The Marquette Community Foundation and its Affiliate Funds,the Greater Ishpeming Area Community Fund, the Negaunee Area Community Fund, the Gwinn Area Community Fund, and the Community Advised Fund of Big Bay, encourage philanthropic investment in the future of our area by attracting permanent endowment funds from a wide range of donors to provide charitable grants that enhance quality of life.

In the late eighties, Thomas Baldini, Robert Berube, Robert Bordeau, Michael Coyne, David Higley, Ellwood Mattson, Craig Stien and Joseph VanDine, had a vision for the future of the Marquette.  They knew they could build and sustain a better community for generations to come by encouraging its residents, friends, and businesses to invest in the future of our area.  Through their vision of the future, the Marquette Community Foundation was incorporated June 27, 1988.

In 1994, this vision expanded to the west end of the county with the establishment of the Greater Ishpeming Area Community Fund and the Negaunee Area Community Fund.  In 2002, members of the Gwinn-Sawyer Area, through a benefit by the Gwinn-Sawyer Area Chamber of Commerce, established an advisory committee to support the establishment of the Gwinn Area Community Fund.  Affiliates of the Marquette Community Foundation, they helped grow the foundations assets by exposing the vision to residents who wanted their donations to specifically benefit their own communities.  Starting with a mere $1400, the foundation’s assets grew through contributions and investment income to over $8 million at the end of 2006.