By Alicia Philipp, president, Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta
What do a generous family, a trusted financial advisor and Atlanta’s beloved, annual Dragon Con have in common with Superman and Batman? Each of them has a superpower that lifts our region to greater positive impact through philanthropy!
Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta recently published our 2017 Annual Report celebrating our 66th year. In keeping with our city’s status of Hollywood south, we channeled the current trend of superhero blockbusters to inspire the report’s theme: unleashing the superpower of philanthropy!
Our region is full of heroes – donors seeking to leave a legacy, corporations giving back, nonprofit leaders making a difference. Each of these is strong on their own, but when they combine their powers it means super impact for our region.
To that end, in 2017 the Community Foundation awarded more than $100 million to nonprofits locally, nationally and internationally. More than 70% of those grants remained in the 23-county metro Atlanta region. Through $144 million in gifts to the Foundation, from current donors and through 59 new donor funds, the Foundation reached $1.1 billion in assets to meet our region’s future philanthropic needs.
Highlights from the Community Foundation’s year include:
- $100 million distributed through 8,200 grants to 3,100 nonprofit organizations in five Impact Areas: Arts, Community Development, Education, Nonprofit Effectiveness and Well-being
- Launched Learn4Life in conjunction with Atlanta Regional Commission, Metro Atlanta Chamber and United Way, aiming to identify barriers to students gaining a quality education and to scale solutions that will improve outcomes
- Made strides to bridge the equity gap in metro Atlanta through innovative partnerships with MailChimp Community College and our Spark Opportunity donor giving circle
- Transitioned a private, family foundation to a fund at the Foundation that allows the family to focus on the impact of their giving, not administrative tasks
- Celebrated the 25th Anniversary of Jeffrey Fashion Cares, a fashionable fundraiser that in its history has raised nearly $3 million for the Atlanta AIDS Fund to fight HIV/AIDS in our region
On a large scale, our grantmaking illustrates the power of collective impact. Impact can also be made on a smaller scale, when philanthropy is used as a power for good to help one person or one community. It doesn’t take X-ray vision to see that when we all harness our superpowers for good, out region is more powerful as a result. Read our full annual report here.
