The Community’s Endowment

It’s a question I always enjoy answering because, in many ways, community foundations are unlike any other nonprofit organization. The simplest answer I can give is this:

The Watertown Area Community Foundation is the community’s endowment.

It’s a phrase I use often because I think it perfectly captures the Foundation’s unique role in our community.

Today, the Watertown Area Community Foundation stewards more than 180 charitable funds. Each one was created by a donor, family, business, or organization with a passion and commitment to give back to their community. Every fund has its own purpose. Some provide scholarships. Others support local nonprofits, survivors of abuse, community projects, the arts, healthcare, or emerging community needs.

Individually, each fund tells a family’s story. Together, these funds become something much bigger. They create a permanent charitable resource dedicated entirely to strengthening the Watertown area.

One of my favorite examples is our Women & Giving Endowment.

Twenty-three years ago, a group of women shared a vision. They wanted to create a program that would invest in women and children throughout our community. For the first several years, their generosity made an immediate impact through annual grants.

Then, in 2009, they made another visionary decision. They established the Women & Giving Endowment, recognizing that while meeting today’s needs is important, building a permanent charitable resource would ensure Women & Giving could continue supporting women and girls for generations to come.

They made that first endowment gift. Then another followed. And another.

Today, that vision has grown into a thriving endowment. The Women & Giving Endowment now exceeds $266,000, and in 2025 alone, it generated nearly $12,000 to support the program’s annual grantmaking. The original gifts remain invested, while the earnings help fund grants that improve the lives of women and children throughout our region.

That’s the power of an endowment. Every gift made today has the potential to create opportunities not just this year, but for generations to come.

When I think about the Foundation, I don’t think of it as a collection of funds or investments. I think of it as a collection of people. Thousands of individuals and families who believe in this community and have chosen to invest in its future.

That’s what I mean when I say the Foundation is the community’s endowment.

It’s where generosity grows. Where individual gifts come together to create something much greater than any one of us could accomplish alone. And because those resources are permanent, the Foundation will continue responding to our community’s needs for generations to come.

Thank you for being part of that story. Every gift contributed, no matter the size, has helped strengthen the Foundation’s ability to support the Watertown area today while building an even stronger tomorrow.