By Alan Egly, Doris & Victor Day Foundation

What do you do when a key community resource is about to go under?

Due to poor management, our community’s YMCA faced closure. Its third year of emergency funding requests to fund its $600,000 debt and avoid bankruptcy were again unsuccessful. Funders had all but given up, except for our board and staff at the Doris & Victor Day Foundation and a few others who weren’t ready to jump ship—at least not completely.

Although our group lacked confidence that the YMCA’s management could turn things around, we weren’t ready to lose an excellent and much-needed facility that served a community with a significant number of low-income residents. We also recognized the importance of helping the YMCA and our city of Rock Island, Illinois, avoid the shame that would come with a bankruptcy.

One of the Day Foundation’s directors began to think creatively about solutions, suggesting the city might be willing to take on the facility. After meeting with the city manager and Department of Parks and Recreation, it became clear that the city was willing to take on the facility but not with its current financial obligations. What wasn’t clear was how to cover the financial obligations and convince the YMCA board that this was the best solution.

This would take several months of negotiations.

After meeting with the YMCA’s executive director to consider possible options, we led a community meeting of concerned citizens and funders to broach the concept of a city-run facility if debt obligations could be covered. We made a lead grant to encourage support from others in town. We worked hand in hand with a local trust officer who represented the banks and played an important role in reducing the debt. It took about 3 months to secure funding, but, in the end, we had support from several banks, many individuals, and three additional private foundations.

But we still had to negotiate with the YMCA’s board who found it difficult to accept the necessity of the change of ownership. Although we tried to frame the solution as a “win-win” with avoiding a bankruptcy and making a fitness center available to residents, the rescue operation most likely felt like a “take over.” In the end, the Y reluctantly agreed to transfer title of the building with the provision that it would continue to provide some programs and would have an office in the city-owned fitness center. After one year, it was determined that the duplication was unnecessary, and the YMCA ceased to exist.

Today, we have a thriving city-run fitness center that has expanded twice since the change of ownership. At times, there is even a waiting list for membership.

Whereas I might say I’m a grantmaker if forced to give a one-word answer for what I do, I’m really in the business of finding solutions to help my community be its best. Sometimes, that calls on me to be a facilitator; sometimes a venture capitalist of sorts; sometimes a broker; and sometimes, the one person who is willing to say what needs to be said. Those roles are not equally glamorous, but all are critical at different times to help our community.

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The Doris & Victor Day Foundation began its operations as a grantmaking foundation in 1987 with assets from the estate of Doris Dammann Day. The Days loved the community in which they lived and where their business, Bear Manufacturing, was headquartered and grew to become a leader in automotive safety.  It was Doris Dammann Day’s hope that Rock Island, Illinois, would “be a better place” for future generations. To reach the goal of being a “better place,” the trustees have emphasized grants that meet human needs (e.g,. emergency assistance, affordable housing, child care, job training).