Nearly seven months after a devastating tornado touched down in Gaylord, the Otsego Community Foundation has continued to support its community in navigating recovery efforts while supporting its nonprofit partners and addressing other essential needs within the community.
The Otsego Community Foundation (OCF) continues to support its community as it works to recover from a devastating tornado that touched down in Gaylord nearly seven months ago.
The EF3-strength tornado killed two people in the community and left more than 40 people injured, over 30 businesses impacted and over 200 homes damaged.
Dana Bensinger, executive director of OCF, is sharing updates on how OCF has navigated immediate, short-term and long-term tornado recovery efforts, supported its nonprofit partners and addressed other important needs within the Gaylord community.
Bensinger shared that the Gaylord Long-Term Recovery Group (LTRG) has supported OCF’s balancing of tornado recovery work and other efforts of the community foundation.
The group's mission is to have a collective voice as the community recovers.
The LTRG is made up of six subcommittees comprised of many community members including nonprofit and government leaders and volunteers. The committees are focused on supporting:
“We’ve invested $900,000 in grants for our nonprofit partners and another nearly $300,000 allocated for survivor unmet needs,” Bensinger said.
Bensinger shared that through the LTRG after tornado survivors meet with case managers, the case managers identify their needs in the community and bring them to the unmet needs table.
In addition to the LTRG, Bensinger shared that hiring a disaster recovery coordinator has been a game changer.
“We have slowly gotten back to addressing other important needs in the community. We’ve used some of what we’ve learned through tornado response to help move our grantmaking strategies,” Bensinger said.
Bensinger shared that through these efforts, the community foundation’s relationships with their community partners have been enhanced and presented opportunities to connect and collaborate with new partners.
OCF has supported and collaborated with local nonprofits including:
The Tornado Relief Fund (TRF) was established shortly after the tornado hit to provide a centralized opportunity for donors to invest in disaster relief efforts and a support mechanism for nonprofit organizations responding to the crisis.
The TRF has raised over $1.6 million to support collaborative work with the nonprofit, government, philanthropic and private sectors to accelerate recovery for a thriving, resilient and even stronger Gaylord.
“My biggest concern for our community as a whole right now is many of our nonprofit partners are still focused on supporting the tornado and haven’t been able to fundraise for their mission,” Bensinger said.
According to Bensinger, OCF was in the beginning phases of a campaign to increase the community foundation’s unrestricted assets, which she shared is more important now than ever.
“It’s a reminder of how valuable unrestricted funds are for community foundations. Our strategy now is to build unrestricted funds so we can not only respond to disasters but be proactive and capitalize on opportunities for our community,” Bensinger said.
Bensinger shared that since the tornado hit, OCF has received support from surrounding communities as well as from CMF’s community of philanthropy.
According to Bensinger, CMF member, the Barry Community Foundation provided a generous grant to support OCF operations and Charlevoix County Community Foundation, another CMF member, supported OCF by assiting them with their 2021 annual report while the community foundation was actively navigating the tornado.
As CMF reported, CMF members Midland Area Community Foundation and the Community Foundation for Northeast Michigan provided support at the onset of the tornado.
OCF was able to apply for a grant from CMF’s Community Foundation Endowment Fund, which provided the opportunity for OCF to connect with experts in the field to help sort and prioritize its strategic plan.
Through the grant, OCF engaged with Regina Pinney, executive director of the Nonprofit Network.
“Before the tornado, we were working on several larger projects, but with the increase in our grantmaking due to the tornado, we realized we had to take a different look at how we’re going to do work in the future. It was so helpful to talk through these challenges with a professional,” Bensinger said.
Bensinger shared that the tornado has shined a light on the strengths of the community but also on areas that need improvement.
“Challenges previously only visible to those in the trenches are now visible to many more. The increase of awareness has sparked new engagement, and that is encouraging.” Bensinger said.
Want more?
Learn more about OCF’s tornado response efforts.
Learn more about the Otsego Community Foundation’s Tornado Response Fund.
Read Ask CMF’s new resource, Frequently Asked Questions About Disasters, in the Knowledge Center. This resource is intended to explore frequently asked questions involved in managing disaster funds, specifically issues of concern to private foundations, community foundations, corporate foundation/giving programs and other public charities that manage grantmaking.
