Too many people think Foundation Northwest is the best kept community secret. That, says Mark Hurtubise, its president and CEO, is why its changing its name to the Inland Northwest Community Foundation, is unveiling a new logo, and is launching a campaign to become more visible.


The foundation is 32 years old, yet its somewhat invisible, says Hurtubise. Visibility is going to change in a positive way.


Though perhaps little known outside charitable circles, the organization is a big player in philanthropy here. It has awarded $29 million in grants and scholarships since it was formed in 1974. This year alone, it has granted $2 million in grants to nearly 300 nonprofits, and another about $116,000 in scholarships to students, most of whom planned to attend local colleges and universities, he says.


The foundation manages 223 funds, most of which are endowed funds. As of June 30, the end of its most recent fiscal year, it managed $47.5 million in fund assets, up 10.5 percent from a year earlier. It also works with financial advisers to help potential donors identify their charitable interests and design giving strategies. Its located in the Old City Hall Building at 221 N. Wall downtown, and employs seven people.


Hurtubise says the new name provides a better geographic description of the foundation, which serves 20 counties in Eastern Washington and North Idaho. The name also does a better job of emphasizing the organizations focus on community, rather than on private or family interests.


The 10.5 percent increase in fund assets last fiscal year came both from new donations to the funds and from the returns made from investment of fund assets. The foundation makes its grants only from those returns, rather than dipping into the funds principal amounts.


Were attempting to build permanent assets, Hurtubise says. I analogize the foundation as a savings account for the community.


The foundation realized the need to become more visible as a result of strategic planning it did with the help of a $95,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation two years ago.


It also sees its role as helping corporate donors become more visible in the community as benefactors, and nonprofits become more visible for the programs they provide, he says. Today, more corporations are feeling a sense of social responsibility, not only in fulfilling charitable goals, but in benefiting nonprofits and affecting peoples lives, Hurtubise says.


That takes material success and turns it into something beyond that, he says. It makes people feel good beyond creating a good product. It adds to a value system that changes life beyond the walls of the corporation.


Donors also want to know that the money they provide ends up making a difference, he says.


Corporations see the foundation as an investment, Hurtubise says. They often want to see a measure of success.


With that in mind, the foundation now expects more measurable outcomes from certain grants it makes. Is it enough to feed people? he says. How do we move them out of unemployment, homelessness, and crime?


Thats also an issue of the communitys economic health, Hurtubise says, adding that a community cant rely on state and federal government for all its social needs.


We are at the point where communities need to plan for self-preservation, he says. If charitable giving didnt exist we would have to raise taxes to the equivalent of the support from charitable giving.


If the Inland Northwest Community Foundation is a savings account, an organization like United Way, which also benefits nonprofit organizations in the community, but with money it collects and distributes each year, is more like a checking account, Hurtubise says. He says he doesnt see the two organizations as competitors.


One of our main goals is to create a vibrant community, he says. When any nonprofit receives a significant gift, we celebrate with them. Our loyalty and allegiance is to all nonprofits.


To help donors decide where generally their contributions should go, the foundation offers a catalog that identifies nonprofits in a host of areas of service and purpose.


Donors can designate what type of charity or scholarship theyd like their money to go to, and can make more specific recommendations, but in order for the donation to be tax deductible, they cant have final say about how the funds are dispersed. Thats ultimately up to the foundation, Hurtubise says.


A donors financial adviser, however, can get involved in giving under an outside investor program being launched by the foundation, he says.


Under the new program, a donor establishes a fund, which becomes part of the foundations assets. The foundation then contracts with the donors financial adviser to invest the fund on behalf of the foundation, which watches the investment to make sure the rate of return provides distributable income for the types of charities the donor prefers.


New funds often are established in the fall, so donors can generate charitable deductions for that years tax return.


Recommendations for grants can take place the following year, so donors dont have to be rushed to make recommendations, Hurtubise says.


The largest fund held by the foundation is the $7 million Leuthold Fund. The largest corporate fund is the Premera Blue Cross fund, which exceeded $1 million this year. It benefits Washington State Universitys Intercollegiate College of Nursing and its Peoples Clinic in Spokane.


Typically, the foundation makes grants and scholarship awards totaling the equivalent of about 4 percent of its total assets. It costs about 1.75 percent of total assets to operate the foundation, he says.


For a corporation to run for a year on less than 2 percent of its assets, it would be quite a thing, Hurtubise says.


The foundation also pays the equivalent of about 0.85 percent of its assets annually to investment managers. The investments are monitored by investment consultant R.V. Kuhns & Associates, of Portland, Ore., and the foundation board, he says.


Over the last five years, the foundations portfolio has outperformed investments of many foundations, according to the Council on Foundations investment survey of 112 community foundations with assets under $1 billion.


All of its outlays and grants come to less than the amount it earns from investing the funds, so the remainder, along with new donations, goes back to principal, he says.


Contact Mike McLean at (509) 344-1266 or via e-mail at mikem@spokanejournal.com.