After a decade of dedicated service to Newaygo County and the surrounding region, Carla Roberts, president and CEO of Fremont Area Community Foundation (FACF) is retiring in October.

CMF sat down with Roberts to learn more about her experiences as a leader in Michigan philanthropy and the evolution of the community foundation.

During her tenure, the community foundation moved towards strategic grantmaking to reach FACF’s goals. FACFs focus areas include increasing postsecondary education levels, reducing poverty and enhancing median income while maintaining unemployment at or below the national average. 

“All of those things are about economic mobility and creating an environment where people can prosper and move forward. We’ve been very intentional about our grantmaking and increasingly becoming more strategic over the last 10 years,” Roberts said. 

One outcome of the community foundation’s more strategic approach was higher levels of understanding and engagement from donors. 

“When I arrived, the trustees indicated that they wanted to enhance our impact in the community,” said Roberts. “In our most recent donor perception report conducted by the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP), 43 percent of our donors responded to the survey—a fantastic response rate. Our foundation also ranked highest in the CEP database of 80 foundations across the country for how our donors ranked our visibility and impact in the community. That tells me our work is making a difference. I’m proud of the efforts and relationships that have led us to this point.”

Roberts was deeply engaged with CMF through her role as one of the inaugural co-chairs for the Rural Philanthropy Affinity Group (RPAG), helping to set the vision and goals for the group and encouraging other rural foundation members to engage in that space.  

She also planned and even hosted one of the RPAG meetings to ensure members had access to learning from experts and the opportunity to engage with their peers.

Roberts has always been an insightful leader, helping to inspire and support other CMF members especially her community foundation peers. She is a nationally recognized expert on community foundations, leadership and rural matters. 

In the last 10 year under Roberts’ leadership, FACF has almost doubled their assets.

“That is substantial growth especially in an area like ours that does not have a high degree of individuals with a higher net worth. We’ve taken the tools that we already had in place and brought them to the forefront in new ways,” Roberts said.

Roberts shared that one of the greatest impacts she has seen hasn’t come from dollars but from the convening role of community foundations. 

“We’ve really capitalized upon that tool to move forward on the strategic goals by bringing people together. Our community has done things like create a college access network where there wasn’t one before, changing the tenor of local conversations from not whether a young person should be pursuing a post-secondary education but how they are going to do it,” Roberts said. 

Roberts shared several other initiatives in education, tourism and small business support that came as a result of their convening efforts.

“A lot of these things were not in place and it came about by bringing people together and talking about what the issues were, what the potential solutions were and helping them where we needed to step in and help them,” Roberts said. 

FACF was featured in CMF's 2019 Rural Philanthropy Video Series for their impact investing work to support small businesses. 

Over the years, the community foundation has grounded their work in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). FACF took the lead on hosting critical community conversations in Newaygo County through their Stronger Together Series.

These events aimed to create a safe space for honest conversations about identity, difference and belonging in the community. 

CMF’s Impact Connected Series highlighted the conversations hosted by Roberts through FACFs Stronger Together Series. FACF partnered with the Michigan Humanities Council to host “Beautifully Different,” the first event of the series. 

During the conversation, authors from Newaygo County reflected on their experiences growing up in the community as Black and white men. 

“I think we’ve learned that patience and tenacity are two of the key things that we have to bring to the table when we want to engage in DEI work,” Roberts said. “Newaygo County is predominantly white, it doesn’t work well to just start talking about diversity and inclusion, in a lot of ways you have to help people have experiences.”

One of the first things FACF did on their DEI journey, Roberts shared, was to ensure that there was more diversity among trustees and staff. 

Roberts said that FACF’s path to greater inclusion has been slow but tenacious. 

“We’ve found that as we’ve stepped into this space that we’re attracting others who are also working in this space and they have been helping show us the way. Right now, it just feels like we’ve laid the groundwork and we’re just getting started,” Roberts said. 

One of the key aspects of the DEI journey Roberts wants others to consider is that diversity is an economic driver and can lead to positive economic impact upon communities. 

Roberts shared that the evolution of FACF has been a process of constant and continuous improvement. 

“Nothing is going to stay the same but we have a trajectory. That’s what I love about community foundations, the work is never the same,” Roberts said. 

Roberts’ hope is that the community foundation continues with this growth and development that FACF has started in all areas from asset development to systemic change. 

“Our mission is to improve the quality of life in Newaygo County and we have concluded that that has to do with having a viable nonprofit sector that includes government and all the nonprofit entities, having a viable economy and ensuring wellbeing across all socioeconomic levels,” Roberts said. 

As Roberts prepares to leave the community foundation, she has some advice for new and emerging leaders in the sector. 

“Do what you love because when you’re doing what you love it isn’t work. Sometimes when you do what you love it becomes work. If you do it for a long period of time you can get burned out; however, there are infinite possibilities of reinventing yourself and philanthropy has so many places that you can do that,” Roberts said. 

Roberts will retire from FACF on October 1. 

“Many people asked me when I came here, why in the world would you want to leave Arizona and move to Michigan, but who in philanthropy would not want to move and work in Michigan? It’s been fantastic and I will never forget it. I will carry these two peninsulas in my heart for the remainder of my living days,” Roberts shared. 

Want more?

Watch the full Rural Philanthropy Video Series featuring FACF. 

Watch the full Impact Connected video featuring FACF and their DEI work. 

Read Carla Robert’s retirement announcement.

Learn more about FACF's new president and CEO, Shelly Hendrick Kasprzycki.