SAFSF Executive Director Clare Fox and Senior Membership Associate Holly Hanes sat down with longtime SAFSF member and recently retired Executive Director of Lumpkin Family Foundation, Bruce Karmazin, to reflect on his career and two decades of membership with SAFSF.
With a core focus on promoting health and wellness through sustainable food systems, mental health initiatives, and regenerative agriculture, the Lumpkin Family Foundation is a private, family foundation based in Illinois. At the SAFSF 2025 Forum, Lumpkin Family Foundation celebrated 20 years as a member of Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Funders.
Bruce Karmazin recently stepped down as Executive Director after 23 years at the foundation. During his time as an active SAFSF member, Bruce served on the SAFSF Steering Committee (the precursor to the Board of Directors), multiple Forum planning committees, and more.
From Bruce: “This has been a profoundly meaningful journey, and it has been the greatest privilege of my career to represent the Lumpkin family and the Lumpkin Family Foundation in East Central Illinois and beyond, synthesizing a vision for healthy, sustainable communities into strategies and programs with real impact.”
The following interview has been slightly edited for brevity and clarity.
What drove you to SAFSF membership in the first place?
When we started, policy was just not something the field was interested in or thinking about, for fear of rules around lobbying. To SAFSF’s credit, it’s been a nice evolution to have watched SAFSF step into policy.
Lumpkin Family Foundation was one of the first to step up and make a gift on policy (Good Food Policy). That first gift of policy has inspired others to give – it’s a ripple effect. Everybody has that opportunity to use SAFSF as leverage into things we care about. Policy is the biggest lever we have to make a difference, and that’s an important lesson I think folks have learned and are still learning.
How have you collaborated with SAFSF?
When we started [as SAFSF members], we gave a few hundred thousand dollars out. We did not have a lot of partners, or a lot of folks that were interested in food and agriculture. The growth of SAFSF has really coincided with the growth of the field. SAFSF has been the space for collaboration, particularly with other foundations, and it lessens the burden on nonprofit organizations to come to each of us funders individually. The biggest thing in my life around this work has been collaboration, elevated through engagement with SAFSF.
Collaboration is important – leveraging the money, power, expertise, and staff time is critical. The collegial support is everything! As a result, nonprofits are so much stronger now! When I first started, there may have been three-four-five EDs grossly underfunded. Today, there is strong leadership and not as much a feeling of competition, fighting over the same dollars.
What notable connections have come from SAFSF?
Fresh Taste (SAFSF member) was formed in 2022 with connections forged in SAFSF, and has similar roots: humble beginnings as a learning community. At the time, Boards were not interested in co-funding, and trustees were not interested in giving up the power that you give up when you put money into a pot with others. Fresh Taste is a collaborative funding initiative working to improve the Chicago region’s future through food, and recently launched the Chicago Region Food System Fund. These opportunities to connect were provided to us at the SAFSF Forum.
We joined collaborations to learn, now, we are [doing] joint grantmaking. In fact, now more of our funding at Lumpkin Family Foundation is joint or collaborative versus on our own! Learn more about SAFSF On the Road: Chicago.
What has been SAFSF’s impact in the field these past 20 years?
When someone decides, or when a foundation or family decides they want to work in food, there’s not a lot of places to go where they can find trustworthy relationships and opportunity to learn. SAFSF has been that; it facilitates philanthropy to grow and lead.
SAFSF is the place for people to come together and identify the things we like in other programs, projects, places, and things in other parts of the country to replicate and learn from in our part of the world. So much of SAFSF work is unseen – it’s invisible – hard to keep track of all the things! Inspires a lot of activity that we just don’t see.
How did engagement with SAFSF support The Lumpkin Family Foundation as a family foundation?
The Lumpkin Family Foundation is a small family foundation that deploys $2.5 million annually to grants and foundation-initiated programs. The Foundation focuses on investments in East Central Illinois, the original service area of Illinois Consolidated Telephone (ICTC), the company founded by the Lumpkin family in 1894. Working in a small foundation in a rural community – there are not a lot of colleagues to draw on. Mentors in SAFSF, like Oran, Rich, and Mark, have meant a great deal.
The Lumpkin Family Foundation really strives to be a learning organization, and from the earliest days, it has done what it could. SAFSF and the Forum have been the place to learn and draw from SAFSF partners. The learning cannot be understated.
One of the relationships we have is with Proofing Station (SAFSF member), of which I have had the pleasure to serve as president and treasurer at the same time. The Board is growing stronger, and it grew out of the relationships and the trust that was developed through things like building Fresh Taste. We did not create the concept or idea but joined quickly when friends at Kinship Foundation (SAFSF member) said here’s something we’re working on in the impact investment space.
How did engagement with SAFSF support you as the leader of a family foundation?
SAFSF provided an opportunity to become more leaderly myself. I was new to the field when I joined SAFSF, and it was early on in SAFSF – being a part of the growth of the organization has been a treat. Most Forums we have 1-2 family members also attend, and it provides a ‘common language’ and inspiration for them to bring back to the board.
Ila Duncan stepped off the board at Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Funders in 2024 – she grew up with SAFSF and has been coming to Forums since she was a child. We are held back when we cannot get more leaders involved – when you have a question, you know who to call… and when you don’t, you contact SAFSF staff, and then you do [know who to call].
What are you most proud of in your time at Lumpkin Family Foundation?
Lots of foundations are pretty fickle…Lumpkin Family Foundation has been working on agriculture long before I was and has adapted. Twenty-five years ago, they were deep in organics… and pivoted to sustainable agriculture (the ‘SA’ of SAFSF!), pivoted to local, and shifted to being more directive around climate change. I am proud of the Lumpkin Family board for taking leadership and being adaptable… allowing for collaboration; I am proud of the grantees we have helped to grow… they are stronger now. That alone makes collaboration more easy.