If there's something you need to know about Brookline, a call to Betsy DeWitt will probably lead to an answer.
"If you want to know something, or want to know the history of someone, you call Betsy and chances are she knows, and if not, she'll tell you who to call," said Caroline Hoppin, chairman of the Brookline Community Foundation's board of directors.
DeWitt, 62, has been the executive director of the foundation for two decades, using her extensive knowledge of Brookline to usher it from a service-oriented organization to a fund-raising one, with a more than $5 million endowment, that each year, awards about $200,000 in grants and runs other community programs.
But after 20 years in her job, DeWitt is planning to hand over the reins at the end of June.
"I'm sure it will be a hole in my life, but I'm so busy now [that I don't think about it]," DeWitt said during an interview at the community foundation's Webster Street offices earlier this fall. "I don't think this organization depends on me."
Others who work with her and know her would say DeWitt is just being humble.
"She's probably the ultimate networker," said Carla Benka, vice chairman of the board of trustees. "She can put people together, she can put pieces together," which Benka said make her good at her job. "She knows what she's talking about."
For two decades, DeWitt has been at the helm of an evolving organization and helped chart its course to what it is today.
DeWitt, who moved to Brookline in the 1970s with her husband, Dennis DeWitt, was hired in 1985 to lead the Brookline Friendly Society, a service organization with home-health care and a small community fund. In 1999, the health-care service was eliminated and the organization assumed the name the Brookline Community Fund.
DeWitt said this change from a direct service organization to purely a fund-raising one, was "a major decision."
"They hired me to, in effect, invent the Brookline Community Fund," said DeWitt, who has worn other hats in town, including president of the Lincoln School PTO and a member of the town's Advisory Committee.
This past summer, the organization realized yet another change when it was renamed the Brookline Community Foundation, in order to better reflect what the organization is and does.
During her tenure, DeWitt's goal has been to make the foundation a "permanent philanthropic resource" for Brookline residents, the place "where folks locally think to make donations."
She said she hopes the BCF has clarified its purpose as a local fund-raising organization, and will become an even bigger resource in the future.
Over the years, it has successfully funded many Brookline programs, including Steps to Success, an after-school educational program for low-income students.
"My heart is always with the people to whom I think are less fortunate," DeWitt said.
Another of DeWitt's achievements was getting the Robert Wood Johnson grant, a major health-care grant, said Hoppin. It was used to start the Brookline High Risk Youth Taskforce at Brookline High School, which helps students return to school after a long illness, incarceration, and other circumstances.
"That's one of probably the major accomplishments of the Brookline Community Fund under Betsy's leadership," Hoppin said.
DeWitt said one of her regrets is that the she will be leaving the foundation before its endowment reaches $10 million.
Molly Paul, director of programs and development for the organization, said she has worked with DeWitt for about 5 1/2 years.
"I think it's been a pretty special experience working with her," Paul said. "She has a unique perspective on the town. She's been an activist for the many, many, many years she's lived here. She's made this organization what it is. So it'll be interesting to see how it survives after she leaves."
Paul has thrown her hat in the ring for DeWitt's position. "I'm just waiting to see," she said. "I'd like the opportunity."
The board has finished accepting applications for a new executive director, and plans to begin interviews within the next month, Hoppin said.
Once she retires, DeWitt said she plans to take some time for herself, and looks forward to visiting her mother in North Carolina, and her two sons, who are studying in New York City and London.
She also said she plans to be able to devote more time to developing affordable housing in Brookline, in her capacity as president of the Brookline Improvement Coalition.
"I feel that I can leave everything in good hands," she said.
"Part of this decision is I feel like I have a good 15 or 20 years that I can be active and do all kinds of things, and then maybe I'll really retire," she said, laughing.
