CEO - Brady Groves - Richland County Foundation

Brady Groves, president of the Richland County Foundation, is in his 12th year leading the organization. The foundation got started in 1945 and thanks to many generous donors is able to hand out many grants each year to improve the community. Learn exactly what a community foundation does and about the local day of giving, Richland Gives, which runs November 13th - 28th. Brady shares about his family and much more on the podcast.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
The CEO you should know. Broughtto you by Roby Foster Miller Eric Insurance.
This week's CEO, Brady Groves,president of the Rixland County Foundation,
with us in studio today and thetiming is perfect. We are going to
talk with Brady Groves, the Presidentof the Richland County Foundation. Good morning,

(00:23):
Good morning to you, Aaron.Always great to be with you.
It is great to see you.Richland gives yep. That time of the
year sure is arriving. We're goingto talk about that and a whole lot
of things you guys, haven andgoing on with your great organization. But
let's begin at the top. Howmany years now? And I know you've
been in this road for a while, I have how long have you been

(00:44):
president? You know it's twelve years, quickly approaching thirteen. So yeah,
it's a great opportunity to be ableto serve Richland County in this capacity through
a lot of great donors that wehave in our community. Have be in
this role and have a great staffand great board. Is truly an honor.

(01:04):
So somebody who is maybe new tothe area, they don't know a
lot about the Richland County Foundation.When did it all start. I know,
you guys have been in operation fora long long time, but what's
it date back to it dates backto nineteen forty five. We had seven
gentlemen really look at opportunities. Modeledafter the Cleveland Foundation, which was actually

(01:29):
the first community foundation in the UnitedStates, established in nineteen fourteen, and
they modeled it after Anna Scatigert,who had a fund that she helped support
women and children with need in Mansfield. It has grown from that point to
today about one hundred and ninety onemillion dollars in assets and making about six

(01:52):
million dollars in grants every year.Erin. Yeah, I know, you
guys helped so many people locally inthe community. So if somebody again is
new and we talk about what allyou do you hand out grants, but
talk just maybe what the process ofyou know, people donate money and how
all that works. If somebody's notfamiliar with sure, sure, great question.

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You know, a community foundation isa component of funds MANSIL and the
Richmond County Foundation. We have fourhundred and fifteen funds made up of individuals,
families, corporations with specific purposes thatwere important to the donors. In
establishing those and they're mostly in doubtfunds, So that means as a community

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foundation, we need to invest thosemoneys in a way that they last lifetime
and honor the wishes of those donors. So we're really doing the work of
a lot of great people over thepast years. And you think about people
donating money and you mentioned, youknow, maybe helping certain projects in the
area. You just think about thosekind of things, you know, moving

(02:53):
the community forward and investing all thosekind of things. You always are looking
down the road how you can improveany buddy and everybody in the county,
you know, and that's what we'reall about. Where we're looking to improve
the lives of people in Richland Countyand we can do that in a lot
of different ways. Some of themore notable ones there and of course would
be our scholarships helping high school studentsfurther their education. We do a lot

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of work in the social services sector, you know, addressing some of those
needs are women's fund taking on animportant effort of childcare effects us at a
lot of different levels, not onlythe quality of home life, but it
also impacts employers and be able toexpand their pool. So yeah, we
touch a lot of different areas witha lot of different ways to address those

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needs. The voice this morning youhear is Brady Grove's President, Richland County
Foundation. If you want more information, go to Richland County Foundation dot org.
All right, so where is thefoundation actually located at? I know
you've got a beautiful office somewhere.Where's it that at for you? You
know what? We are at theconfluence of South Main Street and Lexington Avenue.

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Specific address would be one to eightyone South South Main. We are
a Queen Anne Victoria House that werestored beginning back in twenty thirteen, moved
in in January twenty fifteen. Sothat RedBrick Queen Anne Victorian that you see
as you're coming into downtown Mansfield orheading if you're heading south as you leave

(04:30):
town. So we're quite fortunate tohave that as a result of a very
generous family that felt passionate about thattype of architecture and the work of the
community Foundation. Well, let's talkabout some great work, because if people
are unaware, it is underway rightnow as we are talking November thirteenth,
and it will culminate on November thetwenty eighth, that's Richland Gives. We

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know about the Day of Giving,you know, on that Tuesday after Thanksgiving,
but it's multiple days of giving onlineevent if you want that. People
don't know it's underway. A lotof great nonprofits tell people about Richling Gifts.
Aaron, it's here. It justseems like you and I just sat
down one year ago today and talkedabout it. And what a great event
that the Community Foundation, led byMark Tiner started back in twenty fifteen as

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a way to generate much needed generaloperating support for nonprofits but also create awareness
within Richland County of the work beingdone by these organizations. And you know,
we had some humble beginnings that westarted off with some meager gains,
but we kept we kept building becausewe felt it was important to be able

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to support these nonprofits in the workthat they're doing in the community. And
you know, and here we are, you know again in twenty twenty three,
talking again after raising almost two anda half million dollars during that period
area. So we're we're excited andlooking forward to today. Yeah, I
know you talk about the money raisand yeah, two point five million incredible,

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so many nonprofits and you can goto Richland County Foundation dot org and
click on the link for Richland Gives. You want to donate, you want
to get all the details. Theycan do it with a credit card,
debit card, all those kind ofthings. Correct, Yeah, any any
type of platform that the donor wouldhave credit cards. For those folks that

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within the community foundation world that havedonor advise funds, we can make gifts
through through there. But yeah,it's real simple logging onto Richland Gives dot
org, looking through a list ofthe one hundred and three different nonprofits that
are participating and just sit there andscroll through some great organizations and see what

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strikes your fancy. And there areincentives as well, all those kind of
things. You can check that outtoo, right when you go to that.
Absolutely are our board has really gottenbehind this program. They through the
Unrestricted Fund Community Fund, are committingeighty thousand dollars in matching grants to the
organizations as stimulus, as incentives toenergize their donors and help them build their

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cofers. All right, So againthe Richling Gives online and giving event is
underway now and again it'll culminate seveno'clock on Tuesday, November the twenty eighth,
absolutely, and all those details againyou can go to Richland Countyfoundation dot
org get the links. But asBrady mentioned, the exact website Richland gives
dot orgon where would be we bewithout Mara Teyner and all this great information?

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Tell you what she takes good careof it. All these shows.
We sound like you know what's goingon because that lady knows what's going on.
So so true. Yeah, shoutout Tomorrow Tyner for all the great
work. All right, we aretalking in studio today. This week's CEO
you should know is Brady Groves,President of the Richland County Foundation. Let's
step away from work. If peopledon't know, we're going to go back

(07:51):
to the very beginning. Yep,We're going to find out where was Brady
Groves born. I haven't moved veryfar Mansfield, Ohio board and reared right
here in Mansfield, Malabar. Graduatefamily has been here for several generations and

(08:13):
so yeah, glad to be apart of the community. All right,
So Mansfield Malabar. How about afterhigh school? After high school, matriculated
to Bowling Green State University, wantedto keep the falcon logo going then NBA
from Ashland University like the falcon likethat, all right, keeping the aviary

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alright, if people don't know you, you've been involved in the community so
much where all have you worked?And I know you know many many years
you were helping you know, trackmeets, different things like that. You've
done a lot of things locally.Could we get the highlights of Brady the
highlight the highlight reel? Sure?You know. Before I came to the

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Foundation, I was with then thatCentral doing their business development through their Occupational
Health and Wellness division, working withcompanies to improve the health and safety of
their employees. Spent some time atour local PEPSI Color Bottler doing human resource
work involved that way. Actually,when I first came back down after I

(09:20):
graduated from Bowling Green, worked forthe Chamber of Commerce as the director of
the Chamber Foundation, which people knowtoday as you know, Leadership Unlimited and
the economic education piece. So yeah, professionally, haven't drifted too far from
home either. Of course, youknow, my advocation of will always be

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track and field and particularly the Mehawkrelays and everything that means to me and
my family as at that time,starting back in nineteen twenty seven, although
I was not there. Of course, is one of the large civic program,
civic endeavors of this community for manyyears, as you know, annually

(10:07):
in April bringing in thirty five hundredboys from five states in Canada, and
then the real neat component, whichI really think galvanized Mansfield in the month
of April, is where we wouldhouse these these boys. You know,
we had on thy eleven hundred athletesthat we would need to house, and
just the hospitality that was shown tothese schools and others throughout the Midwest.

(10:33):
I still run into people that arethat are my age and older that had
that experience and it is quite memorable. And some legendary names in town,
which is guy. I love whenyou're able just to you know, go
through the names that people might notrealize who have competed in Mansfield at the
mihas. Oh yeah, I mean, and we of course you know Harrison

(10:56):
Dillard, Jesse Owens. You cango through a list of people, former
football players, Paul Warfield, legendaryCleveland Brown's player, many on the Ohio
State football team. You know nowthat we're looking at Glenville playing Shelby,
UH Ted Ginn Junior, Ted Senioralways brought a lot of his TARB letters

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uh here. That was always alwaysgreat. So it's it's fun to see
future Ohio and Michigan stars and that'syou knew them when they were simply a
teenagers. I believe Tyron Wheatley atone time for Missigan was in town,
right. Yeah. Still one ofthe most impressive track athletes I have I

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have ever I've ever seen. Awesome. I'd love to hear you talk about
some great stories of the MEHIWK relays. All right, so Brady, let's
get back to the foundation for afew more minutes before we let you go.
Staff wise, how many people makeit run like the well oiled machine.
You know what, We're fortunate.We have a wonderful staff. There's
there's six of us. It's abig responsibility. When you're administering over six

(12:03):
million dollars in grants, that's alot of work and working with with not
only donors and developing assets to supportthese projects, but you know, vetting
projects, looking for where our dollars, where donor dollars could be best utilized.
We've got programs like Mansile Rising,which you know, addressing revitalization of

(12:24):
downtown Mansfield. We're looking ahead atcreating community conversations, trying to bring disparate
groups together, to create some bondingbetween groups across the county on topics that
are sometimes controversial, and doing thatin a very meaningful way that helps us,

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helps us grow. You mentioned programs, and in one of those,
feed the Farmers, I know wehad partnered up with you guys at both
That really great to see, youknow, how many farms there are here
locally, all the hard work theydo that they do. That was that's
that's relatively new col that's our giftsof grain Aaron and Mara again developing these

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opportunities in the agricultural sector. Youknow, we think of traditional gifts to
the community foundation as as as cashor equities, but we've got a very
strong agricultural community here, uh andtheir assets are one of the produce and
the products that they're generating for ourcommunity, and we want to give them

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a way to be able to participatein philanthropy through gifts of grain. So
we've made arrangements with local grain elevatorsthat once a producer's contracts have been fulfilled,
if they're so inclined to take thatexcess product and donate that through the
elevator to the community Foundation. Wecan put that for good use in the

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agricultural community. All right, Soyou can find out more about a lot
of these great things going on atthe Ritzton County Foundation by going to Ritzon
County Foundation dot org. G withus for a few more minutes, Brady
Groves, President, Risling County Foundation. If somebody wanted to donate to a
fund they just had a question,I'm sure they could reach out with the
website phone number right for more informationout. I mean, they can contact

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us at the community Foundation. Theycan contact myself. Mar Is always a
good one as she's handles a lotof our development piece Richland Countyfoundation dot org.
You can look at the different typesof funds that are there, but
you know, we could also sitdown and create an individual fund that's tailored
specific to an individual or family orcorporation so perfect they want more information,

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they definitely can reach out Ripling CountyFoundation dot org. All right, A
few more things about you before welet you go, Okay, get you
back to work. Let's talk aboutfamily. I know you. I know
you're married because you were during COVID, you were helping teach from home.
I remember that. Let's talk aboutBrady Groves and the family. Brady Groves

(15:00):
in the family. You know,my wife is an education she's a high
school Spanish teacher in Ashland and hasbeen doing that for thirty plus years.
We have a daughter who is nowemployed in consulting. You know, we're
committed to, you know, doingthings within the community, you know,
working whether it's through Ashland High Schooland students there, or my work with

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track and field. And we're notany different than a lot of other three
person households. You know. Ijust wish we could see our daughter more
and you know that that type ofthing. So yeah, I'm also my
parents are in town. That's aluxury to have when you can have,
you know, the core family stillstill around. All right, Great now,
how about spare time when you're notworking? What does do you have

(15:50):
any hobbies? Is? What doesBrady Groves do in his spare time?
You know? I I, aswe've already stated, track and field a
cross country both at the high schooland college level, take up a lot
of time when I'm not doing that. I love being on my bike I'm
not a competitive cyclist, but Ienjoy having extended periods on a bike.

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Especially. We've got a beautiful areaaround here. We can be you know,
out an Amish country pretty quickly.We've got a great bike trail here.
We have access to others down inKnox County and be on and I
just like spending hours on my bikehere. All right. I remember one
of those times I had you inthe studio. Were climbing a mountain somewhere,

(16:33):
right, no mountains on the horizonfour years ago? Yeah sounds right.
Yeah, we did Cataden in Maine. I remember things. That's not
an every year. I remember that, Yeah, was climbing a mountain.
Well, Brady, as I letyou go this morning, terrific with Richland
gives on your way. If theywant more information, just head to the

(16:53):
website. Right absolutely, We're excited. Want to remind everybody about the donor
watch party. Our partners at theat the Chamber of Commerce. It's their
business after hours. There is nocost, but you would need to register
through the Chamber on the twenty eighth, five to seven Middlehile Conference Center.
It's a great time, it's agreat culmination and celebration to see the results

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of everyone's work, starting on thethirteenth through the twenty eighth, ending at
seven. All right, the MiddlehigoConference Center on West Forestreet, Yep,
right down the hill here from theradio station. You got it all right,
well, Brady, Great to seeyou, Ritland Countyfoundation dot org again,
President Brady Groves of the Ritland CountyFoundation. Great to see you as
always, you aerin. Thank youfor coming in and we wish you continued
success. Absolutely, Thank you,Brady Groves, President of the Ritzland County

(17:42):
Foundation. The CEO you should knowrita bio cee a photo and here the
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