Holiday table set for Atlanta
I’m not much of a cook. I’m usually too busy doing the passionate philanthropy job. But I love good food, hearty conversation and a colorful table decorated with diverse treasures. So, as we celebrate our annual holiday, I began to think about who would join me at the perfect Thanksgiving table:
• Generous philanthropists like Lloyd and Mary Ann Whitaker, whose endowment of the nation’s second-largest painting — our Cyclorama — provides for its permanent move to the venerable Atlanta History Center. Thanks to the Whitakers’ passion and kindness, a series of gifts began that transformed four other nonprofit organizations in Atlanta.
• Collaborators across sectors, most notably those who launched Achieve Atlanta involving the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, Joseph B. Whitehead Foundation and Atlanta Public Schools. This initiative engages and aligns philanthropic, civic and public resources and programs to support our students’ journeys to and through college.
• Artists across all mediums, the connoisseurs of our culture, who elevate Atlanta through the vibrant Metropolitan Atlanta Arts Fund.
• Pioneers like the five generous Atlantans who put up resources to develop a for-profit aeroponic business in Atlanta’s Mechanicsville neighborhood. The business is to produce 1.5 million pounds of lettuce and herbs. Best news? It provides 25 jobs where the workers will ultimately own the business and build wealth.
• A visionary coalition of leaders of regional cornerstone organizations, including Doug Hooker of the Atlanta Regional Commission, Milton Little of United Way of Greater Atlanta, and Hala Moddelmog with the Metro Atlanta Chamber. The four of us have decided to lock arms, share our strategic direction and work together for the greater good.
Now, the table is set with trendsetters, thought leaders, collaborators, doers and funders. What’s next?
We’d say a prayer of thanksgiving for all that Atlanta has accomplished this year, and ask for guidance and tenacity solving the next set of issues. Then we’d roll up our sleeves, and as we devoured the delicacies so carefully prepared, we’d discuss a road map to solving income disparity — in which Atlanta leads the country — a solution that would include preventative, scalable and affordable health care.
We also would discuss ways to drive awareness of the rampant uptick in AIDS cases in our region. We would encourage initiatives to eliminate human trafficking from our neighborhoods. We would seek avenues to stop bullying in our schools.
Now that’s the kind of Thanksgiving table I want to be invited to join, an event where collaboration and fresh perspectives are as crisp as the vegetables. Atlanta can bring this world of possibilities close to home for all of us. Together, we can make good happen for the Atlanta region.
Alicia Philipp is president of the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta.
