I would imagine all who visit this forum are aware of this, but thought it was worth an acknowledgement -

Mr Taylor gave 25 million to the symphony a few years ago and 92 million last week that will go a long way for Forest Park, Arch grounds, SLAM and SLSO.

Cities the size of St. Louis struggle to keep the arts going, nice to see someone from the community step up, eavesdropped on some tourists from Memphis this weekend who were going on and on about Forest Park, kept on saying "why can't Memphis have something like this?"

The Danforths have also made impressive donations over the years - Wash U would probably be slightly competitive mid tier school with out them.

Now if they were only interested in football

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metr ... 6b912.html

It was a $40 million grant that the Taylor Family previously gave to the Orchestra to basically save it. Pretty incredible.

It's great for the SLSO, the Arch, and Forest Park, but why can't we get some people/foundations with real deep pockets to invest in neighborhood revitalization/community development? Especially in these days after Ferguson?

Buy a house to fix up in a distressed area knowing you'll take a loss.

Kevin Horrigan tweeted that the Taylor's gift is equal to $325 for someone wqho makes the median income here in STL.

^Logistically, what does that really mean?

Seems like when people like McKee try to do that it quickly becomes controversial. How does someone invest in a way that becomes acceptable?

I wish Joe Edwards had a dozen brothers who each had a home base neighborhood around the city.

It starts with investing in the organizations already invested in the community. The nonprofit, community-based, community development corporations.

That's a far cry from the McKee "model".

The Landmarks Association is currently raising $25,000 to match a $75,000 challenge grant from the Trulaske Family Foundation for a building stabilization fund.

According to their Go Fund Me site:

"The proposed fund will provide gap financing for rehabilitation projects and also be made available to help property owners to reverse unsightly alterations to historic buildings by facilitating participation in St. Louis' existing façade improvement grant program."

$75,000 compared to how many hundreds of millions for parks and the arts? Yes, it's a start, but it's a tiny drop in the bucket.

We need community development funding to match funding for the arts and parks.

blzhrpmd2 wrote:^Logistically, what does that really mean?

Seems like when people like McKee try to do that it quickly becomes controversial. How does someone invest in a way that becomes acceptable?

I wish Joe Edwards had a dozen brothers who each had a home base neighborhood around the city.

It would look like these successful organizations in Cleveland and Philadelphia that annually generate millions from local philanthropy to support their community development nonprofits that work to build stronger, more economically viable, and healthier neighborhoods in their cities.
The Cleveland Foundation http://www.clevelandfoundation.org/gran ... hborhoods/
Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations http://pacdc.org/home

What Mckee is doing does not resemble anything that can be classified as community development.

I'm very glad and proud that the Taylor family made such an incredible gift to strengthen and support St. Louis. It's huge and gave me hope that the St. Louis community and leaders can do big things still. I wish similar focus was given by the philanthropic community in St. Louis to support community development in St. Louis, as other cities are doing and seeing great success. We have the Community Builder's Network of Metro St. Louis and Invest STL with very committed individuals, but without dedicated local philanthropic support ($), the impact our local organizations can make is limited.

Northside Neighbor wrote:It's great for the SLSO, the Arch, and Forest Park, but why can't we get some people/foundations with real deep pockets to invest in neighborhood revitalization/community development? Especially in these days after Ferguson?

From the articles on the two significant donations that the Taylor family have made this year, it does look like they are investing in the community, not just the important cultural institutions.

Would I like to see more? Sure. But I think it is pretty evident that this is not just a rich guy saving the symphony, so he can attend with his rich friends.

• $5 million to the American Red Cross of Eastern Missouri.
• $5 million to the St. Louis Public Schools Foundation, to support early childhood education
• $5 million to Ranken Technical College, which will get to help low-income students pay for school.
• $2 million to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater St. Louis to support operations.
• $2 million to the Roman Catholic Foundation of Eastern Missouri, for scholarships designated for North St. Louis and North County Catholic schools.
• $2 million to St. Louis Children’s Hospital Foundation, which helps provide dental services for low-income youths.
• $1.5 million to KIPP St. Louis, to support its charter schools.
• $1 million to City Academy, a private school in north St. Louis, for scholarships.
• $1 million to the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, for technology infrastructure, software and staffing for its Ferguson Community Empowerment Center.
• $1 million to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Missouri, to support its ABCToday initiative for reading and math skills.
• $1 million to Our Little Haven, for staff resources and facility improvements.
• $500,000 to the Scholarship Foundation of St. Louis, to fund scholarships for low-income students in North St. Louis and St. Louis County.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metr ... 6b912.html
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/educ ... bad6b.html

• $5 million to the American Red Cross of Eastern Missouri.
• $5 million to the St. Louis Public Schools Foundation, to support early childhood education
• $5 million to Ranken Technical College, which will get to help low-income students pay for school.
• $2 million to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater St. Louis to support operations.
• $2 million to the Roman Catholic Foundation of Eastern Missouri, for scholarships designated for North St. Louis and North County Catholic schools.
• $2 million to St. Louis Children’s Hospital Foundation, which helps provide dental services for low-income youths.
• $1.5 million to KIPP St. Louis, to support its charter schools.
• $1 million to City Academy, a private school in north St. Louis, for scholarships.
• $1 million to the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, for technology infrastructure, software and staffing for its Ferguson Community Empowerment Center.
• $1 million to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Missouri, to support its ABCToday initiative for reading and math skills.
• $1 million to Our Little Haven, for staff resources and facility improvements.
• $500,000 to the Scholarship Foundation of St. Louis, to fund scholarships for low-income students in North St. Louis and St. Louis County.

All great, but not $1 to a neighborhood CDC. This list illustrates the lack of foundation support for community development beautifully. Lots of money for education, arts, health care, etc; nothing for neighborhood development organizations.

You might think this is splitting hairs, but it is a big difference. The list above is about targeting resources to individuals. It is not a place based focus.

Neighborhood development is very specifically "place based", and right now, that focus is having a hard time getting funding.

On a normal person scale though, to invest in community development in St. Louis doesn't mean you have to risk it all and fix up a house in a distressed neighborhood. But if you were so inclined, it could mean donating to some of the community development nonprofits in St. Louis that are working to build stronger, healthier neighborhoods. The federal funds that are the sources of funding for these organizations and activities in cities around the US are drying up, so even while the back-to-the-city movement is growing, doing the work of community development is becoming harder and harder.

The Community Builders Network member organizations would be a great place to start, if you wanted to look into donating locally. http://www.communitybuildersstl.org/

Northside Neighbor wrote:You might think this is splitting hairs, but it is a big difference. The list above is about targeting resources to individuals. It is not a place based focus.

I guess it depends on how specific you want to get. Many of the donations on that list are place based, with the place being North City and North County:

• $5 million to Ranken Technical College, which will get to help low-income students pay for school.
• $2 million to the Roman Catholic Foundation of Eastern Missouri, for scholarships designated for North St. Louis and North County Catholic schools.
• $1 million to City Academy, a private school in north St. Louis, for scholarships.
• $1 million to the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, for technology infrastructure, software and staffing for its Ferguson Community Empowerment Center.
• $500,000 to the Scholarship Foundation of St. Louis, to fund scholarships for low-income students in North St. Louis and St. Louis County.

Those organizations all have addresses, yes, but they don't all (mostly not), have a place-based mission.

Ranken just recently got into the idea of stabilizing the area around its school (which already is sort of a fortress), in order to stabilize the future of its institution.

Ranken's primary mission is to educate people in the trades, not revitalize neighborhoods.

Same can be said for most of the other orgs on the list. Their mission is to deliver education, to empower youth, etc. Not to revitalize neighborhoods.

They might be partners in that quest, but it's not the primary mission of the organization.

We need funding going to organizations whose primary mission is the revitalization of neighborhoods.

I think the donations by the Taylor family are beneficial to places such Forest Park & the Riverfront so i won't make judgement of where it all gets allocated too! If i had the money they have i would donate to various neighborhoods in the city particularly the north side non the less any donations by any of our big corporations is better than nothing.

I don't think most people understand how difficult it is to raise money for placed based community development organizations.

They're not sexy things like the Arch or Forest Park (where your name goes up in big lights), and they don't pull at heart strings the same way that donating to things like cancer research or kids programs do.

Community development organizations do a lot of work and they operate on shoestring budgets.

They'd be more effective with a better support system.

sirshankalot wrote:Kevin Horrigan tweeted that the Taylor's gift is equal to $325 for someone wqho makes the median income here in STL.

I'm not sure if he's attempting to downplay the donation by making this comparison, but I don't think that's fair if so.

For one, tens of millions of dollars is tens of millions of dollars. They're rarely just given away. So that's big in and of itself.

Additionally, as someone that makes a little bit beyond the STL median income and considers myself a fairly generous person, I don' have $325 laying around to give away without a second thought. I mean—I could, but it would have a noticable impact on my other spending for a little while.

I get it. It's not like Jack Taylor is giving life and limb, but it's not pocket change either. It's definitely a generous donation.

I see your point, but I think it's a disagreement on how to revitalize neighborhoods, not necessarily a disagreement on the motivation to do so. Teaching kids trades and/or giving them an education gives them a better opportunity to get jobs and to do something with their lives that in turn has a positive effect on their communities and revitalizes neighborhoods.

We're really talking apples and oranges. What's to keep these newly minted tradesmen to stay in their old neighborhoods versus moving to St.Peters?

It also comes to mind that the Danforth Foundation used to be pretty active with Community Development before deciding to close down and shoot its wad on biotech funding.

Maybe there's a lesson here.

Danforth was heavily involved in the highly branded "St. Louis 2004" effort.

Maybe that's what St. Louis needs now. A new brand.

If you were to brand community development in St. Louis, how would you do it?

What's the story that sells? What are the messages that resonate with a wide audience?

Community development isn't just going on in North City. There are community development organizations working in St. Louis County; north, south, and Central Corridor of St. Louis city, and on the Illinois side.

The whole movement needs a brand.

Taylor's donate another 21 million at the Art Museum - Endowment for the directors position

http://www.stltoday.com/entertainment/a ... b3a98.html