Reflections from Frank: What Atlanta taught me about community in 2024

By Frank Fernandez, president and CEO

As we close out 2024, I’m sharing some thoughts in what I hope will become an annual letter to our Board, donors, institutional investors, and staff —all of you who help ensure the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta remains of and for the community.

We do not heal in isolation but in community. – S. Kelley Harrell

For the past 10 years, I’ve called Atlanta home, and in that time, I have reveled in the dynamic culture that one can only find here and agonized over the disparities that surface with any growing city, especially in the South.

Atlanta holds a special place in my heart. My children spent their formative years here. It is home for me now. The imprint of this city runs deep, and the sense of acceptance and community I’ve found here keeps me here, curious and wanting to create better for all.

Community is not just a place; it is the relationships we create. It’s the places and people and spaces that we know and love. It is the ties that bind us together. It is being WITH and FOR each other, irrespective of whether we always agree – be it politics, sports or favorite fried chicken sandwich in town (Hattie B’s for me!).

And the communities we are a part of evolve and change based on our passions, seasons of life and milestone moments in time.

For me, Atlanta in and of itself is a complex, deeply rooted in culture, vibrant, full of opportunity community. It isn’t any one thing, any one type of community. Atlanta has layers, and within those layers, what I know to be true—what Atlanta has taught me to be true—about our community is this: that regardless of what’s happening around us, we are more alike than not. That what affects one of us affects all of us, and that when we show up for each other and work together, we create better outcomes for everyone.

In my own life, I saw this happen not too long ago when my siblings and I came together to support my mother and father during the last days of his life. Each of us playing a role in supporting my mother and each other during that hard, fragile time. If we hadn’t come together like we did, it would have been much, much harder. That is what community does – we are there for each other.

In my job as CEO of the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, I am reminded every day of what can happen when we work together toward the things we all want: a safe, comfortable home that we can afford; the opportunity to exercise our gifts and talents and earn a living wage; and the chance to provide a foundation for our children, so their dreams can take flight.

This year, the Foundation – in partnership with our donors, nonprofit partners and others – mobilized the power of community to help our neighbors have a chance at a good life.

In one week in October, our donors dispersed $4.5M to various organizations. After Hurricane Helene ravaged parts of the Southeast in October, 57 of our donors contributed $1,519,000 to hurricane relief. Over the past two-and-a-half years, we provided $73M towards more than 3,000 affordable housing units. And after an art gallery in Atlanta closed without warning, the Foundation provided emergency grants to relocate artists, helping to solidify our role as the largest funder of mid-size (<2M) arts organizations in the city of Atlanta.

This was only possible because our community came together. We showed up for each other on the things that we know matter to our Atlanta.

Thank you to our donors for working alongside us to create impact; many thanks to our nonprofit partners for your continued collaboration with the Foundation and for helping to make the Atlanta region a better place; to our Board and staff for your commitment to this work; and to Atlantans for teaching us all the power of community.