Atlanta Collaboration Project

Atlanta, Georgia, is setting a precedent of collaboration among nonprofit leaders, donors, and community foundations to build institutional strength in the Muslim philanthropic community and grow its integration into the world of philanthropy at large. In a remarkable display of unity and commitment, a collective of over 20 non-profit organizations and nearly a dozen high net worth individuals from Atlanta’s Muslim community have joined forces with the Community Foundation of Greater Atlanta (CFGA) to increase their impact. “The Atlanta Collaboration” released a report at the end of September sharing its process and early insights.

For many years now, the city’s bustling civic landscape has known a vibrantly diverse Muslim community and an array of organizers working to address issues in education, housing, economic disparity, racial inequity, healthcare, civic engagement, and the arts. While faith-based giving has been a pillar of philanthropy in the United States, and the report observes that “Muslims are represented in every major segment of society in nearly every part of the country” across ethnicity, race, class, and political orientation, the community has faced obstacles in the world of philanthropy that other major religious groups do not experience.

According to a white paper in 2020 by Chicago’s Community Collaboration Initiative (CCI) led by WF Fund, Muslim philanthropic leaders:

1) don’t have strong relationships with philanthropy at large,
2) receive significantly less funding than their interfaith partners, and
3) experience the challenge of feeling the need to continuously defend themselves to gain trust and respect.

As a result, much funding is left on the proverbial table that could be going to local communities that actively benefit from the services of Muslim-led nonprofits.

“The Atlanta Collaboration” includes both grassroots and nationally-recognized organizations spanning economic development, education, healthcare, the arts, community service, and civic engagement. The group’s recent report “Donors and Doers”, written by The Horizon Forum in partnership with WF Fund and Mr. Mohannad Malas, states that “the ultimate goal of this collective activity is to develop one or more Muslim-led donor collaboratives that pool human and financial resources together to address systemic socioeconomic disparities in the Atlanta region.” To do this, the group identified CFGA’s goals according to its “TogetherATL” equity strategy and found significant alignment in the missions of many local Muslim-led nonprofit organizations. In the domains that the Community Foundation seeks to overcome inequity, local organizations had been serving their communities to address issues — some with preexisting individual relationships with CFGA. However, these nonprofits found they shared capacity building needs with each other in the areas of governance, data collection, and sustainable finance. While identifying these shared needs opens up possibilities for support beyond just winning grants and donors, a series of learning and discussion sessions brought The Atlanta Collaboration to explore various funding investment structures like Field of Interest Funds, Giving Circles, and Corporate DAFs. Leaders are now working to solidify the structure that will enable the collaboration to create long-term support capabilities for all organizations involved. To read the full report, click here.