Introducing the Mississippi Mills Community Fund
As “Giving Tuesday” draws near on December 2, your gift to Mississippi Mills charities strengthens our community. Giving Tuesday is an opportunity to give back, and we encourage everyone in Mississippi Mills to give before the end of the year to realize any tax benefit.
As I reflect on the power of community, I recall having had the privilege of driving John McKnight on a four-day speaking tour across Eastern Ontario roughly 12 years ago. What I thought would be a simple job quickly became a master class in community development. John, who passed away in 2024, is fondly remembered as a professor at Northwestern University in Chicago, and more widely as the father of Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD). His approach focuses on the strengths and resources a community already has, rather than on its needs or deficits.
He was well into his eighties when we spent this memorable time together. I drove and asked questions, and John shared his wisdom. During the civil rights era in the fifties and sixties he helped southern Black families who left the mechanized farms to find work in the factories around Chicago.
At one point he worked for the John F. Kennedy administration as one of the architects of the Affirmative Action Program. He was there, just a few rows back at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, when Martin Luther King gave his “I Have a Dream” speech.
As we drove shoulder to shoulder across Eastern Ontario, he taught me what community really means, and how abundant life is when everyone shares their gifts. That government systems are well conceived, but the strength of a community is down in our neighbourhoods, on a personal level. Communities are safer when neighbours know neighbours, not simply when there are more police. They’re healthier when residents aren’t lonely, because hospitals can’t cure loneliness.
He defined the key aspects of ABCD as seeing that communities are often viewed through what they lack (needs, problems, deficits) — whereas ABCD starts with what people can do, what gifts and capacities they already have. These “assets” are the resources that already exist in the community — human talents, local associations, institutions, and physical places — all of which can be mobilized for positive change. “What do we have?” and “What can we do with what we already have?” are the questions it starts by asking. He reminded me that when we trust in a community’s gifts and its ability to act, that trust itself becomes a catalyst for change.
Here in Mississippi Mills, dedicated volunteers have come together to create the Mississippi Mills Community Fund (MMCF). This fund has been created with these same principles in mind — that we are an abundant community, one that truly cares for and supports all its residents.
The MMCF is currently building an endowment — a fund where the capital is invested, offering a return that gets granted into community initiatives which in turn help the town to be the best it can be. The larger the endowment, the greater the impact for the community. MMCF receives back-office support from the long-standing Ottawa Community Foundation. They help by investing the endowment of the MMCF and offering charitable receipts to donors of our fund. Their volunteer investment team, consisting of leading Canadian economists, manage annual returns (up to 15% in recent years). It’s a partnership that gives us strong financial stewardship while keeping the focus local.
The MMCF complements the work of other community charities. Its objective is to build a new legacy endowment that will keep giving back for generations to come.
In September, The Hub (Almonte Community Coordinators) supported the MMCF endowment by committing an incredible $25,000 — five thousand dollars a year over five years. This generous donation helps to kickstart our endowment and our current campaign goal of $50,000.
In John McKnight’s spirit, we can see every day that Mississippi Mills is an abundant community.
The Mississippi Mills Community Fund rests on a simple belief: when neighbours share their gifts, the whole community thrives. Join us in building an endowment that will keep giving back to our community year after year. You can learn more and donate online today at mmcommunityfund.ca.