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The Community Foundation makes grants from a variety of funds, totaling $16 million in 2009 (unaudited). Grants from advised, designated, agency endowment and scholarship funds are recommended by advisors to those funds.
Thanks to donors who trust us to use their charitable dollars for the most pressing needs of our community, we also make grants from our Community Funds twice a year to nonprofits in Jefferson, Shelby, St. Clair, Blount and Walker counties. In 2009, those grants amounted to $2.1 million. (See below for lists of grants from recent cycles of competitive grantmaking.)
The competitive grant process is the heart of our community knowledge. We use the best data available to evaluate the proposals for grants from Community Funds, including outside reports on local, state and national issues as well as local indicators, such as the "Community Counts" report we published first in 2005. We also respond to challenges, as we have with modified guidelines for our grants during the current economic conditions.
We identify and focus on interest areas and priorities that address the most pressing issues we see today and take leadership and supporting roles as appropriate in developing creative solutions for the problems of the future.
As part of our 50th anniversary celebration, we are developing new unrestricted resources to transform greater Birmingham. Through these Community Catalyst Funds, visionary donors continue to support the work of the Community Foundation as a catalyst, convenor and community leader on important issues.
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"Economic conditions affect the Community Foundation as well as our nonprofit partners, making us work even harder to achieve maximum impact with limited dollars."
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