In his Gettysburg Address of 1863, Abraham Lincoln eloquently expressed the hope “that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” During the 1991 recession, former Vermont Governor Richard Snelling told the legislature that a government “for the people” isn’t enough — the people need to be for the people, too. “The ultimate humanity we seek is not the task of government alone,” Snelling said, “but is the goal of a society in which both public and private efforts must go hand in hand.” With state budget deficits stretching into the hundreds of millions, and deep cuts on the way, his warning is perhaps even more pertinent today than it was 18 years ago.
So the question becomes, how can Vermont effectively encourage private philanthropists to give? Here’s one answer: an organization that educates people about the challenges facing Vermonters and their environment, connects philanthropists to nonprofit organizations, and manages charitable funds created by individuals, families, groups, organizations and institutions.
That’s a fair description of the Vermont Community Foundation, a philanthropic organization located in the former Masonic Temple in downtown Middlebury. With a staff of 25, it’s Vermont’s largest foundation in terms of asset size, ranking nationally among the top 10 percent of community foundations for total assets and gifts received. The VCF was founded in 1986; it gave out $12.6 million in grants in 2007, and ended that year with $140 million in invested assets. Local Motion founder Chapin Spencer calls it “Vermont’s secret weapon” and the place “where the horsepower is to create change and community in Vermont.”
Perhaps the easiest way to think of the VCF is as an umbrella organization covering 500 charitable funds dedicated to a wide range of issues, from Western classical music in Chittenden County to global warming and affordable housing. It’s the only community foundation in Vermont; the one source of guidance for Vermont-focused philanthropists who want to learn about local issues and maximize the impact of their giving.
In that way, the VCF repeats the pattern set by the first community foundation, which was founded in Cleveland in 1914 by Frederick H. Goff. Goff was a banker and a lawyer and the president of the Cleveland Trust Company. He had an idea to make philanthropy something more than an individual bequest in somebody’s will, to take that act of charity and combine it with others into a more powerful and permanent endowment for the city. Goff’s brainchild, the Cleveland Foundation, allowed community leaders to direct the interest from the trust to “such charitable purposes as will best make for the mental, moral, and physical improvement of the inhabitants of Cleveland.”
Today, there are 700 community foundations in the U.S., managing more than $40 billion in assets. They function on the same principle as the communities they serve: that more can be accomplished together than separately, and that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
Such a technocratic conception of community doesn’t appeal particularly to Peter Espenshade, vice president of community philanthropy at the VCF. To him, “community is an emotion you feel.”
Espenshade, 45, joined the VCF in 2007 after working for the Lake Champlain Land Trust for 12 years. In his kind, sonorous and slightly raspy voice, he points out that rural philanthropy has three hallmarks: It’s profoundly local (“You need to know what Isle La Motte is like,” he says); there’s a lot of anonymous giving, because people don’t want to be tagged in their community as overly wealthy; and there’s a “philanthropic divide,” meaning that, while Vermonters are certainly generous, the state doesn’t have the charitable capital of a metropolitan area.
When Espenshade talks about a direct experience of community — for instance, bringing his daughters to Cochran’s Ski Area in Richmond — his eyes gleam, and he nods enthusiastically. Cochran’s, a nonprofit ski area, epitomizes the benefits of a community spirit for Espenshade. It’s a place where his family knows other families, where he feels safe letting his daughters ski unsupervised for a couple of hours, and where people of all income levels can afford to recreate. In 2007, in fact, Cochran’s received a $10,000 Sustainable Communities Grant from one of VCF’s fundholders.
Part of Espenshade’s job involves helping others, including newcomers, get that same feeling of community. Not long ago, a cattle farmer from southern Vermont moved to Wake Robin, a retirement community in Shelburne. The farmer had been active in the sustainable agriculture movement and wanted to donate locally, but he didn’t know anyone in northern Vermont. Espenshade recalls him calling and asking, “What can you tell me about Chittenden County? What about the Visiting Nurses Association?” Espenshade worked with the farmer, met him in person, and got him connected.
Knowledge gathering and transmission is a big part of what the VCF does — and when information isn’t readily available, the organization seeks it out. Another donor called Espenshade to say she was interested in access to post-secondary education in Vermont. She started a fund for that purpose, and the VCF commissioned a study on the topic. Its researchers found that foster kids are at a distinct disadvantage when they reach college age, because they’re no longer wards of the state and have nowhere to go during holiday breaks. So the VCF used the donor’s money to create grants for foster kids going to college. It provides the students with a “portfolio of support services,” Espenshade says.
The VCF’s study got national press and the attention of the Lumina Foundation, an Indianapolis-based organization with a mission to increase access to higher education. The Lumina Foundation was so impressed by the research that it provided the VCF with a grant for a similar purpose.
Espenshade makes sure to ask out-of-state donors about their philanthropic motives, because they give him clues to why people see Vermont as a special place. He recently met with a representative from the Surdna Foundation, which is based in New York City and makes grants for, among other things, community revitalization and effective citizenry. It gave money to CCTV in Burlington for its Common Good program, which provides technical assistance and tools to Vermont nonprofits that want to reach more people. “Vermont,” the representative told Espenshade, “is an incubator.” In other words, Vermont is a small enough state that organizations can experiment with ideas and projects to see if they hold promise for broader applications.
Whether they come from in-state or abroad, assets passing through the VCF to Vermont nonprofits are pooled to maximize the return, and invested in low-risk equities and bonds. Donors can choose socially responsible investments if they wish, but all are set up for long-term gains. “We have perpetuity in mind,” says Faith Brown, executive vice president for finance and operations.
Brown is petite and outgoing, with short brown hair and enough energy to go from one meeting to another all day long, yet still appear refreshed and patient. She’ll remain the acting chief executive officer until Stuart Comstock-Gay takes the office in February. He’s currently working on increasing voter participation for a New York-based advocacy organization called Demos.
An important component of the VCF’s overall strategy is “mission investing,” which is defined as investing in funds and companies that don’t cross purposes with an organization’s mission — and in communities where it can serve that mission. The VCF accomplishes the first goal with socially responsible investments and shareholder activism (“proxy voting”), and the second by investing five percent of its total assets in Vermont organizations. Typical Green Mountain investments include community and housing loans, deposits with local banks and credit unions, and venture capital targeted at Vermont businesses. “This is a way to give back,” Brown says, “and it shows people they can come to us because of our knowledge of and connections to Vermont.” She adds that, even in this economy, the VCF’s in-state investments are up 2.6 percent over 2007.
By making prudent investments since its founding, the VCF has attained a reputation for trustworthiness. That’s why Chapin Spencer, founder and executive director of Burlington-based, human-powered-transportation promoter Local Motion, sought out the VCF more than a decade ago, when his nonprofit was just getting started. And that’s why Local Motion asked the VCF to manage its endowment, the Local Motion ACTIVE Fund. “They were the technical experts and hosts,” Spencer says of the VCF. “We never could have been as sophisticated about this without their help, since we’re a small organization.”
The VCF takes a lot of the administrative, financial and accounting burdens from individual nonprofits, freeing them up to focus on their missions. It also acts as a philanthropic advisor and networker for certain nonprofits. For example, VCF staff helped pick board members for the Permanent Fund, which was started by Stowe resident Rick Davis to improve the well-being of children and families in Vermont, by seeking out individuals with connections to the fund’s purpose. After operating for 10 years, the Permanent Fund can give some of its knowledge back to the VCF, which can then pass it on to others in the same field.
Brian T. Byrnes, former president and CEO of the VCF, has a name for this cycle of giving, networking and community building: In a message to the VCF’s mailing list last year, he called it “deep philanthropy.” Whether the philanthropy is deep enough to withstand an economic assault remains to be seen. Comstock-Gay, in any event, is optimistic. “Every institution has to assess the tidal wave of this economy,” he says. “I’m not worried about it; I look at it as a great opportunity.”
Think navigating the Shelburne Road rotary is hairy during rush hour? It’s nothing compared to the difficulties surrounding the potential redesign of the five-way intersection that ranks as one of Vermont’s 50 most dangerous intersections.
City councilors, residents, traffic-safety experts and bicycling and pedestrian advocate Local Motion are at odds over dueling plans. The differences in the designs — the first emphasizing pedestrian safety and reduced auto speed, the second allowing cars to travel faster at higher risk to walkers and bicyclists — are raising uncomfortable questions about whose interests take precedence: commuters, families who want to safely cross the rotary on foot or bicycles, or Hill residents concerned about increased traffic on their streets.
At stake is almost $1 million in federal funds the Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) has promised to the project. VTrans has made it a priority because of the rotary’s alarming accident rate: 53 car crashes between 2002 and 2007.
The first plan, called the single-lane roundabout, would merge Shelburne Road’s two northbound lanes into one as it approaches the convergence of Ledge, Locust, St. Paul and South Willard streets in Burlington’s South End. That would halve the speed of cars and narrow the pedestrian crossing from four lanes of traffic to two. This plan is preferred by Burlington’s Department of Public Works, Local Motion, many residents living near the rotary and the traffic consultants who worked on the plans.
The second plan, called the “hybrid,” keeps two northbound lanes on Shelburne Road moving faster than with the single-lane plan, although it would create longer waits for cars trying to enter the roundabout from St. Paul and Locust streets. It has support from CCTA, the transportation authority that runs the region’s public busses, as well as residents who are concerned about delays, problems pulling onto and off of Shelburne Road, and increased traffic on quiet neighborhood streets.
The hybrid plan also has the support of two of three Burlington city councilors on the committee that is charged with evaluating the designs. Clarence Davis (P-Ward 3)and Bill Keogh (D-Ward 5) are both on the Transportation, Energy and Utilities committee, or TEUC, that will make a recommendation to the city council. At a public hearing on December 4, Davis and Keogh said they support the second option, partly because of concerns about potential traffic delays and bus-route backups.
VTrans, however, isn’t sold on the proposal. The state agency previously expressed reservations that the plan, as envisioned, won’t sufficiently improve safety at the intersection to justify the cost.
Potential backups for CCTA’s Shelburne Road bus route is one reason TEUC is asking VTrans to reconsider its objections, said Keogh. The bus stop at Adams Court, just south of the rotary, may end up being eliminated if the single-lane plan creates delays, he said, citing a December 3 letter from CCTA to Burlington Public Works.
For an outside opinion, Seven Days called on traffic consultant Georges Jacquemart, a partner with New York-based BFJ Planning and the author of Modern Roundabout Practice in the United States. Although he’s not working on the redesign, he agreed to study the two competing plans.
“There’s no doubt the single lane is the best alternative,” Jacquemart said in a telephone interview. Since traffic is constantly moving into a roundabout, cars enter a “rolling queue” which may result in a rush-hour delay of five to 15 seconds, he said. But “it’s crazy to risk pedestrian lives because of this delay, and it’s not a delay that would cause cars to shift to other routes.”
Residents brought that up at a November 13 public hearing: If traffic slows on Shelburne Road, will some of those drivers divert to quiet Hill Section streets such as Prospect Parkway and Crescent Road? It’s unlikely, said RSG’s Mark Smith, who worked on the roundabout plans. “If the delay is less than 10 seconds, then why would you go three blocks out of your way?” he asked.
While the city awaits an answer from VTrans, there’s a concern the agency might direct the funds elsewhere, said Eleni Churchill, senior transportation planner for the Chittenden County Metropolitan Planning Organization, which funded and reviewed the study of the roundabout plans. In the meantime, City Councilor Andy Montroll (D-Ward 6), who chairs the TEUC, said he would like to see the committee consider a single-lane design built on the footprint of the hybrid, which would give the city flexibility if the single-lane plan creates traffic problems.
VTrans spokesman John Zicconi said there’s no deadline for the rotary project. But speaking theoretically, he said, if a city can’t decide what it wants, “then we’ll use money we have for other things.”
After it hears from VTrans on whether it will fund the hybrid, the TEUC will send its recommendation to the city council, which will then vote on which alternative it prefers. The council vote is likely to happen in January, Montroll said. Whatever the decision, many residents who travel on Shelburne Road each day hope the decision comes sooner rather than later.
“I want a safer way to cross,” said Hoover Street resident Leslyn Hall. “I worry about when we’re going to have the next fatality. “
A ride down Susie Wilson Road may be easier for drivers now that Lowe’s Companies Inc. has widened the road and added turning lanes – a condition of the store’s permit under the State of Vermont’s Act 250 development review.
But what has been an improvement for traffic flow has been anything but for bicyclists.
Michael Hechmer has been commuting by bicycle from his home in Westford to Fletcher Allen Health Care, where he works as a chaplain, for five years. He makes the 15-mile, 45-minute trip each way seven months out of the year. Given rush-hour traffic, he said it’s only 15 minutes longer to bike to work than to drive.
Susie Wilson Road is a critical connector on Hechmer’s way from Route 2A to Route 15. He figured the stretch would be challenging during the summer and fall as construction on the turning lanes was in full swing. And it was difficult, he said, aside from the fact that traffic moved more slowly during the construction period.
But he didn’t expect the work would usurp what was a serviceable bike lane of about 4 feet on both sides of Susie Wilson Road and leave nothing but a torn up sidewalk, that, even when it recovers, is not recommended for cyclists because it repeatedly intersects side streets and turning cars.
“When they finally got to painting the lines I realized I no longer had an identifiable shoulder,” Hechmer said. “Now it’s like riding on Route 15. There’s just no space for a bicycle.”
The previous four-foot bike shoulder stretched from Kellogg Road nearly to Route 15. As state and local transportation officials negotiated road improvements with Lowe’s during Act 250 review last year, they knew they would be squeezing cyclists in favor of automobiles.
“We acknowledged right up front that we would lose these bike lanes,” Essex Public Works Director Dennis Lutz said. “But with 25,000 cars out there, you have to make choices. This was a casualty of trying to fix the traffic and reduce accidents out there. Something had to give.”
The Act 250 process incorporated hearings seeking public input on the plan for Susie Wilson. Chapin Spencer, the executive director of Local Motion – a Burlington-area group that advocates for multi-modal transportation infrastructure – regrets not making the case for the bike lanes then.
“We struggle trying to be at all places all the time,” Spencer said. “We’ve worked hard to get county and state plans to be developed so this is just thought about as part of normal planning improvements.
“It’s not easy balancing all the modes,” he added, noting planners incorporated pedestrian crosswalks and sidewalks into the Susie Wilson Road improvements. “But if we can try to think about it up front it will be a lot easier than trying to retrofit it in the future.”
A retrofit is not likely to happen.
“The problem is we are at the limit of our right-of-way,” Lutz said. “We have no room to add bicycle lanes.”
The town plans to mark the right-hand lanes of the road as shared lanes with bikes and cars. That may not be enough for Hechmer. He’s considering alternate, if longer, commuting routes for the spring.
Sen. Patrick Leahy continues to position the Route 15 corridor at the receiving end of federal appropriations.
He funneled $1.6 million to Essex and Colchester last year to jump-start the proposed connector road from St. Michael's College to Fort Ethan Allen and support streetscape improvements from Susie Wilson Road to Five Corners.
Now he is working to secure an additional $3 million to be split between Essex Junction and the Town of Johnson about 30 miles to the east. His office has alerted the Village to expect one-third of the $3 million in 2009.
Leahy previously granted federal funds for the recently completed paving, lighting and sidewalk project at Five Corners.
"He is focusing on individual projects where the prospects for now are the best," Leahy transportation policy aide Greg Cota said. "Making sure that the corridor is welcoming, safe and attractive is important to Senator Leahy."
Essex Junction hired local contractor Donald Hamlin Engineering to put together a near-term and long-term wish list for Route 15 as it enters the Village from Winooski and Colchester. One of the first priorities will be remaking the entrance to the Champlain Valley Exposition.
Members of the Expo board have agreed to pitch in $80,000 to the Route 15 improvement pot. The Village has also pledged $80,000.
For now, the Village is working with $400,000 in federal money, the remainder of the $1.6 million earmark from 2007. The majority of the earmark – $1.2 million – went to Colchester and St. Michael's for the campus connector. Village and Leahy officials believe the budget will have to be increased to have a meaningful project for Route 15.
Village officials have been meeting nearly every week for about three months with engineer Rick Hamlin, members of the Expo board and Chittenden County Metropolitan Planning Organization officials to discuss Route 15. They presented plans during a Village Board of Trustees meeting last week.
With the amount of money available still up in the air, a phased approach was recommended. The Expo gateway, with plans including a new pedestrian entrance and bus turnaround, improved sidewalks and lighting and new signs, would be in the first phase.
"The CVE's frontage was the original thing that started this," Village Manager David Crawford said.
Other phase one ideas include creating a dedicated five-foot-wide bike lane from Susie Wilson to Five Corners, repaving and restriping lanes and improving the connection with West Street. The Vermont Agency of Transportation has plans to repave from Susie Wilson to the Expo next summer.
The Village also hopes to expand the work recently completed at Five Corners over the rise to Post Office Square.
"The idea is to carry that theme at Five Corners with better lighting and better walkways into the hills section," engineer Rick Hamlin said.
The longer term vision includes roundabouts at West Street and Post Office Square, a pedestrian/recreation path along portions of the railroad that parallels Route 15 and a trolley service running from Five Corners to downtown Burlington. Each phase, of course, would come with new costs requiring new federal funding.
BUS STOP -- Children at Waldorf School in Shelburne learned about bus safety during a special national Safe Routes To School program held on school grounds last week. Here, Bert Nubile, a parent of a Waldorf student, instructs youngsters about how to safely board and exit a CCTA passenger bus. The program presented at 50 schools around Vermont, was coordinated by Pam Mathews of Local Motion, a Burlington-based organization.
