The White Dog Café has a mission to fully serve. This means 1) serving customers, 2) serving the community, 3) serving each other, and 4) serving the earth. These efforts are so central to the restaurant that founder Judy Wicks jokes: “we use good food to lure innocent customers into social activism.” But it is hardly a joke.

The White Dog Café is one of those businesses that seems to be supporting everything. A quick visit to its website will leave you almost overwhelmed with all the causes it supports and initiatives it has going on. Just a quick list: organic farming, conflict in Darfur, Living Wage (a $9 minimum wage for employees because it finds the $5.15 cut off unrealistic), racial profiling, water management, urban sprawl, HIV/AIDS, US foreign policy, underrepresented artists, & and the list goes on. There is however some method to the madness, at least in how it tackles these causes.

The Café has a three pronged approach to encouraging social activism and local community development: it supports local causes with events and programming at the Café, it arranges educational tours and partnerships, and it has a separate Foundation. Programming at the Café itself consists of everything from art exhibits to dinner discussions and book readings. A newsletter goes out to customers every three months listing the programs going on in the near future.

In this sense, the Café merely serves as a catalyst and vehicle for local groups to express their opinions and raise support. It also has the effect of building business with customers whose values are aligned with those of the White Dog Café: “they come here not because they are hungry for food, but because they are hungry for a sense of community or a sense of being involved with something bigger than themselves.”

This approach combined with top quality food (and top tier prices) has led the restaurant to gross over $5 million a year. It also proactively seeks relationships with other restaurants and non-profits. The Café has both local and international sister restaurants, encouraging customers to visit women or minority-owned sister restaurants and taking groups to other sister restaurant countries to learn about US foreign policy.

Other educational endeavors include tours around Philadelphia to look at what various non-profits, such as community mural initiatives, are up to. Rather than choosing specific causes, the Café tries to address all issues it can, from what’s in the news to what local group needs their voice heard.

Unlike programming at the Café, the White Dog Café Foundation is cause-focused. 20% of restaurant profits go to the Foundation and its mission of building a local living economy. Its two primary programs are: Fair Food and the Sustainable Business Network. Both of these programs give grants and philanthropic consulting to local and sustainable businesses. For example last year they gave out four $10,000 grants to local farmers trying to move towards sustainable agriculture practices.

Judy Wicks is also the president of the Foundation. She founded the Café and Foundation with the priority of connecting her values and her work: “I don’t have time to do all the things I care about on the weekends or after work, so I need to integrate it into my work life.”

By Louise Doyle

Based on the Susan Hyatt’s audio interview with Judy Wicks, owner and founder White Dog Café and president of the White Dog Café Foundation.

More information on the White Dog Café can be found at: http://www.whitedog.com/
More information on the White Dog Café Foundation can be found at: http://www.whitedogcafefoundation.com/

In the field of philanthropy, the term “foundation” has no precise meaning. Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Chicago Community Trust, the Duke Endowment, Rockefeller Brothers Fund are four institutions among the nation’s top grantmaking foundations, but none has the word “foundation” in its name. Conversely, many nonprofit organizations that make no grants, such as the Heritage Foundation, also call themselves “foundations.” The difficulty of identifying grantmaking foundations by name alone creates confusion and produces misunderstanding about the scope and activities of the foundation field.

A foundation is a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization with a principal fund or endowment of its own that maintains or aids charitable, social, educational, religious, or other activities serving the public good, primarily by making grants to other nonprofit organizations. There are approximately 56,600 foundations in the U.S. today.

The Internal Revenue Code governs the operations of both private foundations (including family, independent and company foundations) and public charities (community foundations and those nonprofit charitable organizations which raise funds to conduct their programs and operations). The rules governing private foundations are stricter in limiting foundation activities than are those for public charities.

A. Private Foundations

Private foundations make grants based on charitable endowments. The endowment funds come from one or a small handful of sources — an individual, a family or a corporation. Because of their endowments, they are focused primarily on grantmaking and generally do not raise funds or seek public financial support the way public charities (like community foundations) must.

Corporate Foundations:

In the corporate context, however, foundations are not always endowed. Instead, it is common for the parent company to provide annual funding based on the foundation’s budget, and administrative expenses are paid by the parent company.

Examples: Motorola Foundation, Dreyers Foundation

For more information, go to:
http://www.cof.org/Content/FAQ/DisplayCollection.cfm?blockID=1205#6501.

For the Council on Foundations, STEWARDSHIP PRINCIPLES FOR CORPORATE GRANTMAKERS, go to:
http://www.cof.org/files/Documents/Corporate_Grantmaking/Corporate%20Principles/Principles_Booklet_Corporate_FINAL.pdf

Family Foundations:

The Council on Foundations defines a family foundation as a private foundation in which the donor or the donor’s relatives plays a significant governing role. Most family foundations concentrate their giving locally in their communities. However, a growing number are now funding internationally. Family foundations give over forty percent of the $27.5 billion in foundation grants awarded in the United States.

Examples: Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, The Anschutz Family Foundation

For more information, go to:
http://www.cof.org/files/Documents/Family_Foundations/FFS_What_is_Family_Philanthropy.pdf

For the Council on Foundations, STEWARDSHIP PRINCIPLES FOR FAMILY FOUNDATIONS, go to:
http://www.cof.org/Content/General/Display.cfm?contentID=2045.

Independent Foundations:

Private independent foundations are distinct from private family or corporate foundations in that an independent foundation is not governed by the benefactor, the benefactor’s family or a corporation. Of the largest private foundations in the United States, most are independent foundations, although they may have begun as family foundations.

Examples: Ford Foundation, Carnegie Foundation

For the Council on Foundations, STEWARDSHIP PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES FOR INDEPENDENT FOUNDATIONS, go to:
http://www.cof.org/files/Documents/Stewardship%20Principles%20%20Best%20Practices%20Initiative/Independent/Independent_Principles_-_FINAL.doc

Operating Foundations

Private operating foundations are not primarily grantmaking entities. Instead, they are private foundations that use the bulk of their resources to provide charitable services or run charitable programs of their own. They operate facilities or institutions devoted to a specific charitable activity spelled out in their charters. For example, some conduct research while others provide a direct service by operating museums, facilities for the handicapped, historical sites, etc. Many hospitals and universities maintain operating foundations, whose grants are directly related to the organizations programs.

An operating foundation is subject to nearly all the applicable restrictions and reporting requirements of other private foundations. It receives less beneficial tax treatment than a public charity because it is not seen as being supported by, and operated for the good of the public. Donors to a private operating foundation may take advantage of the more liberal charitable deduction rules applicable to gifts to public charities. However, to qualify as an operating foundation, the foundation must spend sat least 85% of its net investment income directly for the active conduct of its own exempt activities (as opposed to making grants).

B. Public Foundations

The term “public foundation” has come into common usage only recently to describe public charities that have a primary purpose of making grants. A public foundation normally receives its assets from multiple sources, which may include private foundations, individuals, government agencies, and fees for service. Moreover, a public foundation must continue to seek money from diverse sources in order to retain its public status.

Community Foundations

Community Foundations are supported by and operated for a specific community or region. Their grantmaking activities are administered by a governing body or distribution committee representative of community interests. According to the Council on Foundations, Community foundations make up one of the fastest growing sectors of philanthropy in the United States today; there are nearly 700 community foundations in the U.S. Community foundations in the United States hold approximately $39.4 billion in assets and are located throughout the country. Community foundations received an estimated $4.2 billion in gifts in 2004. They accept gifts of various sizes and types from private citizens, corporations, government agencies and other foundations. Nearly every type of gift (including real estate, closely held stock and artwork) can be contributed to a community foundation. Gifts are made from bequests and by living donors through various types of funds and deferred giving vehicles. In 2004, community foundations gave more than $3 billion to a wide variety of nonprofit activities, including urban affairs, the arts, education, environmental projects, health and disaster relief.

Examples: The Denver Foundation, New York Community Trust, Montana Community Foundation

For more information go to:
http://www.cof.org/Content/General/Display.cfm?contentID=675

Sources:
The Foundation Center http://www.fdncenter.org/home.jhtml
Youth in Philanthropy http://youth.fdncenter.org/youth_about.html
The Council on Foundations http://www.cof.org/index.htm