Every community has organizations that show up and offer help when things go wrong. They help make the moments of crisis manageable, the moments of need visible, and the moments of generosity possible. In Bellevue, that organization is the Bellevue Community Foundation.
Board member and former board chair Sheri Wiener has been part of the foundation's story for a long time. Wiener shares the history and the organization's primary focus and initiatives.
The Bellevue Community Foundation, originally called the Bellevue Community Fund, traces its origins to what Wiener describes as a remarkably human moment from the 1990s. A woman in the community lost both her husband and her daughter in a car accident. Her son was injured and was never quite the same afterward. Unable to afford to remain in her home, she needed help.
The community found out. And the community responded. "They facilitated enough money that they bought the house from her," Wiener says. "They allowed her to stay in the house until they had to move to a different living situation. And then they held onto the house and sold it."
The proceeds from the eventual sale of that house became the seed money for what would become the Bellevue Community Foundation.
Today, the Bellevue Community Foundation operates with a clear and practical mission: support the nonprofits and civic organizations that serve Bellevue directly, fund the initiatives that make a tangible difference in people's daily lives, and show up when the community needs it most.
One of its most consistent commitments is to the Bellevue Food Bank. "We support the Bellevue Food Bank, and we do drive up drop-offs every year, multiple times a year," Wiener says. "Whenever they call and they need something, we are Johnny- on-the-spot to help them."
The Foundation also co-hosts the long-running community recycle and drop-off event alongside the Exchange Club. It's a drive-up event that takes over the side lot at Bellevue Middle School to allow residents to drop off shredding, large items, and materials they can't easily dispose of through standard channels. The event dates back to at least the early 1990s and has continued ever since.
The Foundation also issues annual grants to nonprofit organizations directly connected to Bellevue that hold 501(c)(3) status and maintain a page on Giving Matters. "We are poised to provide every year a certain amount of dollars to the nonprofit organizations that are directly connected to Bellevue," Wiener says. Projects like the all-inclusive playground currently under development in the community can also qualify for funding as affiliate funds of the Community Foundation.
Wiener tells a story that has clearly stayed with her for years. A six-year-old girl named Amaya collapsed and died while playing hide-and-go-seek in her neighborhood. No church, no pastor, no funeral plan, no money. Her family had nothing.
Wiener made calls. She called the Exchange Club, the Chamber, her colleagues on Metro Council. She called the funeral home. She called Cross Point Church.
"I'm telling you, there wasn't one corner of the nonprofit, Bellevue and residents that didn't just jump right in," she says. "She had all these pink balloons at the funeral. We got clothes for mom, brother, aunt, and for Amaya. I mean, it all came together as seamlessly as it could for as bad as it was. People took food to the family. They got so much help. The school pitched in. That's who Bellevue is. And for me to share that with you still gives me goosebumps."
The Foundation's response to larger-scale emergencies has been equally impressive. During the catastrophic 2010 floods, Foundation representatives walked door-to-door alongside Metro Council members, distributing information, organizing community meetings with FEMA and the SBA, and coordinating relief efforts across the community. During two separate fires at the Slate apartments on Highway 70, the Foundation mobilized quickly, raising tens of thousands of dollars to distribute to displaced families, creating Facebook exchanges for furniture and clothing, and ensuring that no family fell through the cracks. "When Bellevue calls, Bellevue residents step up," Wiener says, "and they step up big."
The Bellevue Community Foundation is currently in a period of intentional growth. Wiener and the board are focused on expanding in two key directions: broadening the Foundation's base of active volunteers and community partners, and growing the endowment that will allow them to give more over time.
"We want to grow the number of people that are engaged in the foundation," Wiener says. "We need people that want to actively get involved in the doing piece of what we do." The Foundation is in the process of building a formal partner and friends group that will bring in a wider demographic of community members — both as volunteers and, eventually, as potential trustees.
On the financial side, the Foundation is beginning to actively promote life endowments — a relatively simple mechanism by which community members can designate a portion of their estate to the Foundation at no cost to themselves during their lifetime. "Part of my estate, I can do half a percent, a percent, 10%, whatever I want," Wiener says. "I can allocate it to the community foundation and it doesn't cost me anything while I'm alive. Once I'm gone, they've got this pot of money."
For anyone who wants to get involved, as a volunteer, a partner, or a donor, the best first step is reaching out through the Bellevue Community Foundation's Facebook page.
Facebook.com/bellevuefoundation
CFMT.org/communityleadership/affiliates/bellevuecommunityfoundation/