Dunkirk Foundation plans to merge

For 53 years, Jay County has had two community foundations.

If all goes as planned over the next few weeks, those long-standing organizations will merge into one.

Members of The Dunkirk Foundation’s board of directors have developed a plan to merge its 14 funds with more than $2.06 million in assets into The Portland Foundation.

The Dunkirk Foundation in the past few days sent letters to past supporters to inform them about the plan. It will hold a special meeting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at West Jay Community Center to explain the reasons for the change and receive feedback from the public.

“I think every one of us agree that this is the right direction,” said Jesse Bivens, president of The Dunkirk Foundation’s board. “I think every one of us are relieved that we’re even at this spot to be able to have a final say over it. I think it’s all good. I think it’s good for Dunkirk … We still stay in control of the wishes of the fund donors.”

“The Portland Foundation, although our name says Portland, we serve all of Jay County and always have,” said Doug Inman, executive director of The Portland Foundation. “So this makes sense in the respect that it brings both of the foundations together.”

The pending merger is the culmination of on-and-off discussions that have taken place for nearly 30 years.

“This has been a really long process that’s surfaced, gone down below the surface and come back up since 1994,” said Chuck Huffman, an emeritus board member who served for 27 years and has helped facilitate the merger process.

The most recent discussions began again about three years ago, with The Dunkirk Foundation in October bringing in Mitch Isaacs of Shafer Leadership Academy to help guide the decision-making process. That included a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of making such a change, with board members saying the former far outweighed the latter.

If approved, The Portland Foundation will take over the 14 funds that are currently part of The Dunkirk Foundation. (The Johnson Fund for the Dunkirk Community is by far the largest at $1.19 million.) They will all become advisory funds for The Portland Foundation, with the current board of The Dunkirk Foundation becoming “Dunkirk Community Advisors.”

As such, the advisors will continue to make recommendations for grants through the Johnson fund and the various scholarships The Dunkirk Foundation currently administers, with The Portland Foundation’s board then having final approval.

“We will continue to meet and when it comes time for the Johnson grants to be granted … basically we’re going to be doing the same thing that we’re doing right now,” said board member Jill Ford, “other than we’re going to go through The Portland Foundation.”

“Donor intent will be honored 100%,” said Inman.

The Dunkirk Community Funds, as they will be called, will have their own section in The Portland Foundation’s annual report.

Bivens explained that The Dunkirk Foundation’s board meetings have focused on how to make the organization better. Among the advantages of such a change include having the full-time staff handling management and administrative work. (Both organizations have their funds invested through First Merchants Bank.)

A full-time staff and a physical presence in the community has long been a goal of The Dunkirk Foundation, Huffman said, but resources have simply not been there to justify those expenditures. He added that with an all-volunteer board, management of the organization has become more challenging.

“The foundation has grown quite a bit,” said Huffman, who was recently named to The Portland Foundation’s board of directors. “The mechanics of the record keeping is getting more complicated. …

“We’ve had good growth, but we see us coming to a point where that’s not going to be as easy to do. They have resources that I think we can tap into.”

That will include an expanded presence on The Portland Foundation’s website. (In an effort to help The Dunkirk Foundation, the website for a few years has already provided access to its scholarship and grant applications.)

After Tuesday’s special meeting, The Dunkirk Foundation’s board plans to vote on the merger at its regular meeting June 15. The Portland Foundation is expected to vote on the merger the following week, with a target effective date of July 1.

The merger would bring The Portland Foundation — formed in 1951, it is the second-oldest community foundation in the state — to more than 435 funds totaling about $43.5 million.

“We’re excited about it because of the reputation of The Portland Foundation, the fact that they’re very county oriented and have always been,” said Huffman. “We have faith in their leadership, the board. Executive director Doug Inman has been great.”

“For a while we’ve been talking about getting together with The Portland Foundation because it’s just going to be better for us,” said Bivens. “To have the full resources of what they have, it’s just going to be great.”