Together with our community and partners, we transform generosity into lasting change toward a prosperous and just Chattanooga where all can thrive and achieve their full potential.
Dear friends,
We often talk about the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga’s (CFGC) work in terms of big moments and high-profile achievements Everyone likes to hear about the hundreds of families who have avoided homelessness because of the Eviction Prevention Initiative, for instance, or the impressive young people who will matriculate at great colleges this fall because of our scholarship program Of course, we’re always eager to talk about the millions of dollars in grants we make every year and the year-overyear growth in assets under our management.
We’re proud of every public accomplishment. In some ways, however, the big wins can obscure some of the other ways we are making progress in and for our community.
We could fill endless pages with small, powerful moments of progress and purpose. The deep satisfaction of guiding a family through the process of connecting their values and aspirations for our community with the right nonprofit partners The words of encouragement shared by an experienced mentor with one of our Accelerator Loan Fund recipients The outreach we make to local, state, and federal policymakers throughout the year The steady guidance of a social worker finding rent relief dollars for a family facing eviction
Maeghan Jones
President & CEO
Everything we do is a step forward – progress toward a region where generosity transforms and where everyone enjoys abundant opportunities, financial security, and happiness no matter who they are or what neighborhood they live in. It’s the small acts of progress that make the big moments possible.
The road isn’t always smooth and the steps can sometimes be tough to see. What matters most is that we’ll never stop moving forward The Fund for Chattanooga, for example, is a permanently endowed fund created to respond to some of our city’s most pressing challenges –like housing and hunger, now and in the future With this fund and other instruments of transformational generosity, progress happens every day, in ways big and small, sometimes faster than we expect and sometimes slower than we would like
We are grateful for our growing community of donors whose tenacity and generosity renew our optimism. By any metric, our community is a stronger, healthier, happier place because of their support.
We covered a lot of ground in 2023, and we’re still making progress. Thank you for being part of this journey with us.
Giving
The Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga is the living legacy of generous Chattanoogans who knew that our city would grow and evolve in ways they could never have imagined. For over 60 years, we’ve supported the philanthropic goals of our donors connecting their passions with purpose to make a meaningful impact on the lives of Chattanoogans
Through planned gifts, our founding donors helped create a permanent Fund for Chattanooga. It’s through this endowed fund that we make grants to both care for our most vulnerable today and invest in the kinds of systemic changes that will result in greater opportunity for all of our neighbors for years to come
As our environment changes, we respond. We can do this, to a significant extent, because of permanent support like this.
We’re in the midst of one of the largest wealth transfers in history from the Baby Boomer generation to Generation X and Millennials. In 2017, we commissioned a study that estimated that between 2017 and 2027 an estimated $9.2 billion would be passed between generations in Hamilton County alone
What does that mean for our area? Imagine if just 5% of that wealth were endowed as permanent gifts. That could translate to $23 million in new grants made to local nonprofits and neighborhoods every year, forever.
Have you thought about the long-term impact you’d like to have on your community?
As your Community Foundation, we support generous families and individuals every step of the way in their giving Our deep knowledge of our area and nonprofit sector, as well as extensive experience working with families, enable us to help donors make the greatest impact on the issues they care about most
Together, we create long-lasting support for the opportunities that await our community –including those we can and can’t yet imagine.
As one of the region’s largest locally-focused grantmakers, we distributed over $27 million in grants throughout the region in 2023 From education to housing to food security to workforce development, these grants support the vital work of our local nonprofit community
This work couldn’t happen without the generous support of a growing community of donors from all walks of life. Nearly $17 million of these grants came from the expanded use of donor-advised funds, often called “DAFs.” The total amount distributed in 2023 from DAFs held here at the Foundation was one of the highest in our 61-year history.
Donor-advised funds give donors the greatest amount of flexibility with their charitable giving They always have the option of using their DAF to make gifts to the nonprofits they care about, and they can trust the guidance and expertise of our team to find out where resources are needed most
Giving through DAFs has grown in recent years, and we offer other funds to support long-term and planned giving
A Field of Interest Fund (FOI), for example, allows donors to identify a specific area of charitable focus and entrust the Foundation to exercise discretion in awarding future grants within that identified area
The discretion inherent in a FOI allows grantmaking to meet the needs of the day, even as those needs evolve. In 2020, for example, a Field of Interest Fund focused on early childhood literacy might have awarded grants to increase online learning access, something no one could have predicted thirty years ago.
Our expert team can provide a thorough understanding of different philanthropic funding strategies, how they’re funded, and how they can be put to work If you’d like to learn more about Donor Advised Funds, or Field of Interest Funds, we’re always happy to help!
"It’s not just about money – it’s about generational impact."
Bill Warren, a cardiologist, and his wife Katie, a dedicated community volunteer, have called Chattanooga home for over two decades
Giving back is a sensibility that was instilled in each of them from an early age Katie recalls lessons from her parents who committed their time and resources to causes like English as a second language (ESL) tutoring and literacy values she has carried forward into her own philanthropic decision-making As she describes it, their approach to giving is about having a "deeper impact rather than a wide impact " They’re looking for transformational results – not necessarily high-profile ones
A donor-advised fund (DAF) at the Community Foundation has been an ideal vehicle for their giving, allowing them to be both more efficient and more strategic In establishing it, the Foundation's guidance has been particularly useful in aligning Katie and Bill’s philanthropic activities with their values – in other words, bringing together how they give with why they give
“We feel free to invest in organizations that are meaningful to us, but we really value being presented with options that weren’t on our radar," Katie explains
Their giving portfolio is diverse, encompassing the arts, basic human needs, and major health initiatives like the CHI Memorial Foundation’s capital campaign.
Their involvement with the Community Foundation has also prompted the Warrens to think about their family’s future of giving. They have already been proactive in engaging their three children in philanthropy and, through discussions facilitated by the Foundation, they are talking deeply about what their family stands for and how they can make a systemic impact Parents have a responsibility to help their children "build their philanthropic muscle," as Bill says, to ensure that their family's legacy of giving continues
CPA, ChFC, AIF®
"My clients enjoy working with the staff and value the help and clarity they get in understanding the needs of the Chattanooga community. They want their charitable giving to have an impact and not be wasted.”
“First knowing the client’s intent, or why they need help, is more important than a financial strategy " It’s a simple observation but, coming from David Queen, a powerful one. It reflects his thoughtful and nuanced approach to working with clients, each of whom relies on his expert guidance in planning their financial futures.
David is a financial advisor with an extensive background in tax planning, an MBA in finance, and an advisory practice through LPL Financial that combines tax strategy with investment advice As part of his tax planning and investment services, he helps clients articulate their goals and prioritize based on their values, financial capabilities, and desired outcomes His approach centers on effective solutions and good outcomes This involves asking clients essential questions about their situations and helping them gain clarity of what goals they’d like to accomplish or challenges they’d like to resolve
His engagement with us began with a fundraising effort facilitated by our former CEO Pete Cooper. This effort secured a matching grant from the city to purchase and install a sculpture for the Hixson community called Arise. Years later, David continues to rely on our deep knowledge of Chattanooga and its nonprofit sector to help facilitate his clients’ giving.
We provide specialized, up-to-date knowledge about what’s happening in our community for David, the clients he serves, and other advisors and families across the area This makes efficient, impactful giving decisions possible – and allows David to focus on building stronger relationships with the clients who will be with him over the long term
We work hand-in-hand with advisors to deepen relationships with donors and connect their values to real impact in our area. Thank you to the following who referred their generous clients to the us last year as part of our Professional Advisor Program:
Douglas Brown
Senior Vice President-Wealth Management Union Square Group UBS
Jim L. Catanzaro Jr., J.D.
Shareholder
Chambliss, Bahner & Stophel, PC
Carl Henderson Partner HHM CPAs
Zach Hurst, CFP®, AIF®
Vice President, Managing Director– Chattanooga The Trust Company of Tennessee
David Wolfe CPA, CVA® CFO & Business Strategist Acumen Wealth Advisors
Impact
“We’re
the excuse eliminators.”
“Our goal wasn’t necessarily a library, but just a place where folks in the community can feel safe and relax no matter who they are What we found was a huge need for security of different kinds – food security, economic security, and the security of welcome and inclusion.”
Curtis Cecil and Kelly Flemings don’t just take note of data and stories about their community– they take it to heart, and they take action. The two founded KELCURT Foundation in 2018 to help the community reclaim some of the homegrown selfsufficiency that they feared was being eroded
They established KELCURT to focus on three primary pillars: Agriculture, Community, and Education, each of which connects to the others and to the broader goal of selfsufficiency and connectedness KELCURT's first major project, the Soddy-Daisy Community Library (SDCL), was originally planned to attract 10% of the local population within four years The library surpassed this goal in just 1.5 years, now serving over 3,200 patrons.
The SDCL provides extensive support to educators and schools, including class sets of books, literacy workshops, and STEM programs. These initiatives are essential for schools with limited resources in a climate of budget cuts and overcrowded classrooms. At a time when food security is a challenge for so many, KELCURT Farms grows in abundance –teaching people how to garden, providing space in handbuilt hoop houses, and donating hundreds of pounds of fresh produce to the Soddy-Daisy Food Bank
The support of the Community Foundation has been instrumental in KELCURT’s success Early
grants allowed KELCURT to invest in job placement and career skills development, which resulted in new laptops and resume books for community members. These kinds of investments – modest in scale, but tangible, targeted, and immediately useful – are perfect examples of KELCURT’s values.
“A lot of programming comes from folks who have a skill that they share,” Kelly explains. “Someone will ask ‘Why don’t y’all have a cooking program?’ Well, we do now! ‘You cook. Want to teach it?’”
Their approach is to remain close to the community, responsive to its needs, and quick to adapt In the end, they’re doing more than giving away dollars: they’re building a reciprocal, supportive network of what Curtis calls his “octopus of blessings ”
“Things may not come back immediately or in the same way,” Curtis says, “but we always see a direct reinvestment from neighbors eventually ”
“We wouldn’t have been able to do this work without the intentional support of the Community Foundation."
A Step Ahead Chattanooga’s mission is to remove barriers to contraception through education, outreach, and access to free birth control. Mandy Cowley, the executive director, is very clear on how critically important accessibility principles are to this work. As she puts it: "Income level and insurance should not determine family planning capabilities If my goal is to serve as many folks who need our assistance, that means that they need to feel safe, seen, and included "
A Step Ahead uses detailed community assessments to tailor its services, gathering feedback from a wide demographic range An organization cannot manage what it does not measure, as the saying goes, so A Step Ahead’s rigorous surveying ensures they maintain a consistently high level of excellence in serving their client population and remain responsive to the community’s needs.
Based on this feedback, A Step Ahead has expanded its work to serve new clients in new ways, including becoming certified to teach a reproductive health curriculum for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and adjusting programming to be more inclusive for neurodiverse individuals. For instance, they created a short video that shows clients how to navigate the local health department
These sorts of initiatives are examples of the “curb cut effect ” Policies enacted to serve marginalized communities end up benefiting the larger community The effect gets its name from the prevalence of curb cuts on city streets after the passage of the American with Disabilities Act – an enhancement that ended up helping pedestrians of all ages and abilities.
Mandy remains committed to ensuring the services her organization provides are accessible to those who need them.
"Accessibility and inclusivity is a journey - not a destination," she says. That may be true, but with our support, their efforts to meet more healthcare needs of more women across the Tennessee Valley is a journey that will do enormous good along the way
At the Community Foundation we envision a community where all people thrive and reach their full potential. This vision calls for a vibrant, sustainable, and competitive local economy that engages diverse talent from across our community and creates pathways to economic opportunity
Small businesses are a critical pathway to economic opportunity and mobility and contribute to a competitive economy However, according to data from the U S Federal Reserve, minority-owned businesses are less likely to be approved for traditional loans than white-owned businesses Consequently, they may lack the capital they need to grow and build successful businesses that contribute to a thriving economy.
That’s why we created Impact Investing Funds with Tennessee Valley Credit Union, LAUNCH Chattanooga, and donor partners to remove barriers for entrepreneurs of color to obtain capital for their enterprises.
The funds provide low-interest loans to entrepreneurs who otherwise might not have access to the capital they need In addition to financial resources, advisory support is provided by some of Chattanooga’s most renowned local business leaders
Businesses in loans
Through relationships and capital, these funds work to remove barriers and unlock the genius all around us Together, we’re creating banking, business, and personal relationships and investing in our community’s future
“Tennessee Valley Federal Credit Union's collaboration with the Community Foundation exemplifies a powerful partnership built on trust and mutual goals. The Community Foundation's commitment to pledge cash as collateral not only broadens access to business credit for those who traditionally face barriers, but it also empowers TVFCU to devise flexible loan terms The partnership between TVFCU and the Community Foundation is a testament to the strength of community and the belief that success should be determined by market viability, not socioeconomic status ”
Deliyah Ledford's young life included several moves: she was born in Alabama, spent most of her childhood in Cleveland, Tennessee, and later moved to Kentucky before returning to Chattanooga.
Throughout it all, one north star remained constant
"College was always the plan," she says, "All the jobs I wanted to do required a degree "
The support of her family kept this goal in focus, even as Deliyah’s high school experience was rich in extracurricular activities – participation in Upward Bound, playing volleyball, and mastering the clarinet "Whatever you do, we support you,” they would tell her “Just go at it full steam ”
That approach included finding the right college. Deliyah’s decision-making about this was rooted in some very real financial considerations, and she was determined to find a school in-state that would still allow her the freedom to grow. A serendipitous college tour just before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic led her to the University of Memphis – a community to which she had no prior connection With her special mix of ambition, determination, and practicality, she enrolled as a pre-medical chemistry student with minors in Spanish and biology
Her college experience was tested early on when her mother, one of her most enduring champions, fell ill "It was very disruptive and distracting in an already challenging time," she admits This came on top of the demands of being the oldest sibling in her family – as well as navigating two straight years of fall, spring, and summer classes in the midst of COVID.
The support from the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga was pivotal, not only
in providing crucial financial resources that made college a possibility, but in supporting her through those trying first semesters Dr Stephanie Young, the CFGC’s Director of Scholarships, and her predecessor, Rebecca Suttles, helped her manage everything from financial aid to transportation
"Their support is one of the biggest reasons I was able to be there, and one of the biggest motivations to keep up," Deliyah emphasizes. “I like to stay positive even when I don’t feel like it.”
That positivity continues to forge her path ahead; she’s excited about her acceptance into a chemistry Ph.D. program and aspires to become a neurologist. She is also working on a book of inspirational quotes for young people and works with children through summer jobs and tutoring.
Unexpected challenges and setbacks happen to everyone What sets scholars like Deliyah apart is an unrelenting inner drive, supported by a strong – and growing – network of people working just as hard for her success
“[My lawyer] actually listened, you see what I’m saying?”
- EPI Tenant
These are the words of a tenant who received help from Legal Aid of East Tennessee when she was facing eviction and had nowhere else to turn Comments like these remind us all why the Eviction Prevention Initiative (EPI) is so important
In many respects, 2023 was the most significant year for EPI, the groundbreaking collaborative we helped form in the early weeks of the pandemic While COVID lockdowns are a thing of the past, economic instability is still very real for far too many Chattanooga families. EPI’s attorneys and social workers are busier than ever.
This unique collaborative is funded by the City of Chattanooga, CFGC, and our generous private donors, as well as other local foundations. In addition to legal representation and case management, EPI attorneys and social workers help families access flexible funding that can be used for critical, shortterm expenditures Meanwhile, we and our partners work tirelessly to make sure federal rent relief dollars are available to landlords and property owners, many of whom rely on rental income to make their living
Data suggest that this approach is astoundingly effective Over a two-year period, we saw that households facing eviction who received the help of an attorney saw their cases dismissed 56% of the time – compared with only 28% of those who did not have an attorney’s help.
In other words, legal representation makes it twice as likely that eviction can be avoided
In 2023, EPI was able to prevent evictions for more than 300 families, which includes nearly 350 children More than $830,000 dollars were distributed, almost entirely to landlords Social worker case management was also able to prevent homelessness for nearly 175 clients In September, Legal Aid of East Tennessee stepped up to assume administration of EPI moving forward, and we are grateful for their partnership We also extend our thanks to the City of Chattanooga and the many financial contributors who make this work possible.
Four years after the start of the pandemic, affordable housing challenges that already existed in our community have only intensified. EPI stands ready to meet the challenge.
Our work in the civil courts led us to look more deeply into the root causes of financial instability in our community – particularly the impact of debt collection on families who are already struggling financially. One missed rent payment. One unexpected medical bill. One credit card bill you were unable to pay years ago Any of these stumbles could result in a debt collection that may end up in court and a garnishment that can be financially devastating
To be clear, we are not saying that people who accrue debts should not pay them What we are saying is, once the debt goes to collection, defendants often have less information and fewer resources at their disposal than debt collectors
Because of this, a single debt collection episode can trigger a financial catastrophe for these families. Our research indicated that many consumers who face debt collection lawsuits are not represented by an attorney and may not know what they owe, why, or what their options are. When the stakes are this high, it is crucial that the system is transparent and fair for everybody.
For instance, 56% of cases end in default judgments because defendants simply do not show up for their hearings Failure to appear happens for many reasons: the cost of missing work may be too high, or a defendant simply may not recognize the name of whoever is suing them Furthermore, a Judge often doesn’t have much in the way of proof about the debt to review prior to making the default judgment
When that happens, debt collectors can garnish someone’s wages (up to one-fourth of every paycheck), which could be financially ruinous for some families. Enforcing
garnishments is also a major headache for employers and for banks in particular, many of whom we consulted during this process
We believe there are common sense ways to make the system more fair and transparent for everyone Some of these changes can happen locally, with the cooperation of our General Sessions judges and staff of the Hamilton County Clerk’s Office Others will require new policies at the state level, like the legislation sponsored by Senator Bo Watson of Hixson and Representative Patsy Hazlewood that was unanimously passed into law in May 2024.
Because of our collaborative efforts over the past year, thousands of people throughout Hamilton County and across Tennessee now stand a better chance of avoiding the most devastating and disruptive aspects of debt collection.
“I talk more to congregants about this [debt and other financial challenges] than any other spiritual issue.”
- Pastor Dr. Ternae T. Jordan, Sr. Mount Canaan
FINANCIALS
Total Assets
Total Grants
Total Gifts
Total Scholarships Increase in Assets from 2022
Maeghan Jones President & CEO
Caroline von Kessler VP, Philanthropy
Quentin Lawrence* VP, Community Investments
Rebecca Underwood VP, Finance & Administration
Keely Gilliland Chief of Staff
Chris Adams Donor Services Coordinator
Candice Brock Finance Associate
Woodson Carpenter Manager of Communications & Strategy
