 | |
| Location | |
|---|---|
Area served | Oklahoma |
| Method | Donations and Grants |
Key people | Phil Lakin CEO |
| Endowment | US$ $4,412,774,000 (2009) |
| Website | www.tulsacf.org |
The Tulsa Community Foundation (TCF) is one of the largest community foundations in the United States. [1] [2] [3] Headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as of January 2011 it was reported to have approximately four billion dollars in assets, [4] and to have donated more than $580 million to local charities and government projects. [5]
Community foundations (CFs) are instruments of civil society designed to pool donations into a coordinated investment and grant making facility dedicated primarily to the social improvement of a given place. Community foundations are a global phenomenon with 1700 existing around the world of which over 700 are in the United States.
Tulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 45th-most populous city in the United States. As of July 2016, the population was 413,505, an increase of 12,591 over that reported in the 2010 Census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with 991,005 residents in the MSA and 1,251,172 in the CSA. The city serves as the county seat of Tulsa County, the most densely populated county in Oklahoma, with urban development extending into Osage, Rogers, and Wagoner counties.
Oklahoma is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, Texas on the south, New Mexico on the west, and Colorado on the northwest. It is the 20th-most extensive and the 28th-most populous of the fifty United States. The state's name is derived from the Choctaw words okla and humma, meaning "red people". It is also known informally by its nickname, "The Sooner State", in reference to the non-Native settlers who staked their claims on land before the official opening date of lands in the western Oklahoma Territory or before the Indian Appropriations Act of 1889, which dramatically increased European-American settlement in the eastern Indian Territory. Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory were merged into the State of Oklahoma when it became the 46th state to enter the union on November 16, 1907. Its residents are known as Oklahomans, and its capital and largest city is Oklahoma City.
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Tulsa Community Foundation is a tax-exempt, public charity organized in 1998. It was founded by Tulsa oilman, banker, and philanthropist George Kaiser, who felt that Tulsa's historical dependence on unorganized private giving from its wealthy families was no longer effective. Beginning with gifts from seventeen local philanthropists, by 2006 Tulsa Community Foundation had grown to become the largest community foundation in the country, surpassing the New York Community Trust, [6] [7] and it remained the largest until 2013, when a $1 billion contribution lifted the Silicon Valley Community Foundation into first place. [8] Kaiser's family foundation remains the largest contributor to the community foundation, which also manages about 600 donor advised funds. [5]
George B. Kaiser is an American businessman. He is the chairman of BOK Financial Corporation in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He is among the 100 richest people in the world and was, in 2012, one of the top 50 American philanthropists.
The Silicon Valley Community Foundation is a Mountain View-based donor-advised community foundation that serves the Silicon Valley and surrounding community.
In 2005, members of the United States Senate Committee on Finance, and others, criticized the foundation structure of TCF, and other charities, for arguably permitting givers to take tax deductions out of proportion to the actual amounts given for public charity, and for potentially allowing the donors to have effective control of the community foundation. [9] Because the Tulsa Community Foundation (unlike some private foundations) is not restricted from making gifts to government agencies, it has also drawn occasional comment and criticism for its potential influence on local government. [5]
The United States Senate Committee on Finance is a standing committee of the United States Senate. The Committee concerns itself with matters relating to taxation and other revenue measures generally, and those relating to the insular possessions; bonded debt of the United States; customs, collection districts, and ports of entry and delivery; deposit of public moneys; general revenue sharing; health programs under the Social Security Act and health programs financed by a specific tax or trust fund; national social security; reciprocal trade agreements; tariff and import quotas, and related matters thereto; and the transportation of dutiable goods. It is considered to be one of the most powerful committees in Congress.
