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For over 50 years, the Community Foundation has helped people give with purpose, strengthening Memphis and the Mid-South.

We make giving easier and more impactful by matching your generosity with the causes and community you care about most.

We offer solutions and resources to donors and the professionals who advise them to help you give smarter and do more good.

We offer funding opportunities that helps nonprofits and students create positive change and build futures.

When you get involved with the Community Foundation, you join a group of people committed to Memphis’s future.

Learn more about the philanthropic hub that connects capital with the solutions that make our community thrive.

Purpose in philanthropy

Founded in 1969, the Community Foundation has grown into the largest grantmaker in the Mid-South, consistently connecting people and resources for more than 50 years.

The mission of the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis is to strengthen our community through philanthropy.

To accomplish this mission, the Community Foundation will:

  • Develop and effectively manage charitable funds and endowments, offering the highest levels of service and expertise to individuals, families, and institutional donors and their successors;
  • Actively address the needs of the community by examining community issues, securing and distributing resources, advocating for positive change, and convening meetings and conversations which encourage donors and the community to respond;
  • Encourage philanthropy and the growth of charitable resources among individuals, families, businesses, and community institutions.
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Shelby Farms Park

Our vision

The Community Foundation of Greater Memphis will be the hub that connects capital with the solutions that make our community thrive. We will be uniquely positioned to identify, convene for, and develop solutions to our deepest community issues. By providing responsive and flexible service to both our donors and our community, we will be the premier philanthropic services organizations in Memphis and the Mid-South.

Our values

We believe in values that drive our work:

  • Community
  • Fairness
  • Partnership & Collaboration
  • Impact
  • Stewardship
  • Transparency
  • Service
  • Equity & Inclusion
  • Accountability
  • Honesty

Our commitment to the community

The Community Foundation of Greater Memphis believes in the fair and equitable treatment of all Mid-Southerners. We recognize the systemic and structural inequities that impede this goal and seek to remedy them. We believe that this can only be accomplished by a commitment to inclusion and to open-minded and informed learning and listening. We commit to continually examining and shifting our own practices as necessary and will continue to leverage our own capacity and influence to seek meaningful change for all our neighbors.

Community Investment Principles

Memphis and the Mid-South comprise a diverse community that, while faced with daunting social and economic challenges, also has invaluable human and natural resources.

The region faces massive challenges, including high rates of poverty and incarceration, limited access to affordable housing and quality healthcare, and schools which continue to struggle to educate all our children. With a continuing history of institutional racism and inequity, these failings disproportionately affect our African-American and Latinx neighbors.

At the same time, we also have considerable assets. We are blessed with a rich musical heritage, a vibrant arts community, a world-class healthcare system, and more than our fair share of parklands, greenspaces, and other natural resources.

The Community Foundation of Greater Memphis is committed to investing in and working alongside our community to address our challenges and sustain our assets in order to create transformational change. We envision a more equitable community and pledge to make investments that will help make this vision reality:

We will create a just and equitable region where all individuals and groups receive the resources and opportunities they need to reach their full potential, and where identity and geography do not determine their outcomes. We will build a community where everyone is welcome, valued, resourced, and informed, one where people can easily access opportunities to contribute and thrive.

Our values for investing

IMPACT We will seek systemic change that results in a just and equitable Mid-South through investments that address the root causes of our challenges and support the strengths of our community.

ACCOUNTABILITY We will establish and track metrics for desired outcomes and provide transparency in our processes and in the results.

INCLUSION We will implement processes where all community members’ voices can be heard, and decision-makers and participants reflect the demographics of communities being served.

PARTNERSHIP and COLLABORATION We will work with our community to identify issues, craft solutions, align resources, and act together to implement them.

See values in action

Learn how our Community Investment Principles are reflected in current grantmaking priorities that help people and communities thrive.

See grants
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