—the wonderful team I myself have learned so much from over the last two months—is no small part of how we do it. I’ve quickly come to understand that every member of our team is a wealth of knowledge, with deep experience in our field, impressive credentials, and an irrepressible willingness to sit down and share their insights with anyone who calls our office or walks through our doors. But being a resource isn’t just about what you know. It’s also about your ability to connect people with the information, tools, and relationships they need to take solving tough challenges into their own hands.
That’s why we are proud to launch ResourceLink. ResourceLink is an information hub for donors, nonprofit professionals, and involved Quad Citizens who want to take their efforts to benefit our community to the next level. ResourceLink grows out of the knowledge of our development, grantmaking, and finance teams and extends beyond it to the organizations, publications, and peer groups they turn to in their own careers. It’s a recognition that we exist within a network of peers, all working toward common, if not shared, goals: stronger, more vibrant and inclusive communities.
The resources housed on ResourceLink are available to anyone. For donors, we’ve rounded up information on everything from tax credits and IRS forms to philanthropy for racial justice. We’ve also made it easier to access our wonderful in-house guides to giving, including Your Generosity Guidebook, a brand-new introduction to charitable giving. For nonprofits, we’ve divided our resources into groups you can engage with and ideas you can explore—plus a separate list of local and national consultants and service providers that connects you to third parties who may be able to help your organization further its mission.
We chose to categorize our resources for convenience, but I encourage you wander around—you just might find something interesting, inspiring, or invaluable in an unexpected place. And if you’re looking for information you can’t find, let us know so we can point you in the right direction and add it for others to benefit from, too. Likewise, if you have a resource you’d like to share with others, we want to know about it!
We envision ResourceLink as a “living” entity that can evolve alongside the evolving challenges and opportunities presented to our donors and nonprofits. After all, this community’s goals for itself are big—and big goals take every available resource.