Welcome to the fifth edition of the President’s Report. In this edition I will highlight some of our recent accomplishments and aspirations. We held off releasing reports during the global pandemic to spare your inbox. Now that we seem to be safely through it, we thought you might like an update. To learn more about the Beveridge Family Foundation, please visit www.beveridge.org. Descendants of Frank Stanley Beveridge should be sure to read the “Bev Bucks” section near the end of this report.
Welcome Our Newest Board Members
In October 2020 the Board welcomed Fred Palmer and Henry Du Pont as new directors. Both had been regular submitters of Bev Bucks requests and showed continued interest in the Foundation’s work.
Recent Grants
At the April 2024 Board meeting, we authorized $667,500 in grants to a variety of organizations in Western Massachusetts. Following is a clickable list of the grantees with links to their websites so you can learn more about our wide variety of interests and the outstanding work done by these dedicated organizations.
Boys & Girls Club of Greater Westfield
Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts
Friends of Springfield Preparatory Charter School, Inc.
Hampden County Bar Foundation Inc.
International Language Institute of Massachusetts
Irish Cultural Center Inc. of Western New England
Music and Poetry Synchronized, Inc
Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts
School for Contemporary Dance & Thought, Inc
Special Olympics Massachusetts
Racial Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (REDIB) Statement
Over the many years since our founder, Frank Stanley Beveridge’s time, the Foundation has seen the pain and harm caused by pervasive racism, prejudice, and lack of humanity. We seek to continue to follow his examples of treating people with respect. While many of MR. Beveridge’s principles of social justice remain the same, the language is ever changing. We have been working to update our understandings, communications, and interactions to better align with current realities.
In April the Board of Directors adopted a statement of the Foundation’s commitment. You can read that statement here.
Stanley Park Welcomes New Executive Director
Stanley Park of Westfield benefited from the devoted leadership of Robert McKean as its Executive Director. Bob retired at the end of the 2022 season and we are pleased to welcome Victoria Connor to the role. Vicky comes with a strong record of service managing the parks and recreation for neighboring West Springfield.
Stanley Park is the perfect place for a walk, playtime for the kids, family events like weddings and reunions, or a nonprofit event. Contact the Park office to book your event now. We keep the costs low and there is plenty of parking, restrooms, and a commercial kitchen in the pavillion.
Alternative Revenue Repeat Survey Results
In February 2018 the Beveridge Family Foundation, Inc. (“the Foundation”) conducted a survey of prior grant applicants. The topic of the survey was alternative funding streams. Out of roughly 400 valid email addresses, 190 responses were received. A brief review of the results follows was released then.
In 2018, workshops on some of the methods were held to garner interest in working to learn and implement the techniques. Attendance at the workshops was high, but few signed on for further work. Rebecca Coolong of the Human Service Forum canvased members to understand why so few of those who attended workshops on the various methods for alternative funding, declined to then sign up for cohorts to continue the work of learning, planning and implementing an individual method. The prevailing answer was a lack of belief in the underlying problem statement. Most believed that traditional methods of fundraising would be sufficient for the needs of their organization.
Five years later we repeated the survey with the intention of seeing what had changed. We enjoyed a continued high response rate. Comparing responses by the 111 individuals and organizations who completed each edition, five years apart showed that extensive cost recovery and program revenue showed increases in implementation while all other areas were statistically unchanged. Government Funding was received by over half the respondents. Few reported having initiated new efforts in any of the seven alternative funding methods.
Many area nonprofits operate with a scarcity mindset. The resulting risk averse behavior and reduced staff compensation in such an environment is holding back their ability to serve a broader community. We continue to seek ways to safely lead them to a position of abundance.
CatchaFire
For the last few years we have partnered with the Human Service Forum, The Community Foundation of Western Mass and the Davis Foundation to provide local nonprofits with access to CatchaFire. CatchaFire pairs talent available for pro-bono assignments with organizations expressing a particular need. To date, over $700,000 worth of projects have been completed at no cost to 72 local nonprofits. Learn more at http://www.humanserviceforum.org
Impact Investing
As of April 30, 2023, the investment value of the Foundation was near $62 million. The assets remain prudently invested 
among common sectors under the guidance of UBS. We would like to use our investment dollars towards advancing our mission in the community. To that end, we invested in Community Capital Management and the Wellspring Harvest Greenhouse in 2017 as our first impact investments.
Since then we have continued to investigate opportunities to make wise investments in Western MA. We have multiple investments in the locally-focused Alchemy Fund. Alchemy combines typical venture capital techniques with experienced managers to mentor local firms to help them reach their potential. With fewer investors in Western Mass, their seed funding is very much in demand allowing them to select likely successful ventures. Our initial investment in late 2021 is already showing a significantly positive return.
At our April 2024 board meeting we agreed to make direct investments in Working Fields and Elateq. Working Fields is a staffing company providing enhanced support for job seekers to address systemic barriers. We are supporting their expansion into Springfield.
Elateq is a wastewater treatment company born out of the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. There are many competitors in this space, but we are impressed with the low power requirements for their patented methodology as well as their strong initial success in sales and strong pipeline of new business.
All our impact investments go through a straightforward process that begins with conversations with our President leading to the completion of an application on our website. The site describes our basic requirements: https://www.beveridge.org/impact_investments/
Once the application is received, our Investment Committee reviews the application and notes from conversations. The members then complete a scorecard to rate the potential investment for numerous factors:
- Impact
- Impact Measurability
- Geography
- Community Priority
- Financial Return
- Project Plan Strength
- Financial Condition of Investee
- Investee Capacity
- Underwriting Standards
- External Conditions
- Foundation Efforts
Those scoring well are then sent to our third party underwriter iiiQ for a rigorous review. The underwriting report is then reviewed by the Investment Committee to form a recommendation. If recommended, the full board of directors is consulted and votes on whether to fund the opportunity. If they are in favor, then our legal counsel takes over, working with our President to negotiate the final terms of the investment.
The process is quite rigorous and our most recent turns through took considerable time, mostly due to the need to bring on a new underwriter. With iiiQ now in place, we expect future opportunities to move more steadily. It is our hope to grow the impact investment portion of our corpus to 5% of the total value and to partner with our peers in the region to grow the local investor pool, which should foster further economic growth in the region.
Pioneer Valley Data Collaboration
The Beveridge Family Foundation is one of several major funders in Western Mass. Together we seek to improve our decision making and priorities. We are pleased to join with our peers in an effort to better utilize data in our decision making, and to make data more available to the community for the improved detection and analysis of issues. Pioneer Valley Data is the result of those efforts. We are thankful to the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission for taking on much of the work in assembling and presenting the data, and to working with the man constituents in determining the prioritization of which data to assemble. 
Please register here to attend a public training on the use of the website on June 20, 2024 and 10 am.
Bev Bucks
At recent board meetings the Board was pleased to review Bev Bucks applications from Coco Palmer, Louisa Palmer, and Caleb Palmer. We are thrilled to see this initiative grow.
If you are a descendent of Frank Stanley Beveridge, please check out the Next Generation page on our website: https://www.beveridge.org/about/nextgen/
As a descendent of Frank Stanley Beveridge, you can make a pitch for “Bev Bucks” to kick in and help your chosen charity. All you need to do is to write a short appeal for the organization.
Include the following:
- Your name
- You email address
- The Name of the Organization you want to see given a grant
- Their address
- A contact person with their name, phone number, and email address.
- Their mission
- Why it is important
- What it means to you. Be sure to mention if you are involved with them, and how.
- If you are also sure of their Employer ID Number (EIN) please include it.
A personal connection is always a good touch. Email it to me at caswell@beveridge.org and I’ll get right back with you.
The deadline for submissions for consideration this fall will be October 1, 2024. There is a limited pool of funding available, so do your best to make a case for your favorite non-profit.
Thank you for reading through this update. As always, we hope to hear from you. Be sure to check out www.beveridge.org for more information about the history and mission of the Beveridge Family Foundation.
Regards,
Ward S. Caswell
President
The Beveridge Family Foundation, Inc.
caswell@beveridge.org
Thanks for the positive updates Ward!
Thanks, Ward for sharing the Spring 2024 report. I’m impressed with the range of BFF’s range of interests in Western Massachusetts and the foundation ethos you cultivate. Mr. Beveridge would be proud of your stewardship.
It’s good to read this overview from you, Ward. I am encouraged by the increasing number of nonprofit investments the foundation is making. I wish you success in contiuing that trend.
It’s good to see the great things that continue to happen due to the generous grants from the Beveridge Family Foundation.
Thanks for all you do!
Best Regards,
Wow, what a great list of local Western MA non-profits that received grants. Truly amazing work. Thank you Ward and the Beveridge Foundation for your continued support of all these special causes that need funding. I am in awe of your generous support. Be well all.
So much good. Thank you to all!