Everything on this page is grounded in documented, publicly available facts. We're not speculating. We're not alleging crimes. We're asking the kinds of questions that a community foundation's own governance policies should already have answered — and that the public has every right to know the answers to.
The IRS expects all 501(c)(3) organizations to have and enforce conflict of interest policies. The Midland Area Community Foundation, as a charitable trust, is subject to Michigan's Supervision of Trustees for Charitable Purposes Act. Neither organization has publicly disclosed a conflict of interest policy specific to the crowdfund program.
A conflict of interest policy would establish who is permitted to apply, how selectors are screened for conflicts before reviewing applications, and what recusal procedures exist when conflicts are identified. Without one, there is no public standard against which the program's selections can be evaluated.
If such a policy exists, the MBA and MACF should be able to publish it. If it doesn't, that's an answer too.
The program presents itself as open to any qualifying Midland County for-profit business. But the people most likely to hear about the program, understand how to apply effectively, know the selectors personally, and pitch compellingly at a MYPros networking event are — by definition — MYPros members.
At least four of approximately ten known recipients have been confirmed MYPros members at the time of their selection. That's a significant percentage for a program that presents itself as community-wide. The question isn't whether members should be excluded — reasonable people could disagree on that. The question is whether the MBA has a policy on it, and whether that policy is public.
In 2024, Allied Group Fitness — owned by Ali Huntoon — received the MYPros crowdfund, which was matched with MACF funds. At the time, Ali Huntoon served on the Board of Trustees of the Midland Area Community Foundation. She disclosed this herself in a published community profile.
The concept of self-dealing in the nonprofit sector — where a foundation's funds benefit people with influence over that foundation — is something the IRS takes seriously. Whether this specific arrangement rises to the level of prohibited self-dealing under federal law is a legal question we're not qualified to answer. What we can say is that it is precisely the type of arrangement that most well-governed nonprofits' conflict of interest policies are designed to prevent — and no public recusal policy has been disclosed.
Kevin LaDuke is simultaneously a Communications Officer at the Midland Area Community Foundation and the Chair of the MYPros Crowdfunding program. He controls the selection process for determining which businesses receive money from his own employer.
This dual role — selector and representative of the funder — is a structural conflict that should be addressed by any well-governed program. Even if Kevin LaDuke acts with complete integrity and impartiality, the appearance of a conflict exists. Good governance is about eliminating that appearance, not just trusting that individuals will do the right thing.
We've identified at least four confirmed MYPros members among approximately ten known recipients. That's roughly 40% — a substantial portion for a program described as open to any Midland County business.
The MBA and MACF have access to complete records of every applicant, every applicant's membership status, and every selection decision. A simple transparency report disclosing how many applicants were MYPros members vs. non-members in each year, and what percentage of each group were selected, would answer this question definitively. We'd love to see it.
Every other MYPros crowdfund recipient has received substantial local press coverage — feature stories, check presentation photos, campaign recaps in Catalyst Midland, Max Loves Midland, the Midland Daily News, and Second Wave Media. The 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2025, and 2026 campaigns all have robust public documentation.
The 2024 Allied Group Fitness selection appears in a single line on the MBA's own program history page and almost nowhere else in the public record. No check presentation photos, no recipient profiles, no campaign recaps have surfaced through extensive searching. The absence of the usual celebratory coverage that accompanies every other year is notable — and unexplained.
Live Oak Coffeehouse pitched the Little Midland project at the June 18, 2025 pitch competition and was not selected — Brandon Morey's Downtownsend project won. Live Oak was then selected as the 2026 winner, pitching what appears to be the same Little Midland concept.
What changed between 2025 and 2026 to make Live Oak the selected winner? Did the project change significantly? Did the selection criteria change? Were the same subcommittee members involved in both years' selections? These are reasonable questions that the MBA should be able to answer with a simple public explanation.
We're not saying the answer is sinister. We're saying the question deserves an answer.
Sharon Mortensen, President and CEO of the Midland Area Community Foundation, donated a combined $450 (as Sharon A. Mortensen and as Rob & Sharon Mortensen) to the 2026 Live Oak crowdfund campaign — the campaign her organization is committed to matching with $35,000.
This creates an unusual dynamic: the CEO of the matching funder is personally participating in the public campaign trigger. Is this standard practice? Is there a policy governing whether MACF leadership may participate in campaigns the foundation will match? Has this happened in other years? The community deserves to know.