On March 3, we hosted a webinar for nonprofits titled “Making Sense of Executive Orders.” Led by Bing Edwards, an attorney and Community Foundation board member, and his law partner Charles Prueter, the webinar explained several recent federal executive orders and their potential implications for nonprofits. More than 175 community partners participated in the webinar, demonstrating the need for information and connection around these issues.

The Grant Review and Evaluation Committee advanced 65 applicants this month to the full proposal stage of the Spring 2025 grant cycle. Site visits will run April 10-25.

Mental Health Initiative Director Robin Sparks worked with the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama (PARCA) and Mental Health Commissioner Kim Boswell to help shape PARCA’s annual forum, focused this year youth mental health. The event at the Harbert Center was sold out. Robin moderated a panel discussion with experts in clinical practice, school-based mental health, and mental health policy. This was an important opportunity for the Community Foundation to bring its expertise and statewide relationships to bear in creating a successful event.

The Community Foundation took a lead role in two national funding opportunities in March. The first is a funding opportunity from ECMC Foundation and Southern Education Foundation for community foundations to help smaller organizations improve postsecondary success for students. The Community Foundation applied to be the community foundation grantee for Alabama, with a potential award up to $400,000. The second pertains to an upcoming RFP from the AIR Opportunity Fund for funding around health, education, workforce, and public safety. After hosting two listening sessions with AIR Opportunity Fund and local nonprofits in February, the Community Foundation re-convened those organizations to discuss how to align so we have one or two strong proposals from our region. AIR plans to release an RFP this summer; we are continuing this advance planning to ensure our region is ready.

In February and March, Community Foundation staff joined partners to celebrate major milestones, including Workshops Empowerment Inc.’s ribbon cutting for the Empower Café, where people with disabilities get important job training; the Birmingham Zoo’s opening of its new Cougar Crossing exhibit; and the opening of University of Montevallo’s new nursing program, which will help reduce the nurse shortage in our region and state. All these important programs were supported by grants from the Community Foundation. Read our feature article about Workshops Empowerment Inc.’s grant here.

Chris Nanni and Gus Heard-Hughes participated in a day-long session with the U.S. Department of Justice and local law enforcement and community partners to develop coordinated public safety plans. Led by the DOJ Public Safety Partnership, this process aims to complement work of the Crime Commission and the City of Birmingham’s planning around crime reduction and homicide prevention. Read the Crime Commission Report here.

The Women’s Breast Health Fund recommended and the Community Foundation Board approved funding for a new community assessment to identify and address needs around breast cancer survivorship. As Women’s Breast Health Fund staff liaison Kim Rogers presented to the Board, the fund’s first community assessment in 2011 provided valuable guidance to the fund’s grantmaking and led to the creation of the Forge Breast Cancer Survivor Center. We hope this assessment will help shape the next strategic investment around this important area of focus.

On March 13, we held our annual retreat for Community Foundation staff.  The day’s events included a review and discussion of our goals for the year and a training session on the Enneagram and how it impacts our working relationships, presented by Ginger Jefferson, former director of communications and marketing, and Cindy Wiley. During the afternoon, we heard from Nancy Covert, a Dale Carnegie certified trainer, about personal branding, networking, and how to stand out in a crowd. Thank you to the Junior League of Birmingham for hosting the event.

We met with BJCTA, Via, and the City of Homewood this month to present an updated plan for a Homewood microtransit pilot. BJCTA revised plans for fixed route adjustment and microtransit pilot zones to keep the budget within the parameters Homewood requested. The next step is for Homewood to carry the proposal through its committee process and on to a final review and decision by the Council and Mayor. Also this month, Gus Heard-Hughes and I presented on microtransit at the Cause Conversation, a regular gathering of faith-based leaders working to address critical community issues, including transportation. The presentation was well-received, and many organizations learned about the microtransit service – which could be beneficial to their clients – for the first time.

In late 2024, the Community Foundation provided the first local match to JP Morgan Chase Foundation’s $500,000 commitment to launch the Capital Collective model in Greater Birmingham. The Capital Collective aims to help larger small-businesses ($500K – $10M) to get positioned for growth and to expand their pool of capital. The first Capital Collective cohort of 12 businesses is halfway through its 12-week program. We were involved in the selection of the businesses (from sectors including engineering, IT, construction, transportation logistics, food, forestry, energy, and health care) and sat in on two of the sessions. We are impressed with the group of businesses and their progress in the program so far. We will have further updates as the first cohort wraps up and the businesses implement growth strategies.

The Spring 2024 grant cycle application period closed on Feb. 7. We received 176 brief proposal applications; after the initial eligibility review, the total was reduced to 142 applications. The Grant Review and Evaluation Committee will meet in March to select applicants to move to the full proposal stage.

We hosted the AIR Opportunity Fund this month for a pair of listening sessions with organizations in the Greater Birmingham area. The AIR Opportunity Fund is a major national funder that has selected Birmingham as one of 25 cities eligible for a new funding opportunity of $5-7 million per grantee. They are visiting every community to hear about collaborative work and opportunities for funding in their focus areas of workforce, health and wellbeing, public safety, and education. We are planning a follow up meeting with attendees to explore collaborative projects that could be a fit for the RFP that AIR plans to release by mid-2025.

We met this month with key Greater Birmingham Community of Hope partners, including Casey Family Programs, Urban Ministry, and the Alabama Department of Human Resources, to discuss progress on strategies to strengthen families. Urban Ministry has hired the Community Developer position and is doing the community listening and planning work in the 35211 zip code. Program Officer Meg Ford joined Casey Family Programs and City of Birmingham leadership in a cross-municipal program to build stronger ties between city leadership and state child welfare agencies. And Gus and Meg met with United Way and 2-1-1 leadership to discuss coordination around expanding access to resource directory resources.

At the Catalyst Fundholders annual meeting on Feb. 4, attendees heard from two Catalyst-supported initiatives. Meghann Bridgeman (left) and Lee Shook talked about the work of the Alabama Film Office and Film Birmingham to expand film projects and their economic impact in the Birmingham metro. Alex Flachsbart (right) talked about Opportunity Alabama and how an impact investment from the Community Foundation is helping expand a nonprofit and community hub in Titusville and contributing to that neighborhood’s revitalization.

The Community Foundation supported the return of the Alabama Association of Nonprofits (AAN) Summit after several years of dormancy. Gus and Meg attended the summit, which was sold out. Many nonprofits said they appreciated the opportunity to connect, particularly during a time of uncertainty around federal funding.