The Tulsa Community Foundation is the crown jewel in Tulsa’s philanthropic community. Organized in 1998 to receive, protect and distribute gifts from individuals and organizations for the improvement of the Tulsa and Eastern Oklahoma area. TCF is a collection of over 500 charitable funds varying in size from $5,000 to multiple millions of dollars. Each fund has its own identity and philanthropic purpose and each benefits from being invested with other funds to create a lasting community resource.   

Last year, more than $736 million was donated into these funds, which ranked TCF first among the nation’s nearly 700 community foundations in contributions received from private sources for the fourth year in a row. Last year, TCF distributed over $49.4 million to charitable organizations. 

The Tulsa Community Foundation is the first community foundation to hold more than $3 billion in assets, a 34-percent increase over 2005.

According to The Columbus Foundation, for the sixth year, the Tulsa Community Foundation raised more money than any other community foundation, reporting $738 million in gifts. The Columbus Foundation also ranked Tulsa 20th in grant making, at $50.6 million, in 2006.

Following are two of the community partnerships in which TCF has been involved: 

Partnership for the Availability of School Supplies (PASS)

PASS seeks to alleviate the financial burden placed on low-income families to purchase school supplies by coordinating this effort with other groups and funders. In 2000, TCF joined the existing effort of Community Action Project of Tulsa County and the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation to provide basic school supplies for elementary school students at Tulsa Public Schools with the highest participation in the free lunch program. The cost for PASS supplies for the 2006-2007 school year was an average of $8.35 per student. The same supplies would cost parents approximately $44 to purchase individually. Supplies include crayons, pencils, pens, markers, glue, spiral notebooks, folders, three-ring binders, rulers, scissors, cardboard school boxes, paper, and other essential supplies. In 2006, a total of 44 businesses, foundations, religious groups and individuals contributed money to provide school supplies to 19,709 students attending 49 Tulsa elementary schools and pre-K programs (a 9.1-percent increase over the prior year). In 2006, contributions to PASS increased from approximately $103,000 to $138,000 (a record 34-percent increase). 

Step Up Tulsa!

Step Up Tulsa! has been a “call to action” for Tulsa and our region. Tulsa’s philanthropic community initiated the planning process to ensure that, as a region, our local governments, our corporate sector and our philanthropic sector were maximizing resources by working toward a common agenda. Step Up Tulsa brought together 150 community members from diverse professional sectors, geographic areas and ethnic backgrounds to research, discuss and identify critical issues to make the Tulsa area a successful 21st-century region.

As a result of the learning, discussion and debate that took place, the following five initiatives were developed and are currently being implemented: 

 - By developing the Oklahoma Innovation Institute, the Tulsa area will host an entrepreneurship center, Tulsa Research Partners, the Community Innovation Fund and the Best Thinking Forum. 

 - Become nationally recognized as a healthy region by building specialty clinics in north and west Tulsa to increase access for underserved population centers and create effective prevention strategies to keep all Tulsans healthy. 

 - Every student graduates from high school prepared to pursue a 21st-century career by spreading the impact of quality early childhood education and engaging families, educators and neighborhoods in developing community schools to help kids stay in school and succeed. 

 - Making Tulsa an international destination builds on Tulsa’s support of river development and the urban core through beautification and vibrant gathering spaces as well as highlighting festivals that showcase Tulsa’s international relationships and multicultural roots. 

 - The “Tulsans Have Pride Team” interacts with every initiative to build on our diversity as a community asset, brand a distinct and appropriate Tulsa identity and enhance civic participation.

Step Up Tulsa! has been led by committed and visionary leaders Jim Adelson of Nadel & Gussman and Sam Combs, III of ONEOK.    

Tulsa Area United Way
The mission of the Tulsa Area United Way is to improve lives by mobilizing the caring power of our community. The Tulsa Area United Way has been supporting health and human service programs in the six-county Tulsa community since 1924. TAUW has raised over $400 million to provide services for millions of Tulsa-area individuals’ needs. 99 cents of every dollar donated to the Tulsa Area United Way stays in the Tulsa area, with approximately 90 cents of each dollar doing directly to fund programs. In 2007, the annual fundraising campaign surpassed its goal of $23.3 million and collected pledges of nearly $23.8 million, allowing the organization for the first time to fully fund the original recommendation made at the Community Investments Panel level.