About MFi

Overview

The Medfield Foundation is a volunteer run community development effort, that seeks to improve many facets of life in Medfield. The MFi organization provides its volunteer fund administrators with the accounting and legal compliance assistance and oversight that allows those Medfield Foundation initiative fund administrators to then have successful fund-raising campaigns. The Medfield Foundation initiatives have covered most every aspect of Medfield.

The Medfield High School evergreen football field, the Dale Street School's playground and outdoor classroom, the Medfield High School track and bleachers, and the Middle School's auditorium's lighting and sound system all supported both the youth of Medfield and their education in the classic and broadest sense. The Medfield Night Fireworks is a Medfield Park & Recreation Commission entertainment, community development, and pride type of event, which has been melded with Fallfest, an evening of live music performed by Medfield High School students on a professional stage. The town's Medfield Youth Outreach (MYO) and the Medfield Youth Community Council (MYCC) are organizations whose primary goals are to assist the emotional health and well being of the youth of Medfield. The Zullo Gallery engages in arts education for adults, but also the youth of Medfield. The Natasha Domeshek Fund raises monies to fund a scholarship and to support those generally in need in Medfield, primarily via its Angel Run, a "fun run" road race held annually in December.

Mission

The Medfield Foundation, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable corporation whose mission is to facilitate the raising of private funds for major public needs or infrastructure in the Town of Medfield, with an emphasis on significant projects and capital expenditures to improve the quality of life for all Medfield residents. It was created and is run by volunteers. Under the auspices of its 501(c)(3) status, MFi assists with the monetary administration and legal compliance required with fundraising.

The MFi's plethora of funds allows each donor to target their donation to the specific community initiative or to the general category that they want to support.

History of the Medfield Foundation

The Medfield Foundation was created in 2001 as a result of a happy confluence between a desire to create something lasting in honor of Medfield's 350th anniversary as a town and the shortfall that always exists between what can be raised by property taxes in Medfield to support town projects and what is needed. During the long debate over the proposed reconstruction of three town schools the seed of the Medfield Foundation was planted, that perhaps there was a shared willingness amongst private individuals to engage in philanthropy for public purposes to make the Town of Medfield a better place for all its residents. That nascent thought, that people in town would be willing to contribute additional monies for municipal purposes beyond their assessed real estate property taxes to facilitate worthwhile causes or to get more in services than their taxes covered, was the genesis of the idea that became the Medfield Foundation.

To date this entirely volunteer run entity has raised over $1 million. for the Medfield projects. Donors are allowed to designate their donations to categories of Medfield town needs. In descending order of magnitude, the monies raised to date have paid for the Medfield High School's new evergreen football field, the Dale Street School's new playground and outdoor classroom, the Medfield High School's new track and bleachers, the Natasha Domeschek Fund and its Angel Run (www.AngelRun.org) which support people in need and a scholarship, the Medfield Night Fireworks, the Council on Aging bus, FOSI (Friends of Seniors, Inc.), the Center at Medfield (Medfield's Adult Community Center), the Middle School auditorium's lighting and sound system, and general support for the Medfield Youth Outreach workers, the Medfield Youth Community Council, the Zullo Gallery (www.zullogallery.org), and the Friends of Recreation.

The Medfield Foundation sponsored the Symphony of Community Support symphony orchestra concert event that opened the new Medfield High School auditorium and celebrated both volunteerism in Medfield and the three new school buildings. In 2006 the Medfield Foundation started a tradition of distributing free water and information to attendees of the Medfield Town meeting.

Goals

The Medfield Foundation has responded to many needs to date, as it seeks to improve almost every aspect of Medfield life. To date, almost all funds that have been raised have been spent on the specific initiative that has been sponsored, whether it is the Medfield High School evergreen football field, the Dale Street School's playground and outdoor classroom, or the Medfield High School track and bleachers. The monies raised for each have been spent to directly create those projects - the Medfield Foundation has passed through 99% of the monies raised through it to build each project.

Long term, the Medfield Foundation wants to create a larger endowment that will allow the MFi to entertain grant requests, to fund more projects to greater amounts, and to support an even greater diversity of projects for Medfield. Planned gifts to the MFi are the mechanism that will create that endowment over time. The Medfield's residents and their love for their town are the ones that will create that endowment for all in Medfield and for Medfield's future.

Annual Reports