The Traverse Connect Foundation serves the purpose of fostering and increasing educational opportunities for residents of the Northwest Michigan region by providing assistance to units of government and 501(c)(3) organizations in the Northwest Michigan region to help them carry out and conduct educational programs related to economic and community development.
The Traverse Connect Foundation is the 501(c)(3) charitable foundation of Traverse Connect, which has the capacity to contract the work for the Foundation to fulfill its purposes. Both of these organizations grew from the work of the Traverse City Area Chamber of Commerce which has its roots in chamber activities going back to 1912. The Traverse City Area Chamber Foundation restated its Articles of Incorporation in 2008, and originally filed for their incorporation for 501(c)(3) on April 6th, 1989, with the purpose of collecting and distributing funds for charitable or educational purposes including to conduct non-partisan community education regarding basic economic issues facing the Northwest Michigan region.
The Foundation has impacted the community throughout the years since 1989 by providing grant funding, scholarships, and educational opportunities such as Leadership Grant Traverse, growing community leaders since 2006.
The Traverse Connect Foundation is dedicated creating even more high impact educational opportunities for individuals and businesses, building on the efforts of the Traverse City Area Chamber Foundation with the help of Traverse Connect.