Blog

Traditionally, Valentine’s Day isn’t my favorite holiday. Maybe because I feel like it was somewhat fabricated to sell greeting cards, maybe because as a teen in high school I didn’t have anyone send me valentines, or maybe because I choose to believe one should express love every day, and not just specially on a day…

Common financial advice recommends spending less than 30% of your income on housing costs, including rent or mortgage costs, utilities, and repairs. Until I started working at the Foundation, I spent nearly two-thirds of my income on rent and accrued a lot of debt in the process. Of course, I was in graduate school and…

Equity: eq·ui·ty | Pronounced: ˈekwədē/   What is equity? It’s a noun, a buzzword in philanthropy, an investment term, a branch of law, a value of shares issued from a company. Had you asked me 2 years ago what equity meant, I would have told you with confidence that it means equal outcomes regardless of…

When our CEO/President, Lori O’Keefe first brought forward the idea of a trial sabbatical, I felt a momentary drop in my energy. “Oh no, chairing Triangle Community Foundation is a pretty busy role already, what would it be like with out our Head Fred, or Fredette,” as the case might be? After silently chiding myself…

Over the summer, our President & CEO Lori O’Keefe took an 11-week sabbatical. It was a new policy that our board approved for 10+ year employees of the Foundation, and Lori would be our guinea pig. You can read all about her lessons learned this summer here. After 13 years of service at the Foundation,…

Over the last few days, our state was walloped by Hurricane Florence, the effects of which our neighbors all over the state, including locally after this morning’s flooding, will continue to feel for a long time to come. Before the massive storm hit, thousands of people were evacuated from coastal towns, many of them bused…

It’s been a long time since I’ve had to write about what I did over my summer break. Once one enters the workforce, there’s really no such thing, other than a week here or there that you may take off to travel, visit with family, or relax at the beach. However, this summer I was…

Our Triangle community is comprised of diverse people who, despite our variety of lived experiences, find commonality in calling this area home. As our region’s community foundation, we are grateful to partner with nonprofits and community members to address the systemic inequities that keep some of our community from thriving - or from feeling a sense of…

At the end of this fiscal year, I will celebrate 13.5 years at Triangle Community Foundation. I will have seen the Foundation grow from just over $100 million to more than $250 million. I’ve seen our grants grow to an average of $26 million a year. I will have been through three leadership transitions, served…

“Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.”   -Steven R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People   I’ll be perfectly honest, I received this well-known book from my first boss (may his memory be for a blessing…) nearly 30 years ago, and I…

We live in one of the fastest growing, highest living standards, best wage equity, lowest unemployment, and lower poverty areas in the United States. It is because of this that we feel incredibly fortunate to be citizens of the Triangle region. While those accolades make our community great, we know it’s not the whole story.…

I was 22 years old, only 6 months into a new job at a large and prestigious nonprofit, incredibly headstrong and (in hindsight) very inexperienced. It was the week before Christmas, and I was in charge of planning the office holiday party, which would take place in approximately 1 hour. It was time to set…