CFM Update

February 2020

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February 2020 Flooding

You can help!

Mississippi Community Disaster Relief and Recovery Fund provides local support

No one should go through disasters alone. As flood waters rise, tornadoes strike, or fires devastate, people need help. And once these events end, people need help even more. But sometimes it's hard to see how YOU can help.

The Mississippi Community Disaster Relief and Recovery fund at the Community Foundation for Mississippi (CFM) makes sure that the dollars you give to help your community stay local. A comprehensive and fair process for helping residents meet unmet needs means those groups closest to the need can help direct where contributed money goes. And the stewardship of those funds by CFM ensures your gift is treated with integrity, accountability, and transparency.

Give TODAY to help your neighbors now and as they recover and rebuild.

When disasters strike, every bit of support can help communities in need. Help Mississippians affected by natural disasters recover and rebuild by donating to the Mississippi Community Disaster Relief and Recovery fund. https://buff.ly/2HCmNyc .

Donate Now to Support Disaster Relief for Mississippi Flooding

A New Civic Covenant

Jackson - Ready to Step Forward

Last month we told you about the collaboration with the Harwood Institute to interview local citizens to learn about their hopes and ideas for the city of Jackson. These candid conversations provided a roadmap for how best to tackle the underlying conditions in Jackson together, which is outlined in the Jackson Ready report.

With this as a starting point, CFM will host a Public Innovators Lab to begin that process. We invite you to click below to read the entire report.

Next steps

Community Members

will be identified who believe in Jackson's possibilities and are able to commit both the time and collaborative effort required. Share your ideas and nominate someone.

The Public Innovators Lab will train selected candidates to become a collective force for change.

Trained Public Innovators will receive ongoing coaching to drive collective action across Jackson.

Nominate a candidate or share your ideas

Board Announces Competitive Grant Cycle Change

Next application period will be in 2021

To mark the Foundation's 25th anniversary, the Board of Trustees voted to award a major grant from CFM's unrestricted Community Trust Fund to support special projects, including the upcoming Public Innovators Lab. The next competitive grant cycle will be in the spring of 2021.

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Thoughtful Estate Planning Supports Worthy Causes

Annual grants benefit donors' favorite charities like clockwork

Every year by design, the Community Foundation awards grants from two endowed funds, the Thomas G. Ramey and Peggy Huff Harris Fund and the Meyer and Genevieve Falk Endowment Fund for Culture and Arts.

These funds were set up by bequests to grant annual support to organizations the donors designated in their estate plans. Ramey Harris grantees include Mississippi Public Broadcasting Foundation; Operation Shoestring, Mississippi Food Network, Dress for Success Metro Jackson, Mississippi Museum of Art, Angel Flight Southeast, the Community Foundation and Guide Dogs for the Blind, Inc.

Falk Fund grantees include Mississippi Symphony Orchestra, Ballet Mississippi, New Stage Theatre, Mississippi Opera and Mississippi Museum of Art.

Longtime patrons of these organizations, Peggy Harris and Genevieve Falk wished to continue to support them in perpetuity. To date more than $1.6 million has been granted from these funds.

"We are so thankful for donors like Peggy and Genevieve, who planned their philanthropy to benefit their chosen charitable organizations forever," said Jane Alexander, president and CEO of the Community Foundation for Mississippi. "We encourage people to talk to their financial and professional advisors to create estate plans that leave a legacy. And community foundations make it easy for even small donors to make a difference for Mississippi, forever."

Falk and Ramey Harris Grantees

Bill Ellison, MPB Foundation; Robert Langford, Operation Shoestring; Brooke Wyatt, Mississippi Symphony Orchestra; Stacey Cain, Mississippi Food Network; Jane Alexander, Community Foundation for Mississippi; Bill McCarty, New Stage Theatre; and Jordan Perry, Mississippi Museum of Art.

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