• Serving Our Community: A Q&A with Caroline Fuerniss

    Caroline Fuerniss, Professional Advisory Committee Chair Caroline Fuerniss is a proud Birmingham native who’s always searching for ways to serve her community. She’s held leadership roles with the Crisis Center, Birmingham Botanical Gardens, and Rotaract Club of Birmingham. Currently, she’s a member of the Ballet Guild of Birmingham and she’s on the Women’s Advisory Team at Cathedral Church of the Advent. But she wanted to do more.

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  • Defining Your Family Legacy

    Susan Schoenfeld, Founder & CEO, Wealth Legacy Advisors Family Philanthropy with Susan Schoenfeld: A Hard Look at the Soft Issues 5 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 26 at 1531 3rd Ave. North

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  • Why Past President Kate Nielsen Still Partners with the Community Foundation to Give Back

    Sheila Blair (right) became the first paid Executive Director of the Community Foundation in 1992. Mimi Tynes (left), the Foundation’s first Program Director, became Executive Director in 1998 (she passed away in April 2024); and Kate Nielsen (center), the Foundation’s first development officer in 1995, served as President from 2000-2013. When Kate Nielsen retired at the end of 2013 from her position as president of the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham, she worried about losing touch with her community. For more than 13 years she’d had her finger on the pulse of the needs of Blount, Jefferson, St. Clair, Shelby, and Walker counties. Now that she was stepping away from her post, she wondered how she could continue to make a difference. Then she realized that even though she was no longer at the helm of the Community Foundation, she could still make an impact through the organization. And she does that through a Donor Advised Fund.

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  • Grants and Greenspaces - Giving Together Spring 2023

    Donors’ heads tracked the moderator as she jumped along in front of the windows looking out at the Birmingham Zoo. Camille Spratling held attention while she reiterated a point made by the panelists about the maintenance of green spaces. The room at the zoo held donors, Community Foundation staff, and panelists from local parks and governance who gathered on May 9th to celebrate the Community Foundation’s Spring Giving Together with a discussion about the importance of green space in the Birmingham community.

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  • A Trek Through Titusville

    This past Thursday, April 20th, strawberry bushes at the Bush Hill Community Garden and Urban Farm produced their first few tentative fruits as the Community Foundation’s bus-full of donors, staff, and volunteers discussed community initiatives to revitalize the area. Neighborhood revitalization and spring share many characteristics: renewal, growth, and reconnection. So, to get a closer look at the organizations restoring and growing the Western Birmingham neighborhoods, we hopped on a bus for our second annual bus tour, A Trek through Titusville. 

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  • Simplify Giving, Amplify Impact

    Bruce Denson says his only regret with starting a Donor Advised Fund with the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham is he wishes he had done it sooner.

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  • Giving Together

    The Community Foundation’s Giving Together program invites you to the grantmaking table to co-invest with the Community Impact Fund as part of our community grantmaking process. Through the Giving Together process, you learn about exciting and innovative funding opportunities and can support creative programs and start-up nonprofits that are meeting critical local needs.

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