By Sam Waltz
Stuart Comstock-Gay understood Delaware from his first interview.
“My early impressions, it’s a state that works very much on trust and relationships. If you work hard, and if you’re honest, and if you’re a person of your word, people will take you on that, they will trust you,” Comstock-Gay said in an interview with the Delaware Business Times upon his arrival in Delaware.
“If you’re not from here, that’s not an issue. People will take you for who you are. I felt like Delaware is a place that’s taking care of a place – and people – and that’s where I want to be,” he added.
Comstock-Gay, 56, is an interesting contradiction, someone with roots in the heartland of America – Nebraska (from where his mother’s family hailed), Michigan and Cleveland, Ohio – ordinarily all part of a traditional but more conservative values. But, he has the heart of a progressive, as someone who ran leftish political causes must be.
He spent a decade as executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Maryland from 1986-96; another three years from 2004-07 as executive director of the National Voting Rights Institute in Boston; and another three years from 2006-09 in New York City as Democracy Program Director for Demos: Ideas & Actions.
He got into the community foundation industry in 2009, becoming president and CEO of the Vermont Community Foundation in Middlebury, Vt., which he headed until year-end when he was recruited to Delaware to succeed Fred Sears, himself a Delaware native son who became an institution.
Comstock-Gay has a bachelor of arts degree in politics from Bucknell University in the Lehigh Valley, and a 1997 master’s in public administration from Harvard. He’s married, and he and his wife have three adult daughters, one of whom is being married in July. He brought home his progressive credentials, even adding the Comstock to his family name Gay “in the name of gender equity” when he married.
Comstock-Gay quickly gravitated to the community foundation industry.
“There are over 700 community foundations in the country, about 1,800 internationally, and they are in most parts of the country, although they continue to be formed. Their growth is amazing, and Silicon Valley’s is just huge!” he said. “The big idea is that they’re creating a permanent base of assets for [the benefit] of some place.”
The Delaware Community Foundation (DCF), he said, has between $250 million and $300 million in assets under management (AUM). At their heart, community foundations like Delaware’s are pretty simple. Most of the AUM is held in donor-advised funds, created by families ranging from wealthy to every-day successful. It takes only $10,000 to open a donor-advised fund, and for its stewardship, including investment management and fund distributions, the DCF receives 1 percent of the AUM.
Assuming a 5 percent growth rate in value, a $50,000 fund would generate $2,500 in net revenues. It would pay DCF about $500 and it would have $2,000 in net asset growth to distribute for charitable purposes, at the discretion of the donors, or their heirs.
At some point, for the truly wealthy, some financial rationale exists for setting up their own charitable foundation and running it themselves. The industry standard where that makes financial sense most often mentioned is about $20 million and more in AUM. Less than $20 million in AUM for charitable purposes and it often makes more sense for donors to pool their money in a community foundation to simplify record-keeping, administration, IRS compliance and investment management for the best possible returns.
“We are required to follow the language of a fund,” Comstock-Gay said of a donor’s right to have funds managed and distributed after her/his passing. “If something is no longer possible, then we have to ask “˜what’s the next closest thing?’ and find that.”
As a result, if a donor seeks to fund a scholarship to St. Joseph’s University, Villanova or another Catholic University for graduates of Salesianum School, it’s not up to the DCF to override the donor’s wishes to meet some other norm, standard or whim. And even not-for-profit organizations can place their own endowment funds with the DCF for management and distribution of the proceeds.
In Delaware, Comstock-Gay said he and his staff and board will be driven by the strategic plan that has been prepared. And because the DCF has some funds to distribute at its discretion, and because of the moral authority it has in terms of prioritizing community needs, the needs it identifies hence become an important part of the community dialogue.
“In Delaware, and in this country, there’s an opportunity gap, and it’s an extremely serious issue. People born in certain places in certain situations have an extremely hard time making it. It’s an issue that people from [GOP House Speaker] Paul Ryan to Barack Obama agree on. People are not able to have their piece of the American dream,” said Comstock-Gay
“In our strategic plan, what does Delaware become? We want to be more active at the tables in convening people, we want more collaborative-building initiatives. With a Delaware focus, we want to look at data at what the reality is. Where can targeted philanthropy make a difference?
“Look at substance abuse as an issue, for example. People who are “˜connected’ will have people who help you through that problem,” said Comstock-Gay. “If you don’t have a network of people with social capital, you’re going to fall hard and hit the sidewalk. We need entirely new ways of reconstructing America for everyone. If people don’t have hope, it’s hard to find a way out.”
Having heard that Delawareans can be a bit suspicious of people who are in Delaware to “check the box” on the resume, just to pass through en route to another, better job, Comstock-Gay said he’s here for the long haul.
“I’m planning to be involved in a far more active part of the community,” he said, “to be fully embedded in the community.”
