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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.

Investing in Black-led impact

Our commitment to Black-led nonprofits reflects our belief that funding equity and authentic partnership are essential to building a more just and thriving Mid-South. Through intentional investments, collaboration, and support for Black leadership in the nonprofit sector, we aim to help organizations grow their capacity, expand their impact, and lead solutions that reflect the lived realities of the communities they champion.

This page highlights our approach, resources, and opportunities for Black-led nonprofit partners. Nonprofit voices are essential to our growth. Use the Submit Feedback button below to tell us what’s working—and what isn’t—so we can build better systems, deeper trust, and a partnership that strengthens our community.

How our commitment shows up

Listening and learning

We listen to Black-led nonprofits through the BNLA (see below) and ongoing community feedback that helps guide our equity-focused work.

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Expanding funding and visibility

Through Give 8/28, Black Philanthropy Month, and storytelling we elevate Black-led nonprofits and their impact.

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Equity in grantmaking

Our grant committees prioritize diversity in leadership when proposals are otherwise equal, advancing funding equity.

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Building long-term partnerships

We build lasting relationships with Black-led nonprofits, supporting growth and stronger community outcomes.

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Our commitment in action

To truly be this community’s foundation, we must be authentically inclusive in everything that we do and take tangible steps to create equity.

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Submit feedback

Black-Led Nonprofit Leadership Alliance

The Black-Led Nonprofit Leadership Alliance (BNLA) is a group of 18 local executive directors who crafted recommendations for the Foundation to shift funding practices and promote racial equity.

Black Philanthropy Month

Black Philanthropy Month is a global celebration held each August to uplift Black giving, leadership, and community investment. We highlight stories, promote funding equity, and encourage collective action through Give 8/28.

Recent grants

We support nonprofits in West Tennessee, eastern Arkansas, and northern Mississippi through grant programs that support our communities’ unique needs and build a thriving region. 65% of current grantees are led by people of color.

Community Voices

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Often guided by lived experience more than formal management expertise, could [Black-led] organizations hold the solutions if better resourced? The Community Foundation [explored] that idea—doing the groundwork to find answers. “

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Judith Black Moore

CEO, Taking Back the Future, and BNLA member

How our grantmaking process works

Our commitment to Black-led nonprofits is built into how we evaluate and award grants across the FOREVER Funds and GiVE 365.

When grant applications are similarly strong in terms of community impact, our volunteer grant committees give funding priority to organizations that are BIPOC-led, specifically those with an Executive Director or CEO of color and leadership that reflects the communities they serve. We also look for appropriate diversity in board and staff leadership, particularly in ethnicity and gender.

These priorities sit alongside our overarching Community Investment Principles and do not replace the need for a strong proposal, sound financials, and clear community benefits. Instead, they help us move resources toward organizations that have historically been underfunded and are uniquely positioned to respond to local needs.

By being transparent about these practices, we hope nonprofits can better understand how equity shapes our decision-making and how their own leadership and community relationships may align with our funding approach.

Take the next step

Ready to explore funding opportunities? Explore current grant opportunities and learn how our commitment to equity shapes the partnerships we build.

See grant opportunities
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Here to help

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Aerial Ozuzu

Director of Community Impact

Grantmaking programs and GiVE 365

(901) 722-0022

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Vanessa Williams

Community Impact Manager

Scholarships and grantmaking committees

(901) 722-0032

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Randy Truong

Community Impact Program Associate

LIVEGIVEmidsouth and nonprofit relations

(901) 722-0039

Community stories & impact

Read Stories
Four panelists sit on stage in front of an audience, engaged in a discussion about building community at an indoor event with a rock climbing wall in the background. One man speaks into a microphone while the others listen.
Philanthropy & Giving August 28, 2025

Building Wealth, Building Community

At the Powered by Us Symposium, a panel led by Crystal Thompkins shared insights on building family wealth and sustaining generosity across generations.