Craig Mohre really didn’t want to be on the cover of Healthy New Albany Magazine.
Instead, the president of the New Albany Community Foundation pitched a cover concept featuring the four most recent chairs of the Foundation board.
“It’s not me; it’s us, and I think it makes the Foundation look stronger. It’s a lot of people making this happen,” Mohre says.
By “this,” he means the creation of the Jeanne B. McCoy Community Center for the Arts, the construction of a New Albany branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library and the millions of dollars awarded in grants, all among the myriad ways the foundation has helped the New Albany community since its 1994 inception.
Mohre sees himself – and the Foundation – as a “convener,” bringing the city, the school district, the township and individuals together for the common purpose of improving life in New Albany.
“Obviously there are so many benefactors in the community who help make it happen,” he says. “They’re the ones who are making things happen. We are just the instrument.”
If the New Albany Community Foundation is an instrument, it’s one that’s shaped fvirtually all of the features that make New Albany unique. And Mohre has been the one guiding it from the start.
Mohre grew up near Bryan, Ohio, in the far northwest corner of the state. He came to Columbus to study journalism at The Ohio State University.
“I needed a job when I was in college to help pay my way through school. ... A guy in my fraternity said they were hiring interns in a government office, so I got an internship, worked hard and got noticed and got a job,” Mohre says. “I ended up running a pretty high-profile campaign and that led to a job with a public affairs firm.”
One of the firm’s clients was Edwards Companies, which was constructing the interchange at Tuttle Crossing – the first privately funded, full-diamond interstate interchange. Mohre’s firm led the campaign to uphold the zoning for the mall.
During that campaign, he made connections that led to a new job working for The New Albany Company starting around 1994. His move to the New Albany Community Foundation came about when Jack Kessler, co-founder and chairman of The New Albany Company, asked Mohre to develop a plan for the Foundation in 2002. Up until that point, the Foundation had no employees and was simply an extension of the Columbus Foundation that awarded small grants to local nonprofits. Kessler tasked Mohre with devising a strategy to change that.
“I had some ideas about what I thought the Foundation could do and the role it could play in the community,” Mohre says. “And so I did it, and Jack called me weeks later and said, ‘We want you to run it,’ and I said, ‘Jack, I’ve never run a nonprofit in my life, and I’ve never run a foundation.’ He said ‘No, you know the community. You know what we need to do.’”
Mohre’s initial plan was to raise the Foundation’s profile by working on a large project that would draw the community’s attention: a library.
“We were new; we hadn’t done anything, so no one knew about us. How do you market a foundation that no one really knows about?” Mohre says. “You do projects that are visible. (You) pump the money in for the library and for things that they would notice, which gave us an instant positive profile.”
He also revamped the board, bringing in representatives from City (then Village) Council, Plain Township and New Albany-Plain Local Schools as ex officio members.
“We thought the role could be that of a convener, to bring people together – the different community leaders, different groups, the city, schools township, The New Albany Company – bringing them together to accomplish things together.”
That list of accomplishments keeps growing longer. The success of a library fundraiser featuring author and Pulitzer Prize winner David McCullough (the event raised $1.2 million) led to the creation of the Foundation’s annual fundraiser, A Remarkable Evening, which draws about 420 supporters each year.
Soon, Mohre’s attention turned to creating a venue for community gatherings. Ralph Johnson, then the superintendent of New Albany-Plain Local Schools, approached Mohre about plans for a high school auditorium. Voters had passed a bond issue, providing $5 million for its construction.
“Would the foundation be able to raise more money, like you did for the library, to make it better?” Mohre recalls Johnson asking him. Mohre countered, asking whether the district would be willing to having the auditorium serve the entire community, instead of just the schools. Johnson agreed.
“In typical New Albany fashion, everybody came together, rolled up their sleeves and made it happen,” Mohre says.
The resulting $15 million McCoy Center opened in 2008. A $7 million arts endowment established by the Foundation supports community programming held there.
The back wall of the conference room of the Foundation offices on the second floor at Market Square is covered in photographs of the various projects it has supported over the years.
“This wall tells a story, actually,” Mohre says, gesturing toward it and giving background on a few of the images. Photos of school children illustrate grants for school programming and equipment. Another photo shows the Ealy House, which the New Albany Plain Township Historical Society restored with support from the Foundation. The ambulance is an EMS unit purchased with money from the New Albany Surgical Hospital Fund.
Mohre’s day-to-day work at the Foundation is relationship-based. His days are typically filled with meetings, phone calls and emails with donors and with organizations seeking support. He also spends a lot of time planning A Remarkable Evening and the Foundation’s new lecture series, The Jefferson Series. Upcoming speakers in the series include past Remarkable Evening speaker and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Doris Kearns Goodwin, scheduled for 7 p.m. May 20, and former U.S. Senator and astronaut John Glenn, scheduled for 7 p.m. June 12.
Because he often attends evening meetings, Mohre’s days start early. He wakes around 5:30 to exercise. In the summer, that means a 20- to 30-mile bicycle ride two to three days a week.
“I started biking probably 10 years ago, at least, when I couldn’t run anymore because my Achilles (tendon) is falling apart and my knee is bad,” Mohre says.
Otherwise, he’ll use a stair stepper or an elliptical machine or run in the pool. Health has been more of a priority in Mohre’s life since an infection in his heart valve in 2009 landed him in the hospital for open heart surgery.
“They gave me an artificial valve,” says Mohre, now age 50. “Until that point, I think I felt pretty invulnerable. Then you start thinking anything can happen.”
When he doesn’t have any evening meetings, he tries to get home around 6 p.m. to spend time with his family. He met his wife, Lori, in high school. The couple married in 1988 and moved to Little Turtle around that time. Their daughter Sarah, 21, graduated from New Albany-Plain Local Schools. Rachel, 17, is a junior there.
Family hobbies include playing the board game Aggravation and cheering on the St. Louis Cardinals.
“My mom’s from Missouri and we were raised that way,” Mohre says of his dedication to Cardinals baseball.
In his personal life, he’s most proud of his family, Mohre says. Professionally, he’s proud of what the Foundation has been able to accomplish and that the community is able to trust it with donations.
And one of the things he enjoys most about his job is the people – both those served through the Foundation’s various projects and those who initiate them.
“The rewarding thing for me is all the wonderful people I’ve gotten to work with – the Foundation board members that have come and gone and continue today, the board chairs (from whom) I’ve learned so much. (They’re) really amazing, accomplished people and you can learn a lot watching them, how they get things done,” Mohre says. “That’s a lot of fun for me.”
Lisa Aurand is editor of Healthy New Albany Magazine. Feedback welcome at laurand@cityscenemediagroup.com.
