‘Champion of nonprofits’: John Baker to retire from Community Foundation of Central Missouri

John Baker, executive director of the Community Foundation of Central Missouri, in 2010 was feeling pastoral burnout from his duties as senior pastor at First Baptist Church.

“This is difficult,” Baker said of his decision to leave the church at the time. “Because you have lots of friends, there’s a lot of investment in time and heart and love. Whenever you leave a congregation, there’s always some pain even though there are good things to come.”

He soon would transition, though, in 2011 to head up the relatively new foundation, which aims to “facilitate philanthropy … (making) charitable giving easy, fun, accessible, and having impact.” He took on the directorship following Roger Still, who was in the role for about year.

“He did a lot of the groundwork to get the bylaws done and get things filed,” Baker said about Still.

Baker has led the foundation for 13 years and he recently announced his retirement, set for mid-April.

For eight of Baker’s 13 years as director, Susan Hart has served on the foundation board, and is its chair. Baker is committed to philanthropy in the community and that is his main mission, she said.

“John has built a legacy with the community foundation during his 13 years of tenure. He has put together a strong foundation for us to continue that growth. He will be missed, but we wish him well on his well-deserved retirement,” Hart said.

The foundation board already has started the search for its next director, she added.

A new career

Baker and his wife, Judy, first moved to Columbia in 1997 for the job at First Baptist Church, another role he was in for 13 years, but his overall pastoral career spans 30 years.

“After 30 years, I was just ready to engage in a new career,” Baker said. “A lot of clergy have periods of burnout and that is what I was facing.”

Baker ended up being a match for the community foundation role because much of the work of a minister relates to money, he said, such as through fundraising and stewardship. Related interpersonal skills give a person objectivity when working with others, he added.

Baker’s transition from the church to the foundation was a smooth one, he said, having learned of the foundation after a phone call from a friend. A couple days after that conversation, he had a call from the board, and a couple weeks after that he had the job.

“The way I looked at my leadership of the church was trying to get people to not just stay in the building in the realm of thought, but to move beyond the building and take their compassion, while doing the work of the church, into the community,” Baker said. “I do the same kind of thing with the community foundation, but with funding and not necessarily with people, except for leaders of organizations.”

Founding the foundation

The foundation was established first by the City of Columbia following a vision process from 2008-09, but such an organization was under discussion for at least a decade prior, Baker said.

“The goal at that time was increasing revenue for local nonprofits and what would make donors want to give,” he said. “The community foundation is this perfect vehicle that works both with donors and a way to get revenue to the nonprofits. It was a perfect solution to what people were looking for over the years.”

The foundation officially was established June 2010 and announced by November. When Baker came on as director it would advance to a federally recognized, rather than just a state recognized nonprofit, and expanded its scope from Columbia to instead encompass the central Missouri region.

The foundation currently aids nonprofits in five area counties (Boone, Callaway, Cole, Cooper and Randolph), though its region is upward of 10 counties, Baker said. Additional counties include Adair, Audrain, Howard, Macon and Moniteau.

“Anything that we do here in Boone County, we can do for those other counties,” Baker said, adding while the foundation takes an objective approach to nonprofit support, it does not aid hate groups or illegal activities.

The 501(c)(3) nonprofit designation happened in 2012 and a year later the annual giving campaign, CoMoGives, was established in December 2013.

“We have been able to funnel lots of money into the local nonprofit sector,” Baker said about services offered by the foundation. “We can’t track every dollar that has stayed local. That is beyond our accounting abilities because our broad array of services.”

This includes donor-advised funds, which are invested over a longer term and then the foundation is told to which nonprofit the funds should go. For nonprofits or others seeking to establish philanthropic foundations, the community foundation can help those organizations or individuals do the necessary legwork and paperwork involved by establishing a fund through the community foundation. It takes some of that headache away.

“A family that has assets that wants to do something to create a legacy, they don’t necessarily have to create their own foundation. They can create a donor-advised fund with the community foundation and it will act as the charitable focus for that family,” Baker said.

Apart from nonprofits establishing funds with the foundation, it also can provide direct grants. In 2022 about $4.4 million was distributed and 2023 also has seen an impressive year, Baker said.

The direct granting window of community support grants or impact grants from the community foundation usually opens in June, closes in August and awards are provided afterward.

Post-retirement plans

In the initial two weeks following his official end date at the foundation, Baker plans to take it easy. After that, he already has many ways in which he can keep busy.

“I’m a hobbyist. I have lots of hobbies. … I’m kind of a scientist at heart and I like to learn things. What this has resulted in is a quest to do well at what I do and to learn. I’m a woodworker, a beekeeper, a beer brewer, a musician of sorts and an audiophile. I love to garden.

“I don’t think I’ll have any trouble filling my time.”

Baker and his wife, also plan to travel in May. Following that, he plans to explore volunteer opportunities or a part-time job he may want to undertake “to continue to contribute to the world around me,” Baker said.

Charles Dunlap covers local government, community stories and other general subjects for the Tribune. You can reach him at cdunlap@columbiatribune.com or @CD_CDT on Twitter. Subscribe to support vital local journalism.