Longtime executive director Joan Moore retires; Beth Stowe fills role
As the Leelanau Township Community Foundation (LTCF) prepares to celebrate its 80th anniversary this summer, it is also welcoming new leadership.
The organization, which is the third oldest community foundation in the state, works to support and better the community through various grant opportunities and programs that assist families as well as other entities in the area.
In October 2024, longtime LTCF executive director Joan Moore retired from her role, making way for fellow Northport resident and neighbor Beth Stowe to serve in the position.
“It has been a real honor and unexpected pleasure to serve the foundation in this role for the last 15 years. I couldn’t have asked for a better position,” Moore said. “My experiences with this role will help guide me into retirement and life’s next adventures… This is an extremely rewarding field and position in every regard, but working closely with board members, donors and community members and seeing our grant dollars at work is a huge reward.”
Moore describes the foundation as a “real jewel” in the community, noting that she knows of no other community foundation that serves a township and can focus their resources on such a small footprint. The respect and commitment the organization has for its founders, mission, and history was instilled in Moore as executive director and “carried forward by the LTCF Board for generations.”
“For many years, we have had the tradition of reaching out to the community to guide us in determining our priorities,” Moore said. “We do this by networking with the community through surveys, meetings, focus groups, a community based leadership team, donors, and experts in the field. All of these efforts direct the board and executive director to establish current priorities. Most recently, workforce housing and childcare have been at the top of our list.”
Stowe, who worked for 26 years in public education, was previously an elementary teacher at Northport Public School. After retiring from teaching last year, Stowe said she wanted to find another job that would allow her to continue working and serving in the community. When she came across the LTCF position during her search, she knew right away that she wanted to apply at the Northport nonprofit.
“My whole work career I’ve been dedicated to helping other people and I’ve always been a huge advocate for families and children. When I retired from teaching, that’s the part that I thought was missing,” Stowe said. “So it really worked out beautifully in my life right now.”
Stowe got the job and jumped right in, and throughout the two month transition period, worked with Moore, her mentor and predecessor. Moore would explain and go over every part of the job with Stowe, who always had answers at the ready from her 15 years of experience working for the nonprofit.
“She (Moore) knows what this job is and it was great just to work beside her,” Stowe said. “She (Moore) calls LTCF a jewel, but she’s a jewel and she’s done a lot for the foundation. The nonprofit world is a beautiful place to work because everyone is here to help you and your job every day is to help others. In this job, you get to be part of the community and give back and that feels pretty special to be able to do that and it makes me feel good that I can help someone else.”
Both Moore and Stowe previously crossed paths when Stowe’s son and daughter were part of the youth advisory committee (YAC) at Northport Public School. The LTCF has oversight over the youth endowment fund, with YAC being a program that gives youth the chance to learn about the basics of philanthropy by making decisions on grant applications for those funds.
Stowe said just from her time working with Moore during the transition process, the dedication to her (Moore’s) community and the work to make it a better place was apparent and is what helped in her success at the organization for over a decade. Not only did Moore consistently meet foundation national standards, Stowe said many community issues like attainable housing and child care were always high on her priority list to tackle.
“That’s what I think her driving force was in everything that she (Moore) did — how can we make this better for everyone,” Stowe said.
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