Why we need Joplin Tomorrow
In the next few years, Joplin will likely receive hundreds of millions of dollars in aid from the federal and state governments and from humanitarian non-profits such as the American Red Cross and United Way.
All that assistance will help the survivors – some 150 individuals perished in the storm — rebuild their lives as best they can. It will also help the community rebuild some of its publicly owned infrastructure. And it will help small businesses that were damaged or obliterated by the F-5 tornado re-establish their operations, if they want, in the Joplin area.
But no matter how much aid is forthcoming from those sectors, it won't be enough unless it's complemented by something else: a fund that enables new businesses to locate in the path of destruction, or that enables old ones to expand or to rebuild but along new lines. That's where Joplin Tomorrow comes in.
Joplin Tomorrow will do more than enable Joplin to restore the business base it already had. It will enable the community to shape a new future by facilitating new commercial and industrial growth. Unhampered by SBA rules, it will be able to be more generous in lending the working capital companies may need to navigate through the long recovery period. It will also help fund a strategic plan to guide the reconstruction effort. Finally, the new fund will give Joplin civic and business leaders a stronger voice in the rebuilding of their own community.
The non-profit, tax-exempt fund will seek to begin operations with as much as $10 million raised through charitable donations. The Danforth Foundation contributed the first $500,000 through a grant on May 27. The grant was the Foundation’s last; after 84 years, the Foundation ceased operations, as long scheduled, on May 31.
But it was fitting that the Foundation would dedicate its last remaining dollars to tornado-ravaged Joplin, because the Foundation actually had its roots in a similar disaster 115 years ago, almost to the day of the May 22 cataclysm in Joplin.
On May 27, 1896, an F-4 tornado blasted through downtown St. Louis and East St. Louis as well. That twister killed at least 255 people and destroyed the mill, at 12th and Gratiot, of the Robinson-Danforth Commission Company. The majority owner of the two-year- old company, which produced feed for farm animals, was 25-year old William H. Danforth. He had acquired his majority stake on May 25.
There was no tornado insurance at the time; Danforth was ruined. He sought help from a St. Louis banker, Walker Hill, who knew and trusted him. Hill loaned the young man $25,000.
From that loan sprang the Ralston Purina Company, an international corporate giant in the animal and pet food business. And from the Ralston Purina Company came the Danforth Foundation, which was established with company stock in 1927.
Joplin Tomorrow aims to provide that kind of help to the entrepreneurs of today in Joplin. It will be administered by a board of five Joplin citizens, all from the private sector, who, like Walker Hill, may well know the applicants for assistance.
The Joplin Tomorrow fund will make both revolving loans and equity investments as it deems fit. It will have the flexibility to help businesses navigate their way through challenges that will no doubt take years to surmount. The experience of other disaster-struck communities has highlighted the importance of that flexibility, especially in dealing with issues that surface in the long term.
Fund-raising for the fund begins now. The Joplin business community has already pledged to contribute to the best of its ability. But major assistance will be needed from individuals, businesses, and foundations across Missouri, the entire country, and the world.
Contributions will be tax-deductible. Please help Joplin Tomorrow.