Community Foundation for Nantucket

CONTACT:

P.O. Box 204
Nantucket, MA 02554
508-825-9993
www.cfnan.com

Margaretta Andrews, Executive Director

DESCRIPTION:

The idea of a community foundation for Nantucket had been discussed for years (persistence is of course one test of a good idea), but it had not been seriously explored until this past year when an informal but diverse group of citizens gradually emerged to lead a public inquiry. From the Nantucket Human Services Center where the inquiry began, key people from widely various constituencies were approached, the idea resonated, and gradually the circle widened, until a steering committee was formed in August. That committee carefully prepared for a decision to incorporate in late fall, drafting articles of organization and by-laws, identifying a founding board, always broadening the discussions.

Those discussions have illuminated a palpable feeling that for Nantucket, a CF is especially timely and uniquely valuable. The island has undergone in recent years what the New York Times has called “hyper-gentrification,” which has raised serious and fundamental issues such as: adequate and affordable housing; the future of public and private services, including education; historic and environmental conservation; traffic, overcrowding and noise; and withal, the loss of a long-traditional sense and spirit of community on the island. Philanthropy in general, and a CF in particular, are emerging from these discussions as having unique problem-solving and quality-of-life-enhancing roles to play in helping the entire Nantucket community to address issues such as these in a constructive, non-partisan, technically expert, framework. By the end of 2005, there may well be a community foundation for Nantucket, and we wish it well.

(2005: PROMOTING PHILANTHROPY: Community Foundations)