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Category: Philanthropy

  • Ryan Miller

    Philanthropy Supporting Business

    There’s a fascinating shift going on in modern philanthropy. Many of our nation’s most ingenious philanthropic institutions are broadening their focus. Rather than limiting themselves to awarding grants to nonprofit organizations, foundations are increasingly recognizing that the entrepreneurial spirit is an invaluable tool to achieve their goals for the community. As a result, these charitable […]

  • Congratulations 2015 Golden Heart Recipients and Honorees

    The 13th annual Golden Heart Volunteer Celebration was held April 23, 2015, at Stone Harbor Resort in Sturgeon Bay to honor outstanding volunteers in our community. It also recognizes the importance of the organizations through which they work and support the Volunteer Center’s programming. Bret Bicoy, president and CEO of the Door County Community Foundation, […]

  • Serving Door County with an Artist’s Soul: Nancy and Bob Davis

    On June 24, 2015, a few hundred people gathered at Horseshoe Bay Golf Club to join the Door County Community Foundation in celebrating Nancy and Bob Davis as the 2015 Philanthropists of the Year during the annual Celebration of Giving. As longtime seasonal Door County residents, this remarkably generous couple decided 20 years ago to […]

  • Len Villano

    “Summer Field” Goes Up for Auction

    One look at Egg Harbor artist Ginnie Cappaert’s artwork and it is no secret she is inspired by her surroundings. Her minimalist abstract landscapes speak of a quaint, quiet and peaceful peninsula that her gallery, Cappaert Contemporary Gallery, now calls home. It may have been Door County’s beauty that drew her here in the winter […]

  • Causes to Celebrate

    Golfers were clad in pink once again for the annual Pink Classic Golf Tournament on May 31, 2015 at Horseshoe Bay Golf Club. This year $18,550 was raised at the Pink Classic for the Sue Baldwin Fund, which provides breast and other cancer awareness, prevention and treatment to Door County residents. Photo by Len Villano. […]

  • Suzi Hass

    A Global Philanthropic Revolution for Economic Well-Being?

    More than a century separates the two comments above, yet they come from the same place. Industrialist-philanthropist Andrew Carnegie believed that instead of “hoarding great sums” and then passing it on to relatives or bequeathing it to good causes upon their death, the wealthy should wisely invest in the economic well being of their communities […]

  • Community Land Trusts

    A Community Land Trust (CLT) varies sharply from an organization like the Door County Land Trust (DCLT), which is so familiar to county residents. Rather than focusing on preserving habitats and open spaces for future generations like the DCLT, a community land trust focuses on preserving land in communities for specific uses in order to […]

  • Habitat for Humanity

    Few, if any, organizations in Door County are more intimately involved with the affordable housing dilemma than Habitat for Humanity of Door County. Since earning its nonprofit designation in 1993, the organization has built 38 affordable homes for low-income families on the peninsula. To qualify, applicants must earn 60 percent of the median family income […]

  • The College Debt Conundrum

    Sandy Duckett believes it is time for young people to forget the romantic notion that college is the place to find themselves before moving on to the real world. “It’s too expensive these days. There are better ways to find themselves,” said the CEO of Sturgeon Bay-based We Are HOPE, Inc. Duckett and her team […]

  • COIN: Investing Small and Thinking Big

    COIN: Community Opportunity Investment Network A few years ago, the Door County Community Foundation (DCCF) convened a small group of people to talk about the future of employment and the wellbeing of employees in Door County. DCCF CEO Bret Bicoy recalls, “It was summer. We were sitting outside around a picnic table. With a couple […]

  • Bay Area Workforce Development Board: The Future Comes

    One might be excused for expecting a dry conversation with the director of an organization called the Bay Area Workforce Development Board (BAWDB), but one would be wrong. Talking with Jim Golembeski is a little like talking with a college professor; the discussion is riveting, wide-ranging and thought provoking. Golembeski is a self-described “resigned Catholic […]

  • Employment and the Philanthropic Community

    The question of employment — too much or too little — is multi-faceted and complex with a plethora of moving parts. It’s affected by really large, global forces (think the retirement of Baby Boomers) and smaller local forces (like the success of the Door County Visitor Bureau in growing our tourist economy or the newly […]

  • Len Villano

    The Summer Workforce: J-1 Visa Students

    Leading up to the summer of 2007, Nataliya Vasilyeva spent $1,000 and dozens of hours applying for the opportunity to clean hotel rooms for near minimum wage. In Ukraine, the cost to apply would equal one family’s annual salary, not including a plane ticket across the world and back. “You gain work experience, language experience, […]

  • Len Villano

    Where are the Workers?

    Similar to anywhere else in the world, the number of people in the Door County workforce is cyclical. Even looking outside of seasonality, the Door County economy functions in relation to the national economy, and workers ebb and flow along with the work. Despite facing a labor shortage in 2015, with businesses struggling to find […]

  • Suzi Hass

    An Inspired Move: Kit & Elizabeth Butz

    When Kit and Elizabeth Butz took a weekend trip to Door County for Fall Fest weekend in 2013, they didn’t think it would end with a life-changing decision.

  • Therma-Tron-X: A Model for Rural Employment

    On a trip to Door County in the mid-1960s, Otto Andreae and Ray Sherman fell in love with Door County, daydreaming about retiring to the peninsula one day. But as the thought percolated, they decided retirement wasn’t soon enough. In 1971, they moved their industrial ovens manufacturing business to Sturgeon Bay, choosing to locate where […]

  • Judith Kalb: Growing a Living Out of Stone

    Judith Kalb first visited Door County on a rainy May weekend in 1980. She decided then and there that the place she lived was going to play a more important role in her life than the career she pursued. “Door County felt immediately like home,” she recalls, “but I knew I was going to have […]

  • Habitat for Humanity Hosts 4th Annual Bowl-A-Thon

    On Feb. 13, nearly 50 bowlers turned out at Apple Valley Lanes for the 4th Annual Door County Habitat for Humanity Bowl-A-Thon. The bowlers raised more than $17,000 in support of their 39th home build for the Miller family. Susan Miller, head of the Miller family, and her daughters participated in the bowl-a-thon. Susan and […]

  • Sturgeon Bay Breakfast Rotary Club Announces Trivia Night

    The Sturgeon Bay Breakfast Rotary Club presents the 13th annual Trivia Night on March 19 at the Jaycee Clubhouse in Sturgeon Bay. Teams of up to eight people will compete in 10 categories (100 questions). Registration is at 6:30 pm and trivia will be from 7 to 10 pm. There will also be door prizes […]

  • 2016 Philanthropy

    2016 Philanthropy Issue Now Available

    The 2016 edition of Door County Living’s Philanthropy issue hits the streets this week with a cover by artist Ginnie Cappaert and a focus on philanthropy and economic development. As Door County Community Foundation President and CEO Bret Bicoy writes in his piece for the magazine, “There’s a fascinating shift going on in modern philanthropy. […]