In March, we announced that Mary L. Thomas was selected as the new President & CEO of CFLeads.
A philanthropic leader well-known and respected in her hometown of Spartanburg, SC and across the country, Mary brings a wealth of experience to this role. She has worked in the community foundation field for 25 years and currently serves at the Spartanburg County Foundation as Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director of the Robert Hett Chapman III Center for Philanthropy..
We look forward to welcoming her to the team in May.
Executive Leadership Institute
ELI for CFOs discuss their role in the stewardship process
Our second Executive Leadership Institute for CFOs cohort met for their first quarterly call, exploring the unique role they play in advancing their community foundation’s community leadership work. The cohort spoke about stewardship, what it really means, and how their finance departments can be useful in the process.
ELI Alumni Network focuses on economic mobility
The ELI Alumni Network met virtually and heard from Leonard Brock, Vice President for Learning and Impact (Issues) at CFLeads, who shared the results from our two-year Economic Mobility Action Network pilot as documented in our report, Advancing Economic Mobility in our Communities. Participants also discussed their local economic mobility agendas and how they can best serve their communities through these efforts.
Connecting Communities in the Americas
Connecting Communities in the Americas hosted its March Peer Resource Sharing session on the topic: Nurturing Youth Leadership & Philanthropy. Representatives of the Delaware Community Foundation and two other foundations from Mexico and Brazil shared about their youth programs. Participants then connected through breakout sessions to further engage in conversation.
Seven community foundations strengthen their anti-hate protocols
CFLeads partnered with the Horizon Forum to offer their Anti-Hate Policy and Protocol training to 35 participants from seven community foundations. The foundations included:
- Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation
- Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo
- Community Foundation for Greater Fort Wayne
- Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation
- The Miami Foundation
- North Carolina Community Foundation
- Wichita Foundation
Indiana community foundations learn about local impact investing
Len Bartel, CFLeads Vice President for Learning and Impact (Capacity-Building), participated in and presented at Indiana Philanthropy Alliance‘s Learning Series Session: Philanthropy and Community Leadership – Understanding the Role for Local Impact Investing. The webinar session was presented in partnership with LOCUS Impact Investing. Nearly all of the 50 participants represented Indiana community foundations.
In March and April, we’re sharing community foundation stories from our recently published report, Advancing Economic Mobility in our Communities, which documents the outcomes of these community foundations that came together to develop economic mobility agendas for their communities.
Check out some of the community foundations we highlighted this month:
- The Chicago Community Trust: We Rise Together
- Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo: Collaborating Across Sectors
- Foundation for Louisiana: Linking Economic and Environmental Justice
- Greater Cincinnati Foundation: Centering the Focus on Black Women
- Registration is open for our webinar with Welcoming America on April 13.
- Take our Issues of Interest survey for community foundations by April 21.
- If you’re a CFLeads investor, register for our 2023 Fall Forum today!
