“What is the difference between your organization and the Mid-Shore Community Foundation?”
It is quite likely Linda Kohler has been asked that question over one million times since she started working at Chesapeake Charities in 2005.
Throughout her day as its executive director, she graciously points out the Charities early mission of working with individuals or small groups, mostly with no resources at all, to create organizations that serve the public good. And now, with close to one hundred nonprofits under the Chesapeake Charities umbrella, this story is compelling.
Yet, it is the other work of Chesapeake Charities that is equally impressive. Linda and her staff collaboratively work with those same organizations and others on mission delivery and funding.
A case in point has been Chesapeake Charities’ work with the United Way of Kent County. It took on a partner role with the United Way’s goal to identify the most serious challenges facing Kent County, and they successfully found funding for a professional assessment of needs. The results were four areas of major concern, including public transportation, generational poverty, senior care, and the implementation of Dial 211 public services hotline.
The Spy thought it would be interesting to drill down to the issue of public transportation as an example of this works. Now that the United Way could confirm that getting to work, to health care, to school, or a community center was a problem, the next step was to find transportation professionals to identify economically realistic solutions. And once again, Chesapeake Charities was there to help find the funds to do that critical first step.
This video is approximately five minutes in length. For more information about Chesapeake Charities please go here.
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