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About
Jefferson Community Foundation
Our Story
Community Impacts
Support JCF!
Our Story
What is a Community Foundation?
Jefferson Community Foundation understands the landscape—trends, obstacles, and opportunities—of community health and keeps abreast of efforts that will enable all people to thrive. We know which local nonprofits are focused on which issues, which initiatives are gaining momentum and creating change, which are not, and where service gaps exist. JCF shares this unique insight with the nonprofit sector to increase the effectiveness of ongoing efforts, and with donors to help inform charitable decisions with the greatest possible impact.
Our Mission
Jefferson Community Foundation connects diverse people, ideas, and resources to build a future of opportunity for all in Jefferson County. We serve as a hub for our community to:
- GIVE donations informed with local knowledge and strategy,
- BUILD strong and collaborative nonprofits,
- SOLVE regional issues by working together on solutions.
Our Values
- TRUSTWORTHY
Accountable for stewarding exceptional, considerate, \and responsive relationships accurately tailored to an individual’s values and goals. - COLLABORATIVE
Engaging and empowering changemakers to identify shared challenges and opportunities for innovative solutions. - DIVERSE
Actively building relationships that connect people across traditional divides and work for racial equity. - CREATIVE
Applying innovative problem-solving to identify solutions to challenges without obvious answers. - GENEROUS
Modeling the generosity, we want to see in the world. - KIND
Bringing our authentic selves and passion to the work with mindfulness and compassion.
Community Impacts
Trust is Our Greatest Currency!
Our community’s most impactful resource is not money. It is changemakers like you. Changemaking is not an ethereal, undefined concept. It is a set of values, practices, and skills learned over time: empathy, the courage to speak up and engage, and the practice of giving whether it be time, ideas, or money.
JCF serves as a platform for changemakers to be informed and strategic. We want you – altogether as a community – to make the greatest impact because you are connected and collaborative. One person’s actions amplify into group action, which turns into a mighty movement to address unmet needs.
2021 Community Impacts
- COVID Response & Recovery: Donors contributed an additional $245,000, 100% of which was allocated to local nonprofits, including $100,000 to arts and culture organizations.
- Affordable Housing: Anonymous donors worked through JCF to provide $100,000 to Peter’s Place emergency shelters and $70,000 to Housing Solutions Network and its Share Our Spaces campaign.
- Racial Justice: Black Lives Matter and Jefferson Land Trust connected through JCF to support the start-up of Usawa Consulting and their new 16-week Racial Justice Literacy Workshop in which over 20 local nonprofits participated.
- Economic Development: North Olympic Development Coalition and local makers came together through JCF to explore a new Creative Entrepreneurship Network, to find ways we might build our economy back with less dependence on tourism and higher wage jobs for the next generation.
- Education: When Chimacum and Port Townsend school districts wanted to explore ways they could deepen collaboration and find efficiencies, JCF funded the project.
Support JCF!
Why Support JCF?
Jefferson County is home to a creative and vibrant community. Our proximity to verdant lands, sea, mountains, and fields lends itself to an economy driven by artists, craftspeople, farmers, and makers. We are however experiencing growing, critical challenges to our way of life: a shrinking workforce; a shortage of affordable, permanent housing; a lack of opportunities for youth and support for families.
To preserve all that we love about our home and ensure a future in which all who live here can thrive, we need more than independent acts of charitable giving. We must cultivate a network of changemakers, collaborating on strategic and cumulative impacts. Jefferson Community Foundation facilitates these connections and furnishes our partners with the information and resources necessary to impact acute and lasting change.
Jefferson Community Foundation is funded primarily by people like you who understand that having a central means of connecting—across issues, sectors, geographies, and traditional divides —makes a stronger, more resilient community better able to navigate uncertainty and weather crisis.
By giving to JCF, you are supporting:
- Increased capacity to serve and connect all 30,000+ residents of Jefferson County to meet crises head on and navigate systemic issues with collaboration and innovation.
- A landscape knowledge of needs and opportunities that results in greater cumulative impact by all residents.
- A centralized resource for philanthropic insights and strategies.
- A strong JCF with effective systems, efficient operations, and a culture of equity, accountability, and hope.
How to Support JCF
Your donation of any amount is greatly appreciated and can be made easily online, by mail, or in-person. You may also choose to setup a recurring monthly or annual donation to support JCF.
Meet JCF’s network of Community Builders & Community Investors
If you would like to make a multi-year pledge, become a JCF Community Builder!
Community Builders pledge between $1,000 to $10,000 per year for five years. Now more than ever, JCF needs to remain responsive to connect people who care with causes that matter in Jefferson County. Thank you for supporting JCF!
