Our History
For Greater Atlanta: 75 Years of Meeting the Moment
Every city has defining moments that test its resolve and reveal its character. Moments when people come together to solve problems and imagine a better future.
Over the past 75 years, Atlanta has experienced many defining moments. From keeping Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s papers in his hometown, to responding to the Atlanta Child Murders, from strengthening neighborhoods and nonprofits to confronting housing affordability and a global pandemic, these chapters have shaped the city we know today.
These 12 stories explore some of those moments and the people, partnerships, and generosity that helped move Atlanta forward. Together, they demonstrate the role a community foundation can play, not only as a grantmaker, but as a convener and trusted partner helping a region meet the moment.
Explore some of the defining moments that have shaped Atlanta and discover how philanthropy helped our region respond, grow, and thrive.
A History of Giving. A Story Still Unfolding.
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A shared beginning
Four Atlanta banks come together to create the Metropolitan Foundation of Atlanta. Citizens and Southern National, First National, Fulton National and Trust Company of Georgia pool their charitable resources, beginning the story of today’s Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta.
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Generosity finds its footing
With A. B. Padgett as our first executive director and an office in the Candler Building, the Foundation begins to take shape. Our earliest grantmaking supports 119 Atlanta nonprofits with more than $450,000.
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Connecting giving with civic leadership
Frank Robinson succeeds Padgett, dividing his time between the Foundation and the Chamber of Commerce, where he develops Leadership Atlanta. During his tenure, the Foundation reaches a milestone: $1 million in grants to 339 nonprofits.
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Finding a way forward
After a period of slow growth, civic leader Dan Sweat helps the Foundation reorganize and pursue a larger role in Atlanta. In 1977, Alicia Philipp becomes executive director, beginning a leadership chapter that will span more than four decades.
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Helping nonprofits grow stronger
We begin offering training for nonprofit leaders. Those early sessions grow into the Nonprofit Resource Center and, eventually, the Georgia Center for Nonprofits—a place for organizations to find support for the work behind their missions.
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Supporting an early response to AIDS
As the AIDS crisis emerges, we fund an education program delivered by the Atlanta Gay Center to the Fulton County Health Department. The grant supports a local response to a new public health emergency.
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A place for children to be children
In the aftermath of the Atlanta Child Murders, families need safe places for their children to spend the summer. We join the Coca-Cola Foundation and the City of Atlanta to create Camp Best Friends, offering children recreation, companionship and room to play.
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Recognizing the people behind the mission
We establish the Managing for Excellence Award to recognize strong nonprofit leadership and management. The award celebrates the work that keeps organizations effective, from thoughtful governance to the everyday decisions that help them serve their communities.
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A legacy that helps students keep going
The George and Pearl Strickland Scholarship Fund opens to support students attending historically Black colleges and universities at the Atlanta University Center. Their generosity becomes a resource for students pursuing their education.
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Women shaping philanthropy
We establish the Atlanta Women’s Fund, bringing women together to give, learn about philanthropy and prepare for nonprofit board service. In 1998, the fund becomes the independent Atlanta Women’s Foundation.
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Growing Atlanta’s response to AIDS
We partner with the Ford Foundation to raise money for AIDS prevention education and direct care. The partnership builds on our early support, bringing more resources to people affected by the epidemic.
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More ways to give together
Our family of funds grows around the causes and communities Atlantans care about: neighborhoods, AIDS care, women and the arts. Local funds in Clayton, Cobb and Newton counties create more opportunities for neighbors to support work close to home.
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A name that reaches across the region
We become the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta and move into the Hurt Building. Our new name reflects the communities and relationships extending beyond the city itself.
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A first for our board
Ingrid Saunders Jones becomes the first woman and the first Black person to chair our Board of Directors, marking a new chapter in the Foundation’s leadership.
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Helping generosity last beyond a lifetime
We expand our work with donors and their professional advisors to help people include giving in their long-term plans. Planned giving assets reach $334 million, connecting decisions made today with support for future generations.
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Getting to know a changing Atlanta
With support from the Ford and Mott foundations, we explore how the region’s changing population is shaping community needs. That work leads to relationships with nonprofits serving refugees in Clarkston and support for a Vietnamese farmers market along Buford Highway.
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Partners for young people
We launch the Metro Atlanta Youth Opportunity Initiative with donors, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, United Way and public agencies. The effort brings partners together around young people’s futures, later expanding statewide and continuing through 2006.
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Making giving a family tradition
Our new Center for Family Philanthropy helps families explore what they care about and how they want to give together. Through Planet Philanthropy, young people get their own introduction to giving back at a summer camp built around generosity.
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Recognizing Black Atlanta’s generosity
We commission Georgia State University to study African American philanthropy in the region. The research documents Black Atlantans’ commitment to giving and volunteering, deepening our understanding of the people supporting their communities.
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Giving close to home in Morgan County
The Morgan County Fund brings donors, nonprofits and neighbors together around local priorities. It creates a way for people to support the communities of Madison, Rutledge and the surrounding area.
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Health begins in the neighborhood
With support from Kaiser Permanente, Healthy Belvedere brings health-focused investment to south DeKalb County. Alongside education and youth activities, residents organize around everyday conditions that shape well-being: sidewalks, streetlights, gardens and neighborhood cleanups.
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Keeping Dr. King’s papers in Atlanta
When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s personal papers are headed for auction, Atlanta comes together to keep them here. Working with Mayor Shirley Franklin and community partners, we help arrange the financing and fundraising for the $32 million purchase, securing the collection for Morehouse College.
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Helping nonprofits weather the recession
As the Great Recession strains nonprofit budgets, we create the Nonprofit Bridge Loan Fund to help organizations manage cash shortages. We also shift more grantmaking toward general operating support, giving nonprofits greater flexibility to respond.
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A role in Grady’s future
The Robert W. Woodruff Foundation commits $200 million to Grady Memorial Hospital. We help carry out that investment by administering $50 million, with payments tied to agreed conditions during a consequential period for the hospital.
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Lower bills. More resources for the mission.
Through Grants to Green, we partner with the Kendeda Fund and Southface to help nonprofits improve their buildings’ efficiency. Over the program’s decade, more than 200 organizations receive help reducing energy and water costs.
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Seeing the region more clearly
We help establish Neighborhood Nexus with the Atlanta Regional Commission, Emory University and Georgia State University. By bringing regional data together, the partnership gives communities a clearer picture of local conditions and a stronger starting point for decisions.
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Giving reaches another milestone
Annual grants and nonprofit support reach $70 million, serving causes locally, nationally and internationally. The Foundation holds more than $500 million in assets, built through the generosity of donors and their charitable funds.
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Different faiths. Shared concerns.
Four Atlanta faith leaders come together as Higher Ground: Imam Plemon El-Amin, Rabbi Alvin Sugarman, the Rev. Joseph Roberts and the Rev. Joanna Adams. Through conversation and public reflection, they explore the issues facing Atlanta and encourage people to act across differences.
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Giving together, in their own names
Named for Audre Lorde and Bayard Rustin, the Lorde-Rustin Giving Circle brings donors together around literacy for children of color and support for LGBTQ+ youth of color. Members pool their generosity to support organizations working in those communities.
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Helping students get to—and through—college
We join the Joseph B. Whitehead Foundation and Atlanta Public Schools to create Achieve Atlanta. The partnership takes on the barriers between college aspirations and graduation, combining financial assistance with support along the way.
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Building pathways to wealth
With the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Kendeda Fund, we launch the Atlanta Wealth Building Initiative. The effort focuses on closing the racial wealth gap by connecting people, ideas and resources around greater economic opportunity.
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Professional skills, shared generously
Through a partnership with Catchafire, nonprofits gain access to volunteers with expertise in accounting, marketing, data and more. Over four years, more than 250 organizations receive help with projects that strengthen their work.
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Learning from what works
We help launch Learn4Life with the Atlanta Regional Commission, Metro Atlanta Chamber and United Way of Greater Atlanta. School districts, businesses and community organizations come together to identify and spread approaches that help students succeed.
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Atlanta becomes the classroom
Mailchimp asks us to help its employees become more engaged in their community. Together, we create Mailchimp Community College: 15 weeks of conversations, site visits and learning alongside people working on housing, education, criminal justice and other local issues.
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A new way to put generosity to work
We launch GoATL, adding impact investing to the ways philanthropy can support the region. Its revolving fund puts money to work through investments designed to generate community benefits alongside financial returns.
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A partnership for greater participation
We begin a partnership with the Southern Poverty Law Center to support grassroots civic engagement across five Southern states. The work focuses on helping people understand their rights, participate in civic life and use their voices.
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Atlanta responds to COVID-19
As the pandemic disrupts lives across the region, we join United Way of Greater Atlanta to launch the Greater Atlanta COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund. Together, we raise and distribute more than $30 million to over 480 nonprofits, supporting work from food assistance to childcare for essential workers.
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Supporting the arts—and examining our own record
As venues close and arts organizations lose revenue, our Metro Atlanta Arts Fund provides emergency support. The moment also brings scrutiny of racial disparities in our arts funding and difficult questions about who has received support.
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A leadership chapter closes. Another begins.
Alicia Philipp retires after 43 years leading the Foundation. Following a national search, the board appoints Frank Fernandez as President and CEO.
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A shared direction for Greater Atlanta
We launch TogetherATL, bringing a more explicit focus on equity and shared prosperity to our work with donors, nonprofits and community partners. The strategy connects giving with efforts to expand opportunity across the region.
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Helping Forest Cove families move to safer homes
When Forest Cove’s condemned apartments leave residents needing somewhere else to live, we work with the City of Atlanta and community partners to help families relocate. The effort brings philanthropy, public resources and nonprofit expertise together amid a shortage of affordable housing.
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A major commitment to affordable homes
A $100 million commitment from the Woodruff and Whitehead foundations creates an opening to tackle Atlanta’s housing affordability crisis. We set out to raise another $100 million, alongside the City’s proposed $100 million housing bond investment, bringing more resources to building and preserving homes people can afford.
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Five weeks. Eight closings. More homes within reach.
Our housing team completes eight grant and impact investment transactions in five weeks, supporting the construction, renovation or preservation of 750 affordable homes. The projects serve seniors, families and first-time homebuyers across the region.
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Keeping Head Start doors open
When the federal shutdown threatens Head Start programs, we work with the YMCA of Metro Atlanta and regional partners to keep early learning available to more than 6,500 Georgia children.
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Helping nonprofits plan beyond the immediate crisis
As nonprofits face funding uncertainty, we launch the Nonprofit Sector Sustainability Fund with Nonprofit Finance Fund. The two-year initiative pairs flexible funding with financial guidance, coaching and opportunities for nonprofit leaders to learn together.
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Seventy-five years—and a next chapter
In our 75th year, we name Lauren Koontz our next president and CEO, effective December 1. With more than $3.6 billion granted since 1951, the Foundation looks ahead to the relationships, generosity and work that will shape Greater Atlanta’s future.