"AS GOES MAINE, SO GOES THE NATION"….DON'T WE WISH
Submitted by Tommer on December 2, 2009
A year ago the Maine Community Foundation, one of the state’s largest philanthropic enterprises, was preparing for hard times ahead.
With the stock market crashing and a global recession strengthening its grip, Henry Schmeltzer, who was then the executive director, watched the foundation’s endowment tumble and predicted that giving could decline by $1 million.
But that gloomy forecast did not come true.
Not only are the foundation’s grants ahead of last year, but its assets by the end of September were slightly ahead of where they were last year at that time. Some other philanthropic foundations are reporting similar stories as they emerge from one of the toughest economic crises in years.