RAISE FUNDS FOR GOOD

In the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic fallout, Trevor Lawrence and fiancé Marissa Mowry rallied their friends and fans and asked them to help raise money to serve food insecure families in Bartow County, Georgia and two communities in Upstate South Carolina. Our Foundation quickly created the vehicle for Trevor and Marissa to realize their goals and helped identify trusted food providers. Clemson fans answered the call, and over $25,000 streamed into the couple’s charitable fund. Grants were awarded in June 2020. Marissa notes, “To all who contributed, thank you for your generosity and love!”

DO SOMETHING BIG

Jeanne Burr and her son, Jeff, walked into the Foundation office in December of 2016 and wanted to do something big for the community. After some discussion, the staff proposed building a performing arts park in Downtown Dalton. And that's how it started - with a charitable inclination and an idea. Burr Performing Arts Park opened in the spring of 2018 at the site of the old Lee Printing building and has hosted thousands of visitors to its lawn.

Click here to watch a video that describes Jeanne’s legacy journey, or click here to make a donation to the Burr Park Endowment Fund.

HONOR A LOVED ONE

Christian Bryant was an honor student at Girls Preparatory School, a cross-country star who loved running, and a young dreamer devoted to improving the world, but complications from the treatment for leukemia took her life at eighteen. In the wake of her passing, her family established the Christian Bryant Fund to assist families and children in Northwest Georgia and Greater Chattanooga facing catastrophic illnesses. Significant grants have been awarded. “Our Donor Advised Fund is much easier and less time-consuming than managing a private foundation and allows us to honor Christian,” says Robyn Bryant.

When Tommy and Mary Lynn Crider sold their floral business, they created a Donor Advised Fund at the Community Foundation - a safe, temporary place to park their charitable assets, while offering them the greatest possible tax advantage, and giving them more time to choose a beneficiary or project. Years later, the Criders witnessed a group of people holding a worship service under a tree in Nicaragua and chose to use a significant portion of their Fund to help build The River of Life Baptist Church for the congregation. The Criders not only satisfied the IRS by making a timely and deductible gift to the Foundation, but establishing their Fund gave them time to consider several giving opportunities before making a decision.

Endowment Funds work by channeling charitable gifts into a single investment fund that builds over time and eventually reaches a point that generates a permanent income stream that can be directed to specific causes or institutions identified by the donor. These types of funds can be beneficial to both communities and nonprofit organizations that serve individuals and families. Indeed, colleges, universities, and churches have created and benefited from endowments for decades - using the interest earned annually to fund large projects. Strengthening our communities is of vital importance to the region. Through endowments, money raised today will reduce the financial burdens of communities and organizations in the future.

When Randy and Jackie Thompson sold Thompson Honda in 2006, they were able to offset a portion of their capital gains tax liability by establishing the Thompson Family Donor Advised Fund. Since that time, the Thompsons have awarded thousands of dollars in grants to charities and programs that inspire them. “I want my granddaughter, Maddie Grace, to be charitable during her lifetime,” Randy says. “And the best way to teach her the importance of giving back is for her to see me and Jackie being involved in the community and giving to causes we care about.”

The Dalton-Whitfield Community Foundation was established in 1998 thanks to a handful of local philanthropists and a $150,000 grant from the RJ Woodruff Foundation. Approximately 20 individuals and families signed on and allowed the Foundation to administer their charitable work.

The Cartersville-Bartow Community Foundation was established in 2004. Shaw Industries provided a $1 million challenge grant to the fledgling affiliate to encourage the development of permanent endowments and unrestricted granting capacity.