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Community Transformation Happens HERE!

If there was a proven way to triple the odds of a local child going to college while improving their mom’s mental health, would you support it?

Good news: You can!

After years of study, the Community Foundation launched its Child Savings Account (CSA) program two years ago in partnership with Mercy Housing NW, which provides safe, stable homes and supportive services to people with lower incomes. In 2022, we established $1,000 savings accounts for every resident 18 and younger at two of Mercy’s Bellingham properties and young residents moving into the third (Phase 1 of The Millworks on the waterfront) are being added as they move in.

This project is right in our wheelhouse.

While there are many organizations in the health, education, child-advocacy and financial sectors in our region that might support a project like this, the Community Foundation is the one that sits at the intersection of all of them with the connections, capacity and risk-tolerance to spearhead it.
It’s not just CSAs. The Whatcom Community Foundation is ideally positioned to both look for and leverage creative ideas. Other examples include Project Neighborly, The Millworks, and our involvement in statewide efforts to promote employee ownership. And that’s not all!

When you donate to the Community Fund at WCF you make game-changing work possible.

Please consider a gift today to support more meaningful, innovative work in Whatcom County.

Here’s a glimpse of the program’s first high school graduates – Jeremy and David. This will be the best two minutes of your day – we promise!

The Whatcom Community Foundation leverages bright ideas and resources to take advantage of opportunities to address pressing local challenges. Putting your gifts to work for good.

The Community Foundation supports Child Savings Accounts for multiple reasons:

1. Proven Impact: Research indicates that even $500 in savings can significantly enhance the economic, mental, and physical well-being of individuals and families.
2. Wide-Reaching Benefits: This program has the potential to assist every family in our community by alleviating the growing costs of post-secondary education and fostering healthy saving habits.
3. Innovative Solution: CSAs address systemic issues and help break harmful cycles.
4. Increasing Mobility: These accounts create opportunities for upward mobility for our community’s youngest generation.
5. Scalability: The program is designed for expansion and growth throughout Whatcom County and beyond.

Your gift today to the Whatcom Community Fund makes CSAs — and so much more transformative work — possible. Please join us to ensure everyone who lives here thrives.