Executive Director's Summary

"It's all about new beginnings, laying a solid foundation and building strong relationships. Everything that we want is in front of us." This quote is from an unknown source, but certainly captures how I feel about our work in 2019. Building a strong foundation that can withstand all that lies ahead, requires opening your eyes to see and understand diverse perspectives, bringing new voices to the table, and planning a course that focuses on goals while being flexible to meet emerging needs. In 2019, the Board and staff of the Lloyd K. Johnson Foundation worked diligently to develop a strategic plan to guide the organization through the next two years. I am so grateful to each of our Board members for their commitment to making communities better, for laying a solid foundation for us, and for using the resources that Mr. Johnson provided, wisely. What a gift to have such caring people at the helm of our efforts! We also continued our focus on building strong relationships throughout the year. We developed surveys for our grantees, our partners, and our students to better understand what we're doing right, and more importantly, what we can do better. We appreciated all the feedback and are learning how to better support our partners, and how to better care for our students. Through it all we have sought to listen, to understand, and to develop our plans based on what we've learned, to make a positive difference in our service area. We invite you to read stories of our grantees in this report. These organizations are just a few of our many partners who are doing amazing work in our communities, and we are excited to highlight their efforts. Also, make sure to read about our work with scholarship students and review the reports generated by our recent surveys now available on our website under "News - Foundation Reports". By laying a solid foundation and building strong relationships, we know that everything that we want – authentically living our mission to meet community needs – is truly right in front of us.

Joan Gardner-Goodno
Executive Director