The Southern Tier West Development Foundation has a concentrated and deliberate focus on Community Vitality.  We consider the community the primary customer of our products and services.  Building better, stronger, more vital communities in the region is the principal business of the Development Foundation.  As such, our grant making, convening, donor services and other program work we do with community stakeholders, non-profits, donors, and partners are considered a means to the end of building stronger cities, towns, and villages that comprise the region.

In our work we value trust, accountability, integrity, and objectivity; non-partisan activities that bring people together around important community issues; learning and innovation; openness, inclusiveness, and representation of the region's communities; building on a community's strengths; privacy of our donors; local leadership and civic engagement; processional development of the Foundation's staff, board, and volunteers and the contributions to make the Foundation; and the strength and breadth of being a regional organization.