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23
William Jewell College, 1860s
Grou ndwork for a Civil Society
Even before the Civil War, philanthropy took root on the prairie.
The Town of Kansas, later renamed Kansas City, started in Westport and was
incorporated in 1850 – the same year William Jewell College in Liberty, Mo.
held its first class. One of the area’s first aid societies, the New England Emigrant
Aid Association, was an affiliate of the abolitionist movement that worked to claim
Kansas as a free state.
Earliest picture of Jewell Hall, 1860s
Late nineteenth century Kansas City experienced a depression in 1873, a flood in
1881, a real estate market collapse in 1889 and an extended depression in the 1890s.
Yet, by the end of the century, basic institutions for a civil society were in place.
The Jackson County Court (forerunner to the Jackson County Legislature)
allotted funds in 1853 to private parties to provide room and board for those who
couldn’t care for themselves.
In 1927, the Women’s Christian Association
purchased acreage on Wornall Road and built
the present Gillis campus facilities.
Early in 1870, twenty women met in a Christian Church at the corner of 12th and
Main to help “the needy and distressed of this new and struggling city.” In 1877,
the Women’s Christian Association (WCA) incorporated to legalize the governing
body of this service group. The “Working Woman’s Home,” relocated to land
donated by Thomas Swope and became “The Children’s Home.” In 1900,
Mary Gillis Troost bequeathed a portion of her estate to WCA under the condition
that the home would be called Gillis Home for Children.
All Saints Hospital, 10th and Campbell, 1885.
Later to be known as Saint Luke’s Hospital.
A Public Library opened its doors in 1873.
First building at Saint Luke’s
current midtown location, 1923
Currently part of Kansas
City University of Medicine
and Biosciences, this was
the home of Children’s
Mercy Hospital from
1917-1970.
24
Rev. William Leftwich helped establish a Young Men’s Christian Association
(YMCA) in 1860. A Hebrew Benevolent Society was founded in 1865.
The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet founded St. Joseph’s Hospital in 1874.
All Saints Hospital, now Saint Luke’s Hospital, was started by the Episcopalian
Church in 1882, and German Hospital, now Research Medical Center, was
founded in 1886 by the German Benevolent Society of Kansas City. Two sisters,
Dr. Alice Berry Graham, a dentist, and Dr. Katharine Berry Richardson, a
physician, began the Free Bed Fund Association in 1897, the precursor of
Children’s Mercy Hospital. Park University in Parkville, Mo. opened in 1875.
In 1880, community leaders founded the Provident Association –
today The Family Conservancy – to coordinate services for
the poor.
By 1880, 485 voluntary associations officially operated in
Kansas City. The Barstow School was founded in 1884 and
the Sketch Club, which became the Kansas City Art Institute,
in 1885. The Salvation Army came to town in 1886. Florence
Crittenton Home for unwed mothers, which today provides
behavioral health services to children and families as part of the
Saint Luke’s Health System, was founded in 1896. Marillac
began in 1897 as an orphanage for boys. The forerunner of today’s
United Way, the Associated Charities, was established in 1899,
as was the American Royal. The YWCA of Wyandotte County,
which became the YWCA of Greater Kansas City in 2001,
opened in 1901.
Vanderslice Hall, built for the August Meyer family
and purchased by Howard Vanderslice
in 1927 for the Kansas City Art Institute.
Groups focused on improving the lives of distinct ethnic
populations also began to appear.
During the 1880s, an African American bricklayer named Sam
Eason, concerned about the lack of services for black orphans and
elderly women, saved money to rent a refuge house, which in 1924
became the Niles Home. The Mattie Rhodes Center was started
in 1894 in the Westside by the friends of Mattie Rhodes, who
left $500 to the poor when she died at age 19. In 1897, a group of
Methodist women formed the Institutional Church, later renamed
Della Lamb Community Services, to provide child care for
Italian immigrant working mothers on the north side of the city.
years. A Catholic women’s club started the Guadalupe Center, the
nation’s first social service agency for Latinos, in 1919. The Urban
League of Greater Kansas City was also established in 1919.
Jewish Family Services of Greater Kansas City (JFS) began
in 1901 when five Jewish volunteer relief organizations came
together as United Jewish Charities (UJC). In 1919, to provide
indigent health care, JFS opened the Alfred Benjamin Dispensary,
which eventually grew into Menorah Medical Center. Benjamin
served as president of the board of directors of UJC for nineteen
The first meeting of the Commercial Club was held in 1887. In
1916, the Commercial Club changed its name to the Chamber of
Commerce. On February 14, 1972, in recognition of the metro
area’s growth beyond city limits and the Missouri-Kansas state
line, it changed its name to the Greater Kansas City Chamber of
Commerce.
The original Guadalupe Center building
on Southwest Boulevard – now Guadalupe
Centers Inc., with expanded focus on health,
education and social services for all ages.
25
Leadership for the New Century
During the early 1900s, private school education became a priority with the establishment
of the predecessor schools of the Pembroke Hill School. The Country Day School for Boys
was started by Vassie James Ward, mother of four and widow of Hugh Campbell Ward, in
September 1910 at the old Wornall home. She opened the Sunset Hill School for Girls in her
home in September 1913. Sunset Hill moved twice more – to 57th Street in 1914, a house just
vacated by the Country Day School, and then to its permanent location on 51st Street.
The Wornall House – first home of
Country Day School, which would
merge in the 1930s with the
Pembroke School.
By the turn of the century, a less transient population with strong roots in the city focused on
developing basic services such as hospitals, schools, parks and social services.
Vassie Ward’s home – the original Sunset
Hill School for Girls.
Original Menorah Medical
Center on Rockhill Road – a
place for Jewish doctors to
practice.
The Kansas University School of Medicine in Lawrence began as a one-year premedical course
in 1880 and then offerecd a two-year course in 1899. It became a four-year school on
April 21, 1905. In 1906, Dr. Simeon Bell donated the land and cash totaling more than $100,000
to establish the original Eleanor Taylor Bell Hospital, in honor of his wife. Other existing
hospitals built new structures and private philanthropy provided the resources to start Trinity
Lutheran Hospital in 1906, St. Mary’s Hospital and Independence Sanitarium in 1909, and
Menorah Medical Center in 1931. In 1908, on present day Hospital Hill, General Hospital
opened on land donated by Col. Thomas Swope. General Hospital replaced City Hospital. In
1976, the new Truman Medical Center opened on Hospital Hill replacing General Hospital.
Camp Fire Girls Heartland Council (now Camp Fire USA Heartland Council) was formed
in 1913, just three years after Camp Fire Girls of America was founded as the country’s first
nonsectarian organization for girls. The College of St. Teresa, now Avila University, opened as
a junior college for women in 1916 and Rockhurst College for men enrolled its first class the
following year.
General Hospital, 1908
The forerunner of Truman
Medical Center
In 1906, the Kansas University School of Medicine
moved to “Goat Hill” in Rosedale, at what
is now Southwest Boulevard and 7th Street,
Kansas City, Kansas.
26
William Rockhill Nelson’s newspaper, The Kansas City Star, promoted urban development
and reform as far back as the 1880s. Nelson’s daughter, Mrs. Irving R. Kirkwood, led the
formation of the original Kansas City Chapter of the American Red Cross in 1914. The
trust Nelson established in 1915 for the purchase of art plus his family’s estates and the
bequest of Mary McAfee Atkins culminated in opening the Nelson-Atkins Museum
of Art in 1933.
The Nelson-Atkins Museum
of Art, 1933
Col. Thomas Swope’s gift in 1896 of 1,335 acres worth $150,000 four miles outside
city limits created Swope Park and launched a tradition of philanthropic support
for the park system. The Kansas City Zoo opened its doors in 1909 with one
building on 60 acres. The original building is currently being renovated and will
reopen as the Tropics, an indoor rainforest, in May 2009.
The Helping Hands Institute was founded in 1894, providing food and housing
for destitute men, women and their children. The first Goodwill Store and
repair shop opened in 1925 in a church at 13th and Oak. In 1978 the two joined
forces and in 1986 the name was changed to The Helping Hand of Goodwill
Industries. The Boy Scouts were incorporated in 1910 with Kansas City Area
(Kansas City, Mo.) and Kaw (Kansas City, Kan.) Councils. In 1974 these two
Councils merged and became the Boy Scouts, Heart of America Council. Judge
E.F. Porterfields’ Juvenile Improvement club raised $60,000 to open the Boys Hotel
in 1912. The organization joined the Boys Club Federation in 1921, the forerunner of
today’s Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
The Kansas City Zoo celebrates
100 years in 2009
Early meeting of the Boys Hotel and
Boys Hotel Swim Team, 1912
An organization of 50 women in Kansas City, Mo. was granted status as a
Junior League in 1914. Bess Truman was an active member of the Bible study class that
started Community Services League of Independence in 1916. The Kansas City Association
for the Blind, now Alphapointe Associate for the Blind, was founded in 1916. In 1917,
Bishop Thomas Lillis merged several Catholic charitable institutions into a single diocesan
effort, Catholic Charities of Kansas City-St. Joseph. Girl Scouts began in Kansas City in 1923.
City Union Mission began serving poverty-stricken and homeless people in 1924.
In 1919, before the Armistice, pledges for $2 million were raised in 10 days, half to construct the Liberty
Memorial, the other half for the newly formed United Way campaign. Nearly 100 years later, in 2006 the
expanded national World War I Museum reopened on the site of the Liberty Memorial. continued
National World War I Museum
Dedication, 1926, left and
Liberty Memorial Site Dedication,
1921, above
27
It has been designated by Congress as the
Nation’s official World War I Museum.
continued
R.A. Long, Kansas City lumber baron and philanthropist,
spearheaded the drive to build the Liberty Memorial. Long’s
home in Kansas City, Corinthian Hall completed in 1911 and
Kansas City’s first million-dollar home, is now the Kansas
City Museum.
Arguably, from the last years of the nineteenth century
through the better part of the twentieth, no individual
had greater impact on the growth and character of
the community than William Volker. A window shade
manufacturer, Volker was an early supporter in the 1890s
of relief programs and hospitals. He was the founding
president of Kansas City’s Board of Public Welfare, the
first institution of its kind in the United States. Volker was
an early proponent for the establishment of an independent
community-sponsored university. In 1930, he donated
$100,000 to purchase land for the campus of the University
of Kansas City. Later, he donated additional monies to fund
operating expenses, a student loan fund and new buildings.
The University of Kansas City, which became part of the
University of Missouri in 1963, opened its doors in 1933.
In 1937, Volker transferred all of his assets to the
William Volker Charities Fund, which upon his
death in 1947 was worth $15 million. The
trustees – in a decision rarely seen among
more recently established foundations
– agreed to terminate the fund and
distribute remaining assets
during the next 30 years.
Bra nding Quality of Life
Post-war Kansas City saw the release of new philanthropic
energy focused on projects that would enhance “quality of
life” and the city’s image as “up to date.”
The idea of pooling trusts to create community foundations
emerged at this time. Upon the death in 1924 of Jacob
Loose, who with his brother Joseph founded the Sunshine
Biscuit Co., four Loose family trusts became operative.
Jacob’s nephew, Harry Loose, encouraged by Arthur Mag, a
prominent Kansas City lawyer, set up a flexible trust named
for his mother, Carrie J. Loose. Mag also played a critical
role in creating the Kansas City Association of Trusts and
Foundations in 1949. The first organization of its kind in
the country, it combined the resources of three Loose family
trusts and the Edward F. Swinney Trust.
Starting in the 1940s, particular needs amenable to
innovative solutions led to new organizations and programs.
Don Bosco Centers was created in 1940 by the residents of
Northeast Kansas City to provide recreation and education
programs for their children. Planned Parenthood established
a presence in the area in 1942. Wayside Waifs, Kansas City’s
oldest and largest humane society, started in 1944.
R.A. Long Home,
Corinthian Hall, now
Kansas City Museum
28
Fenby Webster helped
found Wayside Waifs.
The Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City in 1933 and
Jewish Vocational Services in 1949 originated in response to the
Holocaust and massive immigration that followed. The Jewish
Community Foundation of Greater Kansas City, incorporated in
1959, was established to create endowments to ensure the viability
of Jewish agencies and create reserves for emergency needs.
Seriously inadequate mental health care through the late 1940s
motivated private funders to establish the Kansas City Mental
Health Foundation, which transitioned over the next 20 years to
state operations. The Rehabilitation Institute opened in 1947.
The American Cancer Society was founded in 1948. The Spofford
Home, which opened in 1917, transitioned in 1943 from an
orphanage to caring for emotionally disturbed children.
Spofford, Gillis, the Ozanam Home for Boys founded in 1948,
Healthy Families Counseling and Support and Marillac joined
forces in 1998 to provide therapeutic care to children and families as
Cornerstones of Care.
Herbert and Linda Hall’s Home,
site of Linda Hall Library
Nine prominent businessmen, seeking to diversify the area economy
and stimulate more jobs, raised $500,000 in 1945 to start the
Midwest Research Institute (MRI). Trustees of Herbert F. Hall’s
$6.1 million bequest to establish an unspecified type of library
worked closely with the MRI founders to determine the need for
a scientific and technical library. Acquisitions for the Linda Hall
Library began in 1946, with the opening of a new building in 1956
and a major wing added in 1973.
American Humanics – a national alliance of colleges, universities
and nonprofits dedicated to educating, preparing and certifying
professionals to strengthen and lead nonprofit organizations – was
founded in 1948 with headquarters in Kansas City by former
Kansas City Mayor H. Roe Bartle.
Junior Achievement, a partnership between the business
community, educators and volunteers came to Kansas City in 1955.
continued
First Wayside Waifs Facility
29
The arts also grew stronger during and after the war years.
The Kansas City Museum of History and Science, now known as Science City at Union
Station, opened in 1940 and built the city’s first planetarium in 1950. Starlight Theatre, an
amphitheatre in Swope Park, opened in the summer of 1950. Its first show celebrated
Kansas City, Missouri’s centennial.
continued
Starlight Theatre, 1950
Jesse Clyde Nichols was instrumental in changing the physical landscape of Kansas City
through his development of the Country Club Plaza shopping district and the nearby homes
associations. He was a visionary developer whose philanthropy is evident today in organizations
like the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City Art Institute, University of Missouri –
Kansas City and Liberty Memorial.
Starlight Theatre,
2008 Season
University of Missouri – Kansas City
The Lyric Opera held its first season in 1952 and the Kansas City Ballet was founded in
1957. Under the leadership of Patricia McIlrath, the Kansas City Repertory Theatre began in
1964 as the Missouri Repertory Theatre. The Kansas City Philharmonic was founded in 1933.
Just months after its dissolution in 1982, it was re-established by R. Crosby Kemper Jr. as the
Kansas City Symphony. The Youth Symphony of Kansas City, founded in 1948, helped fill the
pipeline of talented musicians. A Kansas City Chapter of Young Audiences began bringing live
performances to area youngsters in 1961. Alvin Ailey brought his groundbreaking company to
Kansas City for the first time in 1968, a connection that grew stronger in 1984 when
Kansas City Friends of Alvin Ailey became the company’s second home.
In 1969, George E. Powell Sr., who with his son George E. Powell Jr. took ownership of Yellow
Freight Lines in 1952, donated the 640-acre tract of land which the Powell Family Foundation
later developed into a horticultural resource. Powell Gardens, Inc. was established in 1988 by
Marjorie Powell Allen.
Kansas City Repertory Theatre
Alvin Ailey’s last public appearance
at AileyCamp KC with Allan Grey in
background.
30
Powell Gardens, Chapel and Atrium
Health Care, Children & the Arts Take Center Stage
An explosion of medical knowledge, government aid and insurance in the 1950s and 60s
stimulated massive hospital building programs throughout the nation. Most of Kansas City’s
established hospitals at least doubled in capacity, with several moving to new locations.
Much of this development was supported by the Victor E. Speas Foundation, which
Victor Speas founded in 1947 from the wealth he developed since 1908 as manager of the
Speas Vinegar Company.
By the 1970s, Kansas City boasted a level of health care excellence comparable to most large cities,
including two major medical schools with university-affiliated hospitals. It also was the home
of the fourth community health center in the nation, the Samuel U. Rodgers Health Center,
founded in 1968 and housed in the Wayne Minor Housing Project. Minor was a black soldier
who died defending his country in World War I. Swope Health Services, originally named
Model Cities Health Corporation, opened a clinic in 1969 in the basement of Metropolitan Baptist
Church, the same year Seton Center Family and Health Services was started to help people in
the urban core break the cycle of poverty. The Westport Free Clinic, forerunner of the
Kansas City Free Health Clinic, opened in 1971.
Samuel U. Rodgers Health Center was originally
housed in the Wayne Minor Building.
Swope Health Services originally opened in the
basement of Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church.
In addition, organizations dedicated to finding treatments and cures for specific diseases
came into being.
Children’s Center for the Visually Impaired, 1952
Mid America Chapter of the Multiple Sclerosis Society, 1955
Epilepsy Foundation, Heart of America, 1961
National Kidney Foundation of Kansas and Western Missouri, 1967
Kansas City
Free Health Clinic
American Lung Association of Western Missouri, 1972
PKD (Polycystic Kidney Disease) Foundation, 1982
Good Samaritan Project, 1985 (housing for persons with HIV/AIDS)
SAVE, Inc., 1986 (advocacy, care and education for persons with HIV/AIDS) continued
31
continued
First family photo at their
new home made possible
by Heartland Habitat for
Humanity.
Volunteers at work on a
home for Heartland Habitat
for Humanity.
Social services also experienced significant growth in the 1970s.
Forty-seven Lutheran congregations in Kansas City established Metropolitan
Lutheran Ministry (MLM) in 1971 to minister to the poor, older adults and disabled.
MLM helped start Harvester’s Food Bank, now Harvesters – The Community Food
Network, in 1979 and Sheffield Place, which provides transitional housing for women
and children, in 1991.
Shepherd’s Center began in 1972 based on the principle of older people caring for each
other. El Centro was founded in 1976 to focus on the needs of Hispanic residents of
Kansas City, Kansas, as was Hillcrest Ministries, now Hillcrest Transitional Housing,
to address homelessness in Liberty, Mo. Hillcrest Transitional Housing now operates in
Clay, Eastern Jackson and Platte Counties and Kansas. An interfaith group established
reStart, Inc. to serve homeless persons in Kansas City in 1984. Community LINC
began its work with homeless families in 1988.
Habitat for Humanity Kansas City became the seventh affiliate of Habitat for
Humanity International, dedicated to eliminating poverty housing, in 1979. Kaw Valley
Habitat for Humanity was founded in 1987 and Habitat for Humanity of the Northland
in 1992, both of which became Heartland Habitat for Humanity in 2007.
Midwest Bioethics Center, Board Meeting with
Myra Christopher, far left, 1986
This house, donated to Hope House
by the RLDS Church, served as one of
its original shelters in 1974 housing 25
women and children.
32
Ethical concerns about health, health care and end-of-life issues led to the founding
of the Midwest Bioethics Center, now known as the Center for Practical Bioethics
in 1984.
The Metropolitan Organization to Counter Sexual Assault, known as MOCSA,
was founded in 1975 to lessen the ill effects of sexual assault and abuse. Emerging
awareness of victims of domestic violence and abuse led to the creation of several shelter
organizations.
The Rose Brooks Center was the first in 1978 when the family of Rosa Brooks donated
her home. Other domestic violence shelters, including SAFEHOME, Hope House,
Newhouse, Joyce H. Williams Center and SafeHaven, now serve the
metro area.
Concerns about children – especially children
at-risk, with disabilities or seriously ill – led to
the creation of new schools and programs.
Ronald McDonald House
on Cherry Street
Big Brothers Big Sisters
of Greater Kansas City, 1964
Wyandotte House
(now KVC Behavioral Health Care), 1970
Synergy House (now Synergy Services), 1970
Operation Breakthrough, 1971
TLC for Children and Families, 1972
Sherwood Center, 1974
Genesis School , 1975
Sunflower House, 1977
The Children’s Place, 1978
Ronald McDonald House Charities, 1980
Jackson County CASA, 1983 and CASA of
Johnson and Wyandotte Counties, 1985
In the late 1970s, local foundations and
corporations donated significant sums to the
Kansas City, Missouri School District to show
their support for the desegregation plan.
The opening of the $11.4 million Performing Arts
Center at UMKC in 1979 with the support of a
$2 million gift from the Helen F. and Kenneth A.
Spencer Foundation was, at the time, considered
a crowning achievement for the arts in Kansas
City. This gift, directed by Mrs. Spencer, was
one of many major gifts during her lifetime that
pioneered women’s changing role in philanthropy.
Other notable achievements in the arts and
education in the 1970s include the founding of
KCPT Channel 19 and The Learning Exchange,
the American Royal’s move to the new
R. Crosby Kemper Memorial Arena, and historic
preservation projects such as the Folly Theater.
During this decade, with support from local
individuals and foundations, Kansas City also
welcomed the national headquarters for
Camp Fire in 1977 and the
Fellowship of Christian Athletes in 1979.
Alan DuBois, Executive Director of
Genesis School, 1977-2008
The Wyandotte House
in Kansas City, Kan.
was the forerunner
to KVC Behavioral
Healthcare.
Folly Theater,
1900 and today
33
Phila
Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation
Philanthropy Gets Organized
The proliferation of nonprofit organizations and foundations in
the 1960s and 70s prompted the creation of groups to connect and
educate nonprofit leaders.
The Volunteer Center of Johnson County opened its doors
in 1970 to recruit and mobilize volunteers. In the early 1970s, a
group of fundraisers established a Greater Kansas City chapter
of what was then known as the National Society of Fund Raising
Executives, now the Association of Fundraising Professionals.
The group, which dissolved in 1974, was revived in 1983 as the
Association of Fundraising Professionals,
Mid-America Chapter.
In the meantime, several fundraisers founded a new group in
1976 which they called the Greater Kansas City Council on
Philanthropy. The Council, now known as Nonprofit Connect:
Network. Learn. Grow.SM is a membership organization that
links the nonprofit community to education, resources and
networking so organizations can more effectively achieve
their missions.
Also founded in 1976 were the Volunteer Coordinators’ Council,
which provides educational programs for volunteer managers
34
and others interested in volunteerism, and the Clearinghouse for
Midcontinent Foundations. The Clearinghouse was dedicated
to facilitating communication and cooperation among the
organizations, individuals and 250 foundations active in the area
at that time that provided or requested philanthropic grants in
Greater Kansas City. The Clearinghouse merged with Nonprofit
Connect in 2002.
One of the Clearinghouse’s lasting legacies is the Community
Foundation, which incorporated in June 1978. The foundation
was launched at a Clearinghouse conference, when seven civic
leaders passed the hat and collected $219.13 to start it. The
Community Foundation merged in 1986 with the Kansas City
Association of Trusts and Foundations to become the Greater
Kansas City Community Foundation. As of the end of 2007,
with more than $1 billion in assets under management, it ranked
as the eighth largest community foundation in the country.
Ewing Marion Kauffman established the Ewing Marion
Kauffman Foundation in the mid-1960s. When he sold his
company, Marion Laboratories, to Merrill Dow in 1989, the
foundation’s assets grew to represent 75 percent of all foundation
assets in the city at the time. Ewing Kauffman’s generosity to
the city was capped off by his donation of the Kansas City
Royals to the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation on
condition that the foundation keep the team in Kansas City with
proceeds from the sale to benefit local charities. His wife, Muriel
McBrien Kauffman, established the Muriel McBrien Kauffman
Foundation in 1987 to primarily support the arts.
In the early 1970s, the family of Kansas City banker
William T. Kemper established the Enid and Crosby Kemper
Foundation at UMB Bank and the William T. Kemper
Foundation and the David Woods Kemper Memorial
Foundation at Commerce Bank.
The Hall Family Foundation was founded in 1983 from the estates
of Elizabeth and Joyce C. Hall. Hallmark Cards also established a
corporate foundation.
In 1989, the Parker B. Francis Foundation, created by the founder
of the Puritan Bennett Company, merged with the Parker B.
Francis III Foundation to become the Francis Family Foundation.
Also in 1989, United Telecommunications Foundation, now Sprint,
started a corporate foundation.
Between 1975 and 1989, the number of Kansas City foundations
increased dramatically, from 224 to 411, while their assets grew
from approximately $250 million to $1.6 billion. In 1990, William
A. Hall, president of the Hall Family Foundation, gave a lecture in
which he described the previous several years: “As a community, we
have won the lottery based on our philanthropic bank account.”1
Hall was referring to the unprecedented number and size of new
area foundations.
Major changes in health care delivery have had a significant impact
on the community’s foundation landscape. In 1994, the Jewish
Heritage Foundation was founded with $29 million in assets from
the sale of Menorah Medical Center to Health Midwest. When
nonprofit Health Midwest sold to for-profit HCA in 2003, there
were several charitable foundations attached to the system’s various
hospitals. The Menorah Medical Center Foundation, which had $22
million in assets, became the Menorah Legacy Foundation. The
Research Foundation, formerly the fundraising entity for Research
Medical Center, also became a separate nonprofit. The biggest
impact of the sale of Health Midwest to HCA was the creation from
net proceeds of two new charitable foundations to improve health
care in the Greater Kansas City region. On the Kansas side, the
REACH Healthcare Foundation received $106 million and, on the
Missouri side, the Health Care Foundation of Greater
Kansas City received $425 million.
Other important additions to Greater Kansas City’s nonprofit
infrastructure in and around the 1990s include the University of
Missouri-Kansas City’s Midwest Center for Nonprofit Leadership
(MCNL) in the Department of Public Affairs in the Bloch School
of Business and Public Administration, the Arts Council of
Metropolitan Kansas City and Support Kansas City.
MCNL was established in 1991 to provide education and applied
research that complements the university’s degree-oriented
opportunities. MCNL’s Beth K. Smith Chair in Nonprofit
Leadership, established three years earlier, was the first endowed
chair for nonprofit studies in the world. The Arts Council, created
in 1999, has become a significant force in developing increased
public and business support for the arts. Since 2007, the Arts
Council’s ArtsKC Fund has distributed more than $1 million in
grants. Support Kansas City opened its doors in 2001 offering
professional and affordable administrative services for nonprofit
organizations.
J.C. Hall at Hallmark Cards
corporate headquarters. Their family
foundation continues to offer support to
Kansas City nonprofits.
Founding Board of Directors of REACH
Healthcare Foundation
35
Recent Trends
Several trends have influenced Greater Kansas City’s nonprofit sector over the past
two decades.
Foundations Remain Influential
It surprises many people to learn that foundation giving represents a relatively small
percentage of total giving. In 2007, for example, foundation giving nationally represented
only 12.6 percent of all donations while individuals gave 74.8 percent.2 One study
suggests that Greater Kansas City foundations give proportionately more than the
national percentage. The 1998 Report on Charitable Giving for Greater Kansas City noted
that foundation giving in 1997 represented 22 percent of the nearly $770 million Kansas
Citians donated.3
While the number and size of foundations that emerged in Greater Kansas City in the
1980s and 90s was unprecedented, growth appears to be leveling off. Between 1989
and 1996, metro area foundation resources more than doubled to $3.5 billion. By 1996,
more than 500 area foundations had been established. However, the Foundation Center
reported that, as of 2006, there were 453 foundations based in the Kansas City metro
area.
Nonprofit Numbers Grow
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
36
No. Orgs >$25,000
No. Orgs
< $25,000
% Total KC Orgs
Revenue
(billions)
% Total
Revenue % Total
KC Economy
6835
6871
7252
7336
7473
7612
7403
2108
2267
2333
2485
3141
3244
3257
2.8
2.8
2.9
2.9
3.8
4.0
3.7
9.6
11.0
10.0
8.6
10.0
11.2
11.0
6.5
6.8
6.2
7.4
7.7
8.1
7.2
13.9
16.35
13.44
12.28
13.04
14.36
13.71
In 2005, nearly 800,000 nonprofits nationally were registered with the IRS, about twice
as many as in 1990, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, which also notes that small
organizations with revenue of $25,000 or less account for most of the growth.4 Despite
9/11 and natural disasters, this upward climb continued steadily until the economic
recession that began in 2008.
The growth of nonprofits in Greater Kansas City reflected national trends, as illustrated
by data from the Midwest Center for Nonprofit Leadership’s (MCNL) annual “Kansas
City Nonprofit Sector at a Glance” reports.5 (The MCNL statistics do not include
religious congregations.) The year 2008 was the first year in more than a decade that
Kansas City’s charitable sector demonstrated a decline in both revenue and number of
organizations.
Professionalism & Fundraising Come of Age
Growth of professionalism within organizations delivering services as well as those
funding them is having a major impact on nonprofit management. Until relatively recently,
the primary requirement for leadership positions in nonprofit organizations was vision,
intelligence and some field of interest experience in social services, health, education, the
arts, public affairs or a similar discipline. Today, business and fundraising expertise are
increasingly prerequisite for leadership positions, particularly in larger organizations.
Fundraising, with the help of technology, has become increasingly multi-faceted. Twenty
years ago, seeking a major gift was typically a quid pro quo arrangement – you support my
cause and I’ll support yours. Today, sophisticated donors value organizations that are
transparent and accountable. Grantmakers emphasize collaboration. Fundraising has
become more strategic and stewardship more essential. Special events have proliferated.
Planned giving has developed slowly but steadily.
The Bloch Building at the NelsonAtkins Museum of Art is named for
philanthropists, Marion and
Henry W. Bloch.
Liberty Memorial
Capital campaigns, which used to almost exclusively raise funds for new buildings or
additions, now often include endowment and program components.
In 1976, the Clearinghouse for Midcontinent Foundations conducted a survey of “major
non-recurring fund drives seeking $50,000 or more,” which indicated that $54.8 million
would be sought during 1977 by 85 local organizations. In 1978, 109 organizations reported
planned fund drives totaling $78.4 million over the next two years.6 Seven years later, in
1985, the Clearinghouse survey revealed that 70 percent of 312 organizations planned to
seek more than $100,000 in private sector support totaling $67.6 million the following year.7
Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts
Most recently, a Nonprofit Connect survey in 2005 identified 22 ongoing $100,000-plus
campaigns totaling more than $184 million. This total did not include recently ended or
currently active mega-campaigns for the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Union Station,
Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Liberty Memorial and the Kauffman Center for the
Performing Arts.
37
Evolving Causes
As the way funds are raised has evolved, so have the causes that get attention.
The Central Exchange is housed in the
Central Fire Station at 10th and Central.
Girls in Win for KC
playing volleyball.
The movement towards separate women’s funds began nationally in the early 1980s
with the creation of the Ms. Foundation. The Women’s Foundation of Greater Kansas
City was founded in 1991 through the efforts of the Metropolitan Women’s Roundtable,
a consortium of some 30 local women’s organizations, and the Central Exchange. Its
mission is to raise, invest and grant funds to promote equity and opportunity for women
and girls.
Barnett Helzberg and
Tom Bloch,
co-founders of
University Academy
with a graduating
senior.
Tyrone Flowers of
Higher M-Pact with
President George W. Bush.
38
Over the past 25 years, new organizations were launched to address the needs of women
and girls. Marjorie Powell Allen and her friend Beth K. Smith were the driving force that
created The Central Exchange in 1980 to provide leadership development opportunities
for women. This same dynamic duo founded the Women’s Employment Network in
1986 to provide employment preparation and career transition programs to help women
achieve economic self-sufficiency for themselves and their families. The Women’s
Intersport Network for Kansas City (WIN for KC), which operates under the Kansas
City Sports Commission and Foundation, was established in 1994 to promote the lifetime
value of sports and fitness.
In the 1990s, the number one question in Kansas City was, “Is it good for the children?”
Partnership for Children, which introduced the question in 1997, was launched in
1991 as a joint initiative of the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation and Heart
of America United Way. Tyrone and Renee Flowers started helping high-risk youth
involved in delinquent activities in 1993 and incorporated as Higher M-Pact in 1998.
YouthFriends, a school-based mentoring program that began as a pilot in six area school
districts in 1995, now includes a network of more than 70 districts in Missouri and
Kansas. The Child Protection Center opened in 1996 to serve as a child-friendly, safe
place for children and adolescents who are alleged victims of abuse. In 1999, parents led
the effort to start Horizon Academy, which specializes in helping children with learning
disabilities. University Academy, one of the first schools in Missouri to receive a charter,
opened its doors in 2000 with generous philanthropic support from the Helzberg family
and other activists concerned about the education of the youth in our urban core.
Several organizations that seek to eliminate racism and
intolerance also emerged during this period. “Harmony in
a World of Difference” launched in 1989 as an 18-month
project dedicated to developing cultural competence and
leveraging diversity. In 1997, the Kansas City region of
the National Conference for Community and Justice (the
former National Conference of Christians and Jews)
merged with Harmony and is now known as Kansas
City Harmony. The need to teach the lessons of the
Holocaust to future generations led two survivors to
create the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education
(MCHE) in 1993. The Kansas City Anti-Violence
Project was founded in 2003 to provide information,
support, referrals, advocacy and other services to lesbian,
gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) survivors of
domestic violence, sexual assault and bias crimes.
Funds raised to fight specific diseases, such as HIV/AIDS
and breast cancer, set records in the 1990s. Angel Flight
Central, Inc., which arranges charitable flights for access
to health care and for other humanitarian purposes,
originally known as Wings Over Mid-America, was
founded in 1995. Susan G. Komen for the Cure came to
Kansas City in 1999. Lack of services to address the nonmedical needs of people living with serious or chronic
illness led to the founding of Turning Point – The Center
for Hope and Healing in 2001. continued
Midwest Center for Holocausst Education
Co-Founders,
Isak Federman, right and
Jack Mandelbaum, below
Bridging the Gap, which started in 1991 as a recycling
effort, grew into a coordinating hub for diverse
environmental projects. Greater Kansas City LISC
opened an office in Kansas City, Mo. in 1991, becoming
the first national community development organization
to provide capital investment and support to improve
metro-area neighborhoods. The Executive Service Corps
was founded in 1999 by a group of retired entrepreneurs
and business professionals who believed, as volunteers,
they could use their business knowledge to improve the
operations of nonprofit agencies in our community.
Disaster relief and international causes gained
prominence. WaterPartners International was founded
in 1990 to providing safe drinking water and sanitation
to people in developing countries. Heart to Heart
International began developing humanitarian programs
in 1992 that promote health and wellness today in more
than 60 countries including the U.S.
Nearly 25,000 participated in the
2008 Susan G. Komen
Race for the Cure®.
39
In the arts, 1990 saw the founding of the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival
when Tony-award winning producer, Marilyn Strauss returned to Kansas City from
New York. She partnered with the Kansas City Missouri Parks and Recreation Department to
produce a summer Shakespeare in-the-park experience which now draws over 30,000 attendees.
That same year, Buck O’Neil, legendary first baseman for the Kansas City Monarchs and
manager in the Negro Leagues, worked with other community leaders to start the
Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (NLBM).
continued
The American Jazz Museum, which showcases the sights and sounds of this uniquely American
art form, opened in the Historic 18th and Vine Jazz District in 1997 with the NLBM as a joint
tenant. In 1992 the Arts Council of Johnson County was formed. The largest contemporary art
museum in the four-state region, the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, opened in 2007
on the Johnson County Community College Campus in Overland Park, Kan.
Heart of America Shakespeare Festival
draws huge crowds to Southmoreland
Park for free performances every
summer.
First American Legion Team
Two co-founders
of the Negro
Leagues Baseball
Museum,
Buck O’Neil and
Don Motley
The Nerman Museum
of Contemporaary Art
40
Priorities and Choices
In 2008, Barack Obama’s presidential campaign raised
interest all around in the power of the Internet to mobilize
grassroots support. At the same time, Lehman Brothers
failed, the housing market collapsed, the stock market
swooned, the credit markets tightened and the nonprofit
community – along with everyone else – braced for a tough
road to recovery.
Still, philanthropy is about priorities and choices.
Should we support investments that may look uncaring but
will enhance the character of our community for generations,
or should we fund immediate needs?
Should we underwrite new programs and innovative ideas, or
should we provide operating support to maintain excellence
for proven programs and organizations?
Should we give large sums to few or smaller amounts
to many?
For 25 years, Nonprofit Connect has honored exceptional
philanthropists, businesses, volunteers and nonprofit
professionals who have built Greater Kansas City’s nonprofit
community and provided leadership in making these choices.
The tension choices create will always be with us, and maybe
that’s a good thing. Because the challenge to choose well is,
after all, what makes us human.
41
References
1. Second Thoughts on Philanthropy, lecture delivered by
William A. Hall, President of the Hall Family Foundation,
on May 3, 1990, for the Midcontinent Perspectives Lecture
Series.
2. Giving USA 2008, The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana
University.
Notes
The goal of this essay, written by Trudi Galblum
with research assistance by David LeFebvre, was
to provide an overview of Kansas City’s 150-year
philanthropic history. While we have attempted to
cite as many organizations as possible, we apologize
for any that have been overlooked. Special thanks
to David Boutros of the Western Historical Manuscript
Collection – Kansas City for his input.
Information through the mid-1970s for much of this
essay was derived from A Brief History of Philanthropy
in Kansas City, commissioned by the Clearinghouse
for Midcontinent Foundations and written by
Douglas Kingsbury with editorial oversight by
Linda Hood Talbott, Ph.D., published in 1980.
3. 1998 Report on Charitable Giving for Greater Kansas City,
Greater Kansas City Community Foundation and Affiliated
Trusts, in partnership with the Greater Kansas City Council
on Philanthropy and the National Society of Fund Raising
Executives.
4. “America’s Charity Explosion,” Chronicle of Philanthropy,
January 6, 2005.
5. “Kansas City Nonprofit Sector at a Glance,” Midwest
Center for Nonprofit Leadership at the University of
Missouri-Kansas City. View pdfs at http://bsbpa.umkc.
edu/mwcnl/research/RESEARCH.HTM.
6. “Survey of Fund Drives Planned for 1981 in Greater
Kansas City,” Clearinghouse for Midcontinent Foundations,
December 1980.
7. “Survey Sampling of Major Fund Drives Over $100,000
Planned for 1986,” Clearinghouse for Midcontinent
Foundations, December 1985.
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