Looking Back: A Conversation with Ed Benbow
As the Community Foundation celebrates 30 years of serving DeKalb County, Ed Benbow offers a unique look back at some of the organization’s formative years. As an early Program Manager, Ed helped develop scholarship and grantmaking processes, worked with young people through V.O.I.C.E., and helped build relationships as the Community Foundation established itself in DeKalb County. Many of the programs and processes Ed remembers look different now, but the work started during those early years still continues today.
After spending 31 years with DeKalb Central Schools, Ed Benbow retired expecting to begin a quieter chapter of life. Instead, he spotted a newspaper advertisement for a new position at the Community Foundation. Two weeks after retirement, he was back to work as Program Associate.
“Just at the time I was retiring, there was an ad in the paper, and it was for a new position with the Foundation,” Ed recalled. “And so I applied for it, and Wendy made a mistake and hired me. So two weeks after I retired, I was back working again.”
It did not take long for Ed to find himself in the middle of a growing organization.
“Those were the formative years,” he said. “And so with formative years, there are a lot of new things, a lot of adjustments, a lot of changes.”
For Ed, being part of that change became one of the things he valued most about his time at the Community Foundation.
The Community Foundation itself looked much different then. Ed remembers working from an office building on West Seventh Street with just two offices and a reception area. He shared space with the bookkeeper and, at times, the Board of Directors.
“You get a lot of work done in a small space,” Ed said.
And Ed, along with the entire Community Foundation got a lot of work done! Ed was instrumental in building the systems and processes that the Community Foundation still uses today.
One of Ed’s most lasting contributions was helping simplify and standardize the Community Foundation’s scholarship application process. When Ed joined the Community Foundation, individual scholarship funds often had their own application formats and requirements. Ed worked with donors and the scholarship committee to create a consistent application format that could be used across many scholarship funds.
Ed Benbow at his desk in 2003
Community Foundation staff photo from 2001
“We developed an online scholarship that was fillable online and got many, many scholarship funds to buy into using a common application as compared to 47 different formats,” Ed said. “We were successful, and it took a lot of work contacting a lot of people and trying to blend something together, but it worked out.”
Nearly two decades after leaving the Community Foundation, Ed learned during his interview how that process has continued to evolve. What started as an effort to create a consistent format across scholarship applications has grown into a fully online process where students complete one application that matches them with available scholarships and allows them to apply to each one.
Scholarships were only a part of Ed’s work. He also helped facilitate the Community Foundation’s grant committee and worked with organizations seeking funding. Ed is quick to clarify that he never made a grant or scholarship, he focused on facilitating the groups that made those decisions.
“I never made a grant and I never granted a scholarship,” he said. “It was just all the background work and making sure that everybody had the information they needed.”
Ed encouraged grant applicants to think beyond what they wanted to do and explain the difference their project will make. The Community Foundation also offered workshops on writing grant proposals and identifying measurable outcomes. During the interview, Ed learned that the Community Foundation continued to host not only grant writing workshops, but also a Nonprofit Development Workshop series, helping nonprofits continue their learning.
Some of Ed’s favorite memories from his time at the Community Foundation came from working with young people. One of his favorite assignments was helping with V.O.I.C.E., now known as Voices of Philanthropy. One memorable experience took Ed and a group of V.O.I.C.E. students to Des Moines, Iowa, for Dekko Foundation’s Youth Pod Retreat.
“I think that was a test of my intelligence, that I agreed to ride on a bus with 50 teenagers, 10 hours each way,” he joked. “Not one of my better decisions. But it was a good experience. It really was, all in all.”
Dekko Foundation continues to offer its Youth Pod Retreat, bringing youth philanthropy pods together from Alabama, Iowa, Indiana, and Minnesota. DeKalb County’s youth philanthropy pod has continued attending many of these retreats over the years.
Another memory from V.O.I.C.E. has stayed with Ed for a much different reason. On September 11, 2001, Ed and a group of students were completing a community service project at the old DeKalb Humane Society in Butler. While the students cleaned up debris from a recent storm, Ed went to his car and turned on the radio.
“I went and pulled the kids together and explained to them this is what was happening,” Ed recalled. “Immediately one of our Lakewood Park kids says, ‘Let’s form a circle and we’ll have a prayer.’”
Looking back on his time with V.O.I.C.E., it was the young people themselves who stood out most to Ed.
“Being with kids all my life, they were marvelous, marvelous people,” he said. “And trying to hold them back was part of the problem. They wanted to set these unbelievable goals.”
Today, Voices of Philanthropy continues to introduce local students to philanthropy and grantmaking while also helping them develop leadership skills. During Ed’s interview, the conversation turned to where some former students are today. Ed remembered one former member who became a local veterinarian. Staff shared that others have become scholarship recipients, volunteers, and, in one case, a staff member.
Ed Benbow in 2004 with VOICE students
VOICE group photo from 2003-04
Even while many of the programs and processes he helped shaped is still present in some form today, Ed is hesitant to attribute any one accomplishment to himself.
“I don’t know that there’s anything that I could look back and attribute particularly to anything that I as one person did,” he said. “I just think it’s wonderful that the program has continued. I think it’s wonderful the Foundation has continued.”
While much has changed since Ed’s time at the Community Foundation, his work built a foundation for what came next. Over the years, new staff, volunteers, and community members have continued that work, adapting it to meet the changing needs of DeKalb County.
For Ed, change has always been part of moving forward.
“We have to recognize change is going to happen,” he said. “You’re either going to conform or transform. So you’re really going to set something up and conform to it, so as people come along subsequently to deal with the Foundation, they either conform to the old or take the old and transform it into something new. And so I think it’s great that people are taking things forward.”
This story is part of our 30 Years, 30 Stories series, highlighting people and moments that have shaped the Community Foundation DeKalb County over the past 30 years.
Have a Community Foundation story to share?
For 30 years, the Community Foundation DeKalb County has grown alongside the people and communities we serve. If you have a memory, story, or connection to the Community Foundation’s history that you would like to share, we would love to hear from you. Contact us at (260) 925-0311.
