When you are in the business of building permanent philanthropic assets for the community you must plan for sustainability. Sustainability is so important for all nonprofits that Dennis McMillian, President of the Foraker Group recently published a book, Focus on Sustainability, where he highlights four interconnected factors he believes are integral to a sustainable organization.

The first factor is Focus on founding principals in all strategic decision-making.

The second is the Right People. Good leadership is key to good governance and adherence to vision, values, and mission. In its twenty-two years the Homer Foundation has had unparalleled leadership and dedication from its board members.

The third element for sustainability is having the right partners. The Foundation has attracted strong partner for building and distributing philanthropic assets. The Rasmuson Foundation, the Alaska Community Foundation, the City of Homer, and Kachemak City, dozens of nonprofits, and hundreds of individual donors, have all put their trust in the Foundation to manage the philanthropic assets for the public good. Equally important partners are our volunteers, community members who serve on scholarship and grant review committees. They help ensure our philanthropic assets are distributed wisely to our nonprofit partners to assure community needs are met.
The fourth factor for sustainability is holding sufficient unrestricted assets to take advantage of opportunities and to handle unforeseen downturns. Thanks to our donors, the Foundation has the unrestricted assets necessary to meet changing community needs, current operations, and future
needs.
The HF gets high scores for sustainability:

•  Focus
•  Right People
•  Partners
•  Unrestricted Assets

Focusing on our sustainability ensures the Homer Foundation will always be there working to help create healthy,
more vibrant communities.

Joy Steward, Executive Director
The Homer Foundation

DOWNLOAD PDF: 2013 Annual Report: A Foundation for Sustainability