Community Feature
Otsego Community Foundation
Community Feature - Otsego Community Foundation
Centering Community Voices to Design Equitable Solutions
Over the last decade, the Otsego Community Foundation (OCF) has intentionally worked to focus on centering community voices and prioritizing collaborative partnerships to address critical needs in Otsego County.
“Everything we do is with our partners, whether they have financial resources or an idea to support the community as a donor partner or a nonprofit partner, they’re all equally important. We can have dollars, but without a partner to award the dollars to, the impact isn’t the same,” Dana Bensinger, executive director of OCF said.
Bensinger began her work at OCF in 2011, and she shared that as one of the smaller community foundations in the state, OCF has seen itself more as a peer to its nonprofit partners.
“We have a kind of unique perspective because we are smaller; we were struggling alongside our nonprofit partners in the beginning. We were learning how to arrive and thrive, and as we did that, we were able to bring our partners along with us,” Bensinger said.
As part of this learning journey alongside its nonprofit partners, OCF leaned into trust-based philanthropy and prioritized a simplified grant application process, giving organizations the opportunity to share their stories through conversations and video submissions instead of a robust written application.
“Everything doesn’t have to start with a competitive grant application. We’ve learned that it starts with conversations and partnerships; how can we together come up with a solution and then show the community that we’re learning together?” Bensinger said.
Bensinger shared that through support from CMF’s Community Foundation Endowment, OCF has been able to participate in several trainings and programming around trust-based philanthropy.
“It has been so valuable to connect with other grantmakers from all over the state and really dive into questions about trust-based philanthropy, equity and justice. CMF and my CMF community foundation peers, particularly others in Northern Michigan, are constantly supporting us to learn more and become the best grantmakers we can be,” Bensinger said.
“Bridging our differences is getting in the same room and learning about each other; we try also to do that across our board and committee meetings. So often, people are showing up for the same cause and purpose, but they’re not connecting as individuals. How can we create a strong team if we don’t truly understand who our teammates are? Bringing this very human element to our meetings is a place to start.”
Dana Bensinger
Executive Director, Otsego Community Foundation
Bensinger shared that initially, OCF didn’t have the financial resources it has today, so it leaned into improving its programming as a way to strengthen nonprofit capacity.
“We have worked really hard to get to know our nonprofit partners. Years ago, before the COVID-19 pandemic and when our operating budget was still slim to none, we developed the Nonprofit Exchange to bring different organizations and individuals together for relationship building,” Bensinger shared.
The Nonprofit Exchange serves as an opportunity for OCF’s nonprofit partners to come together for open dialogue, share challenges and accomplishments, and discuss the needs of the community and their organizations.
The monthly event is also an opportunity for unlikely partners to connect and collaborate.
“A key component to partnerships is trust, and bringing people together that would have otherwise never connected through this informal gathering is how we’ve worked to build relationships and that trust across our nonprofit partners,” Bensinger said.
As OCF is celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2024, it is focused on amplifying community voices and bridging divides to learn from one another.
“Bridging our differences is getting in the same room and learning about each other; we try also to do that across our board and committee meetings. So often, people are showing up for the same cause and purpose, but they’re not connecting as individuals. How can we create a strong team if we don’t truly understand who our teammates are? Bringing this very human element to our meetings is a place to start,” Bensinger said.
As OCF thinks about the future and its long-term work, Bensinger shared that the community foundation is focused on how it can deepen its efforts in communities and neighborhoods, so each subsection of the community is represented, and they are a part of the decision making process.
“We’re focused on inviting many different people to share their voices, hearing and listening and allowing that to shape our framework moving forward. Community-driven philanthropy can start small with community convenings, and it just enhances the efforts you’re already leading,” Bensinger shared.