CICF CEO Jennifer Bartenbach recently joined Josh Dukelow on Give Better Get Better, a podcast from Embolden for community foundation professionals. The conversation, published September 25, covers hunger data, trails and parks, support for nonprofits and the slow work of building trust across a nine-county region.

Here is some of what she shared, in her own words.

Listen to the full episode »

Starting with the people already doing the work

CICF is part of a collaborative of community foundations that includes Hamilton County Community Foundation, the Indianapolis Foundation, and Women’s Foundation of Indiana. Indiana is unusual, Jennifer notes, because all 92 counties have a community foundation. That means plenty of people already care deeply about their communities and are working on them.

The question CICF came back to while developing its strategic plan was whether those efforts share enough of an understanding of where the region is headed. She is clear that the answer is not one master plan or asking everyone to do the same thing. It is shared goals, clearer roles and a willingness to work together on things no single organization could accomplish.

“Our issues don’t stop at the county line.” Jennifer Bartenbach

What hunger data looks like across nine counties

The Indy Hunger Network convenes food insecurity organizations across Marion County and conducts a hunger study every two years. In 2025, CICF asked whether the study could be expanded to all nine Central Indiana counties. Jennifer says it added little to anyone’s workload, and it gave those counties data they did not have before.

“What you start to see is that you can dispel the myth that only the large urban area has hunger, or that it’s only downtown Indianapolis, where we have the homeless population. It’s not that.” Jennifer Bartenbach

The findings were shared with each county individually, along with a picture of how hunger connects across the region.

Trails, parks and the funding nobody told you about

Jennifer uses parks and trails as another example. Each county has its own system, and she asks what could happen if they were connected.

“What if we could build something that allowed our residents to experience Central Indiana on a greater scale?” Jennifer Bartenbach

She also describes conversations in outlying counties about a large parks initiative, and funding opportunities those counties did not know about.

“You often think people know what the funding opportunities are, and they don’t.” Jennifer Bartenbach

Nonprofits need more than funding

CICF does not run a large unrestricted grantmaking endowment, so Jennifer says the foundation had to think about other ways to strengthen the nonprofit sector. One of those was bringing Charitable Advisors into CICF. Charitable Advisors already offered nonprofit sustainability resources, including a newsletter, trainings, executive director searches and salary surveys, and CICF chose to build on that work.

“Organizations need more than funding. They need strong leadership, access to talent, and the capacity to keep serving their communities.” Jennifer Bartenbach

Why relationships matter before a crisis

Jennifer ties this work to the recent flooding in Central Indiana. Relationships built ahead of time, she says, show up when they are needed.

“When people know one another, trust one another and understand what’s happening locally, you can move resources faster and respond in ways that are more useful to the people who need them.” Jennifer Bartenbach

Advice for anyone trying to work across boundaries

Asked what she would tell leaders in similar regional structures, Jennifer says collaboration is easier to name than to do.

“I think collaboration is a really easy word to say. It’s very easy to get people around a table, but building enough trust to work toward something together takes time, and you have to stay in it.” Jennifer Bartenbach

She adds that you need to know who is truly invested, because not everyone believes in the work.

“You can’t confuse convening with collaboration. That’s really easy to do, but you have to show up, and you have to stay.” Jennifer Bartenbach

From CFO to CEO

The episode also covers Jennifer’s path to the CEO role, including her mentor Brian Payne and what she gained from knowing the foundation’s operations from the inside.

“You know every component of the foundation, and I think that brings a unique lens to the work.” Jennifer Bartenbach

Listen to the full episode »

Full Transcript

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and readability. Filler words and false starts were removed.

Josh Dukelow: Today, I’m delighted to welcome a new guest to the show, Jennifer Bartenbach, CEO of Central Indiana Community Foundation. Jennifer, welcome to Give Better Get Better.

Jennifer Bartenbach: Hi. Good afternoon.

Josh: Thanks so much for being here. I’m glad to get to know you. Why don’t we start by having you introduce yourself and your community foundation to our audience?

Jennifer: Sure. Like you said, I’m Jennifer Bartenbach, the CEO of Central Indiana Community Foundation. Our mission at CICF is to build a community of opportunity, no matter place, race or identity, and our vision is for Central Indiana to be the most connected, philanthropic and impactful region in the nation.

We’re a unique entity in that we’re part of a collaborative where multiple community foundations work together across the Central Indiana region. Our cornerstone entities within the collaborative are the Indianapolis Foundation, Hamilton County Community Foundation and Women’s Fund of Central Indiana. We work with donors, nonprofits, community leaders and other foundations to help make that possible.

I’ve been at CICF for 13 years. I was the CFO and COO for 10 of those, and I’ve been in my CEO role for three. One of the things I love about community foundation work is that we get to see across so many different parts of a community. We have an opportunity not only to support important work, but also to connect people and ideas that might not otherwise find one another.

From a CICF perspective, we don’t have an unrestricted grantmaking endowment. We have special interest funds that we help do grantmaking for, and we have fundholders, and then we support the other entities in the collaborative. It creates a unique opportunity for us. I know there are a lot of community foundations like that in the country. To your intro, I feel like we could spend the whole time on this, because I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about it. But that is where we really intersect: that huge component of philanthropic advising.

Josh: Yeah, being able to bring that knowledge and expertise to donors who are looking to be more strategic and get more out of their giving.

Jennifer: Correct.

Josh: And your background is in the finance function, and now you’ve risen into leadership. How did that work for you? Was it an obvious next step? Tell us a little more about that.

Jennifer: I’ve spent my entire career in the nonprofit space, outside of a short stint in public accounting for about three years out of college. I spent eight years at our art museum here in Indianapolis, and then I came to CICF, which was actually a client of mine when I was at Forvis Mazars, the accounting firm I worked for.

If you had asked me 13 years ago whether I’d be sitting in this seat, I don’t know that I would have said yes. I had an incredible mentor in Brian Payne, a longtime community leader who was at CICF for 23 years. He did a fantastic job helping me understand what I wanted to do in the next iteration of my career. He worked with me on the things I thought I was good at and the things I needed support in. One of those was fundraising, which you don’t typically do as a CFO and COO. So in his final three to five years, he spent a lot of time making sure I was the best candidate I could be for the CEO role.

That’s not to say I assumed I would get it. We did a national search and went through the process, just like everybody else. But what I think is interesting about being an internal candidate, with my background in operations, is that you know every component of the business. You know every component of the foundation, and I think that brings a unique lens to the work.

I also think that when I first started in the role and got to be around some of my counterparts, you definitely have that moment of imposter syndrome. You have people who have held political office and worked overseas and have all of this incredible experience that I didn’t have. But I think I bring a perspective to the field that others may not.

Josh: Yes, there is a great deal of value in someone who is from the community. We often see people in this industry bring their talents from one community to another, but there’s a different kind of value in a person who has the longevity, the history and the relationships, like you do in your region. I appreciate you taking us into your career and behind the scenes.

Next, Jennifer, I want to talk about one big thing you’ve been working on at your community foundation. What’s the one big thing that has been front of mind and central to your work?

Jennifer: The one big thing we’ve been working on is how we take all of the energy in our community, the generosity and good work happening across Central Indiana, and connect it more intentionally. We have really strong organizations, committed donors and great community foundations. Indiana is unique in that there are 92 counties, and there is a community foundation representing every single one of them. It’s a really interesting structure.

There are already so many people who care deeply about the region, and there are important efforts underway to gather data, understand community needs and move particular issues forward. But the question we’ve come back to as we did our strategic plan is: Do we have a shared enough understanding of where we’re trying to go and how each of us can contribute? You often work in your own county, your own niche of the market, but our issues don’t stop at the county line.

We don’t think we need to create one big master plan or one big regional strategic plan, or ask everyone to do the same thing. I think it means thinking more seriously about shared goals and clearer roles, and about where we can work together to accomplish something none of us could do alone.

This year, we’ve been leaning into that in pretty tangible ways. We’ve been meeting with community foundation leaders across the region. We want to understand what’s happening in those counties, because those are the people who have their pulse on what’s happening and have the resources on the ground. We want to explore where there may be opportunities to work together.

Parks and trails are one example, because those investments connect health, economic development, quality of life and how people experience their communities, and we are one big connected region. We all have independent trail systems. What if we could build something that allowed our residents to experience Central Indiana on a greater scale?

Josh: I love that example, because you can imagine each community building out an infrastructure that’s perfect for itself. But then when you get to the end, it doesn’t connect to the next community’s trail system. By bringing those conversations together, with the people who are putting the resources into the ground, literally in this case, you can make sure that what you’re each building is more than it otherwise would be, because it connects to something bigger than itself.

Jennifer: Absolutely.

Josh: And that applies beyond trails. You can think of it with an area like hunger or education or literacy, where working across systems and communities can have a much bigger impact in the end.

Jennifer: Hunger is a great example. The Indy Hunger Network is the convener for food insecurity organizations throughout Marion County, the largest county in the state, which includes Indianapolis. Every two years, they do a hunger study to understand where people are grappling with hunger. In 2025, we asked if we could expand that data collection to the nine counties that make up Central Indiana. It didn’t take much. It didn’t really add to anybody’s workload, but it allowed us to capture data these counties didn’t have.

What you start to see is that you can dispel the myth that only the large urban area has hunger, or that it’s only downtown Indianapolis, where we have the homeless population. It’s not that. The data was incredible to see all together. We were then able to share it individually with each of those counties, so they knew what was happening in their own county and also how it was interconnected throughout the entire Central Indiana region.

Josh: That’s leveraging the convening power of community foundations to bring together so many different entities. Would that include nonprofit organizations, government entities, funders, people like that?

Jennifer: Absolutely.

Josh: And what did you see happen? What was made possible, or what ended up being different, because you were thinking on this larger regional level instead of letting communities operate on their own? Was there anything where you thought, “That would not have happened if we hadn’t taken this approach”?

Jennifer: I think there are funding opportunities that individual counties probably wouldn’t access on their own. Right now, we’re trying to understand the things we could come together and work on. It’s been a really interesting exercise, because you often think people know what the funding opportunities are, and they don’t. There’s a big parks initiative right now that we’re having conversations about in our outlying counties, and they didn’t know about it. So just bringing that information forward and sharing it makes a difference.

Another thing we did this year is invest in strengthening the nonprofit ecosystem through our partnership with Charitable Advisors. Charitable Advisors has been doing nonprofit sustainability work through their newsletter, their trainings, their executive director searches and their salary surveys. We didn’t need to reinvent that, so we brought them in-house, and they’re now part of our team, leveraging all of that incredible work. Organizations need more than funding. They need strong leadership, access to talent, and the capacity to keep serving their communities. Being an organization that doesn’t fund in a large way, we needed to figure out those other components.

Even the recent flooding has reinforced that same idea. We had significant rainfall for several weeks and have had historic flooding, the worst it’s been in over 100 years. When people know one another, trust one another and understand what’s happening locally, you can move resources faster and respond in ways that are more useful to the people who need them.

For me, it’s not been about any one project. It’s about building the relationships and connective tissue that make all of the efforts stronger. As cheesy as it is, we say you can move at the speed of trust, and relationships take a long time. When you have something like a flood or a natural disaster, you see where there aren’t relationships and where there are. We can see that right now in how resources are mobilizing.

Josh: Absolutely. Disaster response is another great example of where working across boundaries, often arbitrary political ones, is essential to using your resources fully.

I love the example you shared about Charitable Advisors, because one of the things the donors and advisors I work with want to know is, if I give this organization a grant, are they going to use it well? If you can speak to the quality of leadership, program evaluation and all the things that make grants go further toward the mission, that builds trust between donors and organizations and enables them all to do more together. It’s another great example of something that multiplies impact across the spectrum. If you weren’t doing that, if you didn’t have these in-house professionals, nobody else really has that incentive or plays that role. So you’re able to do this work across the region that no one else would necessarily be in a position to do.

Those are some great examples of connecting across the region for bigger impact. For someone working in a similar structure, where their community foundation is one piece of a larger region and they’d like to collaborate, communicate and coordinate their work better, do you have any advice or lessons to share?

Jennifer: I think collaboration is a really easy word to say. It’s very easy to get people around a table, but building enough trust to work toward something together takes time, and you have to stay in it. It’s not one visit to a county and saying, “Well, I created the relationship there.” It’s really meaning it and staying in it.

I think it’s hard. You have to get the right people around the table and know who is really invested in the work, because the reality is that not everybody believes in it. You have to see that out of the gate, and know who your trusted partners are. And I think you can’t confuse convening with collaboration. That’s really easy to do, but you have to show up, and you have to stay. If you had asked me three years ago, I wouldn’t have realized how long and how hard that is.

Josh: Right, not a second visit, but the tenth visit. That is so important to long-term relationships. Thank you for sharing the lessons learned from your work. I think that’s a really important insight.

The last thing I want to ask you about is your recommendation for our Culture Corner. Is there a book, TV show, movie, song, something you’re passing the time with or finding joy in these days?

Jennifer: I recently watched Five-Star Weekend. I don’t know if you’ve heard of it.

Josh: I’ve heard of it.

Jennifer: It’s a book by Elin Hilderbrand, and it’s set in Nantucket. I went into it thinking it would be a fun, lighthearted story about a group of women coming together for a beautiful weekend in Nantucket. It ended up being so much deeper than that. It was about women who represent different seasons of someone’s life coming together. They all have their own experiences, struggles and assumptions. What has stayed with me after finishing it is how those relationships deepen when people are willing to move past the surface, be honest about what they’re carrying, and support one another in difficult times.

What resonated with me is that it’s a reminder that relationships don’t become meaningful because everything is easy. They become meaningful because people are willing to show up, work through the uncomfortable moments and make room for one another. As I was putting it down and saying that out loud, I thought, that’s really what community foundation work is.

Josh: I was thinking the same thing.

Jennifer: My husband and I take turns picking shows, and I picked this one thinking it would be something light to pass the time. It wasn’t. I was very tearful every night, but it really makes you think about what’s important. We’ve all had people close to us go through a divorce or a death, all of those things, and it makes you think about what that means for all the people in your life. It was really good.

Josh: I love that. The lighthearted recommendations are nice, and sometimes something a little more poignant is important. So, something to take away from us. Jennifer Bartenbach is CEO of Central Indiana Community Foundation. Jennifer, thank you so much for being here on the show today.

Jennifer: Thank you so much. It’s been a pleasure.

Josh: And thank you, dear listener, for tuning in to this episode of Give Better Get Better, presented by Embolden. We’d be grateful if you subscribed to the show on the podcast player of your choice, and if you shared this show with a community foundation colleague or on your social media. Your endorsement is a great way to help others in our industry find this show. Thank you so much, and as always, reach out with anything on your mind at givebettergetbetter@gmail.com.