With the word out about The Foundation’s greater capabilities, requests for grants reached new heights, both in the number of applications and amounts sought. The trend was fueled by decreases in government and corporate support that many nonprofits were feeling at the time. In 1990, grants awarded reached 60, totaling over $700,000.

During 1990, The Foundation applied for and was awarded a $250,000 challenge grant under the Leadership Program for Community Foundations sponsored by the Ford Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The Utica Foundation became one of only 17 community foundations in the nation to receive one of the prestigious grants.

Identifying the need to improve the quality and availability of childcare in Oneida and Herkimer counties as one of the region’s most urgent needs, The Foundation’s board earmarked the grant to be used for that purpose. It went a step further by allocating an additional $750,000 of The Foundation’s own resources, making a total of $1 million available for the childcare cause, to be spent over a five-year period. A stipulation of receiving the Ford-MacArthur funding, was, however, that The Foundation raise $500,000 to add to its permanent endowment. That was addressed in a Leadership Campaign, launched in 1991, which was unprecedented not only in its fundraising focus, but in the new donors it reached and the number of volunteers who became engaged on The Foundation’s behalf.

The Leadership Campaign and childcare project became ground-breaking successes. Through the efforts of nearly 40 committee members, over $634,000 was raised and added to The Foundation’s endowment. The “Care for Our Kids” program, as it was called, led to the creation of hundreds of new childcare slots throughout the two counties, along with improved facilities and additional training for child care providers.

By dovetailing these two efforts, The Foundation simultaneously met a major challenge and an important need.  In the process, the nature of its operations was forever changed.

The fundraising effort attracted over 75 major gifts, from individuals and businesses across the region, many of whom had never considered a gift to The Foundation much less been asked. The “Care for Our Kids” program was forged by two committees, one in each county, comprised of more than 60 individuals from the childcare field who worked cooperatively in examining the issue an identifying solutions.

The Foundation was no longer merely a collector and distributor of funds. It was now also a convener that could effectively bring together multiple resources to address important community issues.

The grants were expanding in a geographic sense, too. In 1991, grants in Herkimer County topped the $100,000 mark and support to nonprofits serving Rome and western Oneida County was on the increase. Even the northern reaches of Herkimer County were feeling the impact, with over $50,000 in grants awarded to organizations in the Old Forge area in 1994-95 alone.

The endowment kept growing as well. Between 1990 and 1995 assets nearly doubled, from $15.4 million to over $29 million. The addition of two major funds, the Frank W. Baker Fund and the Wesley and Marion Small Fund, established in 1992 and 1994, respectively, accounted for nearly half of this growth. Baker had been the owner and operator of F. J. Baker and Sons, one of Utica’s oldest family businesses and one of the nation’s largest growers and wholesalers of cut flowers.

Wesley Small was the publisher of the Herkimer Evening Telegram. The $4.4 million fund bearing his name and that of his wife became the third largest in The Foundation’s endowment. Specified to support causes in Herkimer County, it prompted the establishment of an advisory committee to oversee grantmaking activity there. In preparation for that work and receipt of the fund itself, in the summer of ’94, The Foundation held informational sessions for nonprofits in Herkimer and Old Forge on how to apply for grants.

Also contributing to the growth of the endowment during this period was an increased attention to donor services, aimed at making The Foundation a more useful and attractive philanthropic vehicle. Family funds, for instance, were promoted as meaningful ways to honor loved ones while at the same time accomplishing charitable goals. The efforts bore fruit. Between 1991 and 1995, 42 new funds were set up at The Foundation, some 30 of which were family oriented.

In 1993, The Foundation’s first designated fund was established, the James K. Clark Fund, through a bequest from the estate of its namesake. Clark was a Utica native who became a successful engineer, eventually retiring in 1961 as chief engineer for the Partlow Corporation. Having received much appreciated services from the Central Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired late in his life, he designated that the agency benefit in perpetuity from the income generated by his fund.

Other accomplishments in the first half of the ’90s included further expansion of The Foundation’s public information efforts. In 1991, a quarterly newsletter, Foundation Letter, was introduced and in 1992, the format of the annual report was expanded to full magazine size.

Mary K. Griffith, president of the Rome College Foundation, joined the group in 1992, as did John F. Winske, plant manager of Remington Arms Company in Ilion. Larry Bull, president of Herkimer Petroleum Products, was elected two years later.

Other by-laws changes involved board composition, including the institution of term limits to foster an ongoing influx of new ideas and perspectives, and the first of what would be several adjustments over the years in the appointing authorities, to reflect changing community conditions.

In 1992, Addison White’s long and distinguished tenure of service came to a close when he retired after 34 years on the board, including 24 as president. He was succeeded at the helm by Dwight E. Vicks, Jr., president of Vicks Lithograph and Printing Corporation. Reflecting the new policy of more frequent changes in leadership, Vicks was succeeded by William L. Schrauth, president of the Savings Bank of Utica, who was elected Foundation president in 1995.

In April of that same year, J. Leo Coupe, the last of the surviving original incorporators, passed away.

In 1999, the Community Foundation changed its name to The Community Foundation of Herkimer and Oneida Counties, Inc. The change created a new identity reflecting the two counties The Foundation serves. To learn more about our name change, click here.