SVdP is proud to announce a new campaign to support development of the McDonald Community Vision (MCV) Fund. This innovative new fund will form a flexible funding stream which, in the spirit of executive director Terry McDonald’s 50-year legacy of service, will allow the organization to continue investing in community-serving opportunities with agility.
St. Vincent de Paul Society of Lane County is proud to announce a new campaign to support development of the McDonald Community Vision (MCV) Fund. SVdP established this innovative new fund as a flexible funding stream which, in the spirit of executive director Terry McDonald’s 50-year legacy of service, will allow the organization to continue investing in community-serving opportunities with agility.
Terry’s father, H.C. “Mac” McDonald, was the first SVdP director in Lane County. And Terry is as vital as ever at the helm of our multifaceted organization, now the largest nonprofit human-services provider in Lane County. For decades under McDonald’s innovative leadership, SVdP has worked to alleviate homelessness and poverty, reduce waste, and grow environmental stewardship in our community and beyond.
The MCV Fund will be an important and enduring source of stability for those efforts, as we carry forward the McDonalds’ longstanding vision of serving the most vulnerable in the community.
Investing in stability
Recent events, most notably the COVID-19 pandemic and its widespread ripple effects, have compounded many existing social and economic challenges. In the process, they also highlighted the need for a flexible, unrestricted funding source to help stabilize SVdP and sustain our ability to deliver social services through turbulent times. Among other things, COVID-19 forced the temporary closure of all of our St. Vinnie’s retail thrift stores, cutting off a vital source of revenue for our essential humanitarian programs and services.
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The MCV Fund will form a more solid financial footing for SVdP and allow us to react nimbly when pressing needs shake our community in the future. With this funding stream, we will be able to quickly apply resources to help people in immediate crisis, such as those who were afflicted by 2020’s pandemic and wildfires, and others pulled — perhaps for the first time — into society’s worsening cycles of poverty and homelessness.
We have created the MCV Fund not only to preserve the legacy Terry McDonald has built as he nears retirement, but to secure long-term success and maintain SVdP’s ability to pivot on demand during increasingly unpredictable times.
More about the fund
The MCV Fund is not a traditional endowment, which is a financial instrument intended to generate ongoing interest income for a specific purpose, nor a reserve fund designed to hold money aside for anticipated future expenditures such as capital improvements. Rather, McDonald envisions this as an “opportunity fund” that will enable SVdP to react quickly by applying unrestricted donor contributions toward new opportunities, as they arise, to create benefit for the community.
These opportunities could take many forms, and the MCV Fund will enable SVdP’s leaders to think outside the box when looking for ways to serve emerging and emergency community needs. These could include property purchases for future affordable-housing developments; timely partnerships with other organizations to serve a greater good; staffing expenses to cover a short-term need; or the application of funds to qualify for matching grants, effectively multiplying donors’ gifts. The fund could also enable the nimble creation of new social-service programs and the rapid delivery of crisis-response services as gaps emerge — sometimes suddenly, as when driven by resource-stretching emergencies like 2020’s trials by fire and virus.
While the circumstances of future MCV Fund use will vary widely, the application of those funds will always align with SVdP’s overall mission of alleviating poverty, ending the cycle of homelessness, and creating benefit for the community. Decisions about expenditures from the MCV Fund will be made by the executive director and chief financial officer, with oversight from SVdP’s board of directors.
Get Involved
- Share the vision
We want to get as much of the community involved in this as possible, and we need your help! Host a staff member for a virtual meeting at your next club or civic group meeting, or maybe just a group of your friends and family. Contact us to get something scheduled. - Invest your time
Join our committee and get exclusive insights into how this fund will create brighter futures. All are welcome, and we’d love to hear your ideas. Contact us to join our next meeting! - Donate to the fund
Your financial support secures brighter futures for this community!