In 1995, Chris Andersen became executive director of the newly created Lutheran Community Foundation (LCF), which differs from most other foundations in several respects. While the focus of most community foundations is a city, region or state, Minneapolis-based LCF covers the entire nation. LCF is also distinguished by its strong affiliation with a specific religious denomination, and its relationship with Lutheran Brotherhood, a national fraternal benefit society offering financial products and services.

LCF has grown rapidly under Andersen's leadership, having received more than $200 million in gifts, created more than 800 donor funds, and grown to a staff of 8. The foundation's donors are both Lutheran and non-Lutheran, and about 60 percent of its beneficiaries are Lutheran organizations.

Andersen was named chair of the Minnesota Council on Foundations' board of directors this year. He sat down with Giving Forum to discuss the intersections of religion and philanthropy, and the future of LCF, the Council and the grantmaking field.

Q: What was the impetus for creating the Lutheran Community Foundation?
A: The foundation was established to seize the opportunity of the generational transfer of wealth that's occurring across the country, and certainly within the Lutheran community, and to give Lutherans the advantages of working with a community foundation that focuses on a Lutheran mission consistent with their values.

Another impetus was the opportunity to create a relationship with Lutheran Brotherhood, so that when its representatives were addressing retirement and financial planning with their clients they could also offer charitable planning solutions. Also, because there are many Lutheran church bodies nationally, the foundation offered the opportunity to create a pan-Lutheran organization that responds to the common interests and concerns of Lutherans among the different church bodies.

Q: Your foundation doesn't fit the standard definition for community foundations, which have traditionally had geography as their main focus. Does this difference present you with any challenges?
A: It does. Where community foundations traditionally have all of their donors and benefiting charities within close proximity, we operate with donors and charities nationwide, so it's a challenge to create meaningful connections with them. This is typical for any national organization. But is also creates an opportunity to address issues that spill over geographic boundaries, and to replicate solutions nationally.

Q: When you get to the point of having unrestricted funds, how will you make your grantmaking decisions given your broad national focus?
A: We take seriously the model of a community foundation, and so we went to our community -- those who support us -- and asked for their input. We surveyed all of our existing donors in December 1999, to help us determine the funding priorities for the foundation. We had a tremendous 75 percent response rate. To keep the voice of donors current, all new donors also receive the survey.

Q: When do you expect to start awarding grants from your unrestricted funds?
A: We hope to start in the next one to two years, and we'll soon be starting a couple of initiatives that we hope will build our unrestricted funds. One is a workplace giving program through Lutheran Brotherhood, to solicit contributions that we'll grant regionally to Lutheran charities. And we're launching a charitable gift annuity program in April, with the proceeds benefiting our unrestricted funds.

Q: Do you think your organization is something of an aberration in terms of being a somewhat non-traditional form of philanthropy, or just the tip of the iceberg?
A: I think it is just the beginning, because it responds to a number of national trends. First, we are responding to the needs of the transients of the national population, who are growing in number, and their national interests. People don't grow up, live and die within one community anymore. They may be raised in one community, go to college in several other communities, start a family somewhere else, and change jobs to another community. Yet they keep the relationships to all the organizations that have benefited them in each community and in turn want to provide support.

I also think that affiliation-based organizations such as ours will become more prevalent. You can look at the history of giving, and often certain constituencies are left out. I don't say that because Lutherans have been marginalized in any way. But certainly foundations have had patterns of giving to organizations that they know, and a certain reluctance to give to faith-based organizations.

Q: What interconnections have you observed between religion and philanthropy?
A: I hope there will be closer connections. I think the two can compliment one another in the same way that the for-profit and nonprofit sectors are learning from each other. And nationally there's a trend to accept and understand spirituality in a way that's much broader than it has been in the past. People are looking for ways to integrate their spiritual selves with their community selves.

Faith-based organizations have always looked at charitable giving as "stewardship," whereas foundations see it as "philanthropy." I suppose it could be divided between "love of God" and "love of humanity," and yet they are so interrelated. Ultimately it may be the same thing, with different motivations bringing us to the same place.

Q: As the new chair of the Minnesota Council on Foundations, what role do you see the Council playing in the community in the coming years?
A: I hope the Council can be a convener, and look at ways in which the resources of its members can better connect with individual donors and other resources for the benefit of the community. I think the Council is in a good position to do this because it can mobilize its membership and has a lot of experience among its diverse membership.

Q: What issues do you see being particularly critical for the Council to address?
A: We have to look at serving an increasingly diverse membership, and to be a leader in the effective use of communications and technology in the field. We also need to understand and respond to the changes in philanthropy. New models of philanthropy are emerging, demographics are changing, and there are different patterns for giving in recent generations, and we can't expect that the new patterns will mirror the old.

For more information on the Lutheran Community Foundation, visit the Web at www.theLCF.org, or call 612.340.4110, 800.365.4172.

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