Your Community.
Your Foundation.
Your Impact.

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Mission

The Stanwood-Camano Area Foundation strengthens our community by empowering nonprofits, fostering community involvement, and providing educational opportunities through collaboration and giving.

Vision

Our vision is to help build a vibrant, caring “hometown” community where people can be proud to live, work, and play. Since 1960, SCAF has connected people who care with the causes that matter most, creating lasting impact for generations.

What is a Community Foundation?

A community foundation is a specialized type of nonprofit organization designed to improve the quality of life in a specific geographic area. Think of it as a "community savings account." It pools donations from many different people and businesses into a permanent collection of funds, then uses the investment income from those funds to award grants to local charities and projects.

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How It Works

Community foundations bridge the gap between people who want to give and the organizations that need support:

Pooling Resources

They collect gifts of all sizes—from a $50 donation to a multi-million dollar estate—and invest them.

Grantmaking

They use the earnings from those investments to fund local nonprofits, scholarships, and emergency relief efforts.

Local Expertise

Unlike large national charities, they are run by local boards who understand the specific, "on-the-ground" needs of their neighborhood.

SCAF is more than a Foundation

We empower our community through partnerships, charitable giving, and thoughtful stewardship in three key ways:

Donate

Hyperlocal Support

We live, work, and give within the Stanwood-Camano community. We intimately understand its evolving needs, from supporting local school programs to helping the newest grassroots nonprofits get established. 100% of your donation stays local to create direct, visible impact.

Community Connection

We serve as the central commerce and networking point for local nonprofits. By supporting SCAF, you strengthen the entire ecosystem, ensuring all vital community services—from senior support to youth mentorship—can better achieve their missions.

Enabling Impact

We provide stability and long-term vision. We are the trusted anchor that ensures critical community needs are met, providing a consistent way for you to invest your resources, even as individual nonprofits evolve or change over time.

Who We Are

The Stanwood-Camano Area Foundation is guided by a dedicated group of local leaders, volunteers, and staff who are passionate about strengthening our community. Our board members and team bring a wide range of experience and perspectives, all united by a shared commitment to supporting local nonprofits, donors, and community initiatives.

Meet Our Team

Our History

In 1960, a small group of citizens decided that our growing community should have a single continuing organization to provide community services. It would also serve as a place where donors could make gifts for long-range community benefit and provide a planning basis for Stanwood's future. The Stanwood-Camano Area Foundation was founded in 1960, and incorporated as non-profit in 1962. Founders included William Brokaw, Edward D. Jones, Cliff Fosse, and Cliff Danielson. The Foundation began with a Board of Trustees of eighteen persons divided into four committees.

Community Services

Emergency Assistance

Youth Activities

Scholarships, Athletics, Recreation

Civic Projects

Fairgrounds, Parks, Library - in fact, one of the first checks written by the Foundation was for the earnest money for the Stanwood-Camano Fairgrounds!

Music, Arts and Letters

Help with music lessons, community concerts

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Smiling man and woman holding large fish near a marina with boats in the background.

Portrait of an elderly man in an orange jacket and an elderly woman in a patterned blouse smiling together against a brown background.

Group of twelve adults standing indoors in front of a beige wall, smiling at the camera.

Black and white portrait of a young man wearing a suit, tie, and white shirt, with a calm expression.

Five diverse people standing in a row holding certificates and smiling on stage with a blue background displaying text about diversity, equity, and inclusion.

SCAF Trustees were selected from all walks of life within the community – from bankers and bus drivers to farmers and business owners. Each Trustee had a desire to give something back to the community and to contribute to it. In 1973, the Trustee’s membership was increased by the addition of student representatives selected annually from Stanwood High School. Each Trustee brought their vision for a better community. For many years the Foundation ambled along with the same format and a host of dedicated people. Grants were distributed at semi-annual meetings. Permanent memorial scholarship funds were endowed and temporary restricted funds were established to meet current community needs. Gradually, the Foundation’s assets grew to over $50,000, where it remained for nearly two decades.

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SCAF started facilitating scholarships in 1962, but in 1993 the dynamics of the Foundation changed dramatically. Lyle Foster made a generous gift of stock valued at nearly $200,000 for scholarships. Additional gifts and bequests during the 1990s followed, and suddenly the Foundation found itself worth over a half million dollars and growing. No longer a little ‘community chest,' the Foundation had become a major player in the local scholarship arena, with $500,000 in permanent scholarship funds providing $25,000 in awards annually.

A swimming pool fund started in the early 1960s had grown to over $30,000 – a lot of money to be sitting in a bank account, but not nearly enough to build a community pool. After lengthy discussions, legal investigations, community meetings and multiple committees, it was determined that the fund could be liquidated. In 2001, grant applications were solicited from local non-profit organizations and the funds were disbursed for various community capital projects. Several sizable bequests provided $100,000 to fund a permanent Community Grants program, established in 2003 by the Board of Trustees. The Distribution Committee developed criteria and a formal application process for distributing the earning from this fund annually. A commitment was made to develop that ‘community capital’ to improve the quality of life within the community now and well into the future.

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As the money grew, it became apparent that the Trustees needed outside help managing its investments. A Finance Committee was drafted to investigate the options. The Committee recommended that the Foundation’s endowed funds be placed with the Seattle Foundation. In 2002, after much deliberation and a presentation by the Seattle Foundation to the full Board, the Board voted to transfer the endowed funds to the Seattle Foundation. The placement and safety of funds entrusted to the Stanwood-Camano Area Foundation remains a paramount responsibility of the Board. This move ensured that funds donated to the Foundation would be invested in a manner consistent with the philanthropic intent of the donors, providing a perpetual source of income to meet community needs. It is the policy of the Foundation to annually distribute 5% of aggregate endowment assets in grants and scholarships.

Five smiling women standing together in a library, one holding a yellow envelope.

Smiling woman holding a painting of two people standing near a sunset-lit body of water with trees in the background.

Smiling elderly man and woman dressed formally with corsages, at an indoor event.

Group of seven people standing on grass holding a long red ribbon during an outdoor ribbon-cutting ceremony.

With the beginning of the 21st century, the Foundation was ready to become a real community foundation. Bylaws were re-written and committees re-formulated. An executive director was appointed to manage the Foundation’s activities. Committee membership was solicited from throughout the community and included individuals from outside the formal Board of Trustees.

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In 2017, SCAF helped to establish the Community Coalition of Stanwood-Camano, a group of organizations working together to identify and solve unmet needs in the community.

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In 2018, a gift of $4.2M from the Estate of Floyd & Delores Jones significantly increased the Foundation's ability to support the Stanwood-Camano Community. This generous contribution was endowed, the income from which can be used to help people with basic needs, provide educational opportunities, promote arts and culture, and support other causes associated with a livable community. This gift prompted the Board of Trustees to move all endowment funds from the Seattle Foundation to UBS. They are now managed internally, allowing administrative fees to stay in the community.

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In 2022, the Board of Trustees determined that it was time to lease office space that could be used for its own administration, but also as an asset to the community. The office, along with the hiring of a Community Impact Director, resulted in a robust program of support to all local nonprofits.

Today, the Stanwood-Camano Area Foundation holds endowed and restricted fund assets of over $8M. SCAF employs a full-time Executive Director and three part-time staff members, with the support of our Board of Trustees. Many changes have taken place since the Foundation’s inception over 60 years ago, but the intent remains the same:

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Facilitating our donor’s charitable goals.
Building endowments for lasting community impact.
Improving the quality of life in the Stanwood-Camano community.

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Created BY and FOR the Residents of the Stanwood-Camano Community

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Today, we continue to partner with donors for the benefit of all. Our community is stronger when we work together!

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Community Coalition of Stanwood-Camano

The Community Coalition of Stanwood-Camano (CCSC) is a group of local organizations and individuals working together to cultivate a stronger Stanwood-Camano community.

SCAF acts as Fiscal Sponsor and Facilitator of the Coalition's Steering Committee and workgroups.

Learn More

Transparency & Trust

SCAF is committed to transparency and accountability. Every dollar we receive is carefully managed to maximize impact, support local nonprofits, and fund scholarships and grants. Our financials are reviewed regularly, and we ensure donors can see exactly how their generosity creates change in our community.

View Financial Reports