The Midland Area Community Foundation is one of two key institutional players in the MYPros Community Crowdfund — and arguably the more important one, because it's the organization providing the matching funds that make the program financially significant.
The Midland Area Community Foundation (MACF) is a registered 501(c)(3) public charity based at 76 Ashman Circle in Midland, Michigan. Community foundations like MACF exist to hold, invest, and distribute charitable assets on behalf of a community. Donors give money to the foundation, the foundation invests it, and the earned returns are distributed as grants and program support.
MACF is governed by a Board of Trustees and operates under the supervision of the Michigan Attorney General's Charitable Trust Section, as well as applicable IRS regulations for tax-exempt organizations.
The MYPros crowdfund matching money comes from MACF's Impact Investing Committee, which invests community assets and directs earned interest toward programs like this crowdfund. In simple terms: MACF holds community money, invests it, earns interest, and commits a portion of that interest to match the crowdfund.
The matching funds are real institutional money — $35,000 per year in recent cycles — drawn from assets that belong, in a meaningful sense, to the whole Midland community. That's why the governance of how those funds are directed matters.
As a 501(c)(3) public charity and a Michigan charitable trust, MACF is subject to several governance requirements:
In 2024, the crowdfund recipient was Allied Group Fitness, owned by Ali Huntoon — who simultaneously served on MACF's Board of Trustees. A board member's business receiving money from the foundation she governs is precisely the type of arrangement these governance rules are designed to prevent.
MACF's President and CEO, Sharon Mortensen, donated a combined $450 to the 2026 crowdfund campaign — the campaign her organization is committed to matching with $35,000. Whether this represents an appropriate use of the CEO's personal resources in relation to the foundation's institutional commitments is a governance question worth raising.
Kevin LaDuke is listed as MACF's Communications Officer. He is also the Chair of the MYPros Crowdfunding Subcommittee — meaning an MACF employee chairs the process that determines which businesses receive MACF matching funds. This dual role has not been publicly addressed by either MACF or the MBA.