I love “Elf.” I used to make my children, when they were little, watch it every holiday season. Whether it was because of Buddy the Elf’s cheerful, optimistic holiday spirit or his love of spaghetti with maple syrup, “Elf” makes me believe in people, believe in community, believe in us.
I need that. We all need that.
The last three years have been a lot. As a nation, we are still grappling with understanding the full, long-term implications of both COVID-19 and moving forward in a post-George Floyd era. Many welcomed impatiently the long-delayed discourse on the outsized role that systemic racism has played in differentiated outcomes for white and non-white communities. And how to best address these historical and continuing inequities. Meanwhile, others struggled to understand and internalize their individual and collective roles in our racially stratified society that is often far removed from their lived experience.
And, many of us have wondered, what do we do with all of this?
Credit: contributed
Credit: contributed
For us at the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, it begins and ends with community. We exist to serve the community. We are accountable to them. But who are “them”? They are us. All of us. Community is not limited exclusively to under-resourced/underserved individuals and families. Our nonprofit partners are the community. Our donors are the community. You are community.
Ours is a shared destiny. As such, we have to come together to address these seemingly intractable and polarizing challenges. For example, as part of our new strategic plan and ethos, TogetherATL, we want to challenge our donors, and metro Atlanta’s broader philanthropic sector, to think differently about their philanthropy. Historically, philanthropy was premised on the notion of charity. A unidirectional act where the Haves give to the Have Nots out of the generosity of their hearts. While generosity of spirit is good and needed, it needs to be paired with the idea of giving back. Why?
Because giving back is grounded in the fundamental belief that those of us who thrive in society benefit from participating in our system and that not everyone is similarly situated to be able to benefit from our system. Giving back recognizes that in benefitting from our system we are “taking something” from it – i.e. the opportunity to thrive, which is, partly, our own actions and, partly, a system set up to benefit us. It recognizes that our success, or our donors’ success, did not happen in a vacuum. It happened because we are part of a community.
We have a responsibility, both individually and collectively, to support those who have not benefitted from this same system in the same way. This is why we partnered with the city of Atlanta to help relocate over 700 residents from Forest Cove, a broken place that no one should have to endure. This is why we launched our BIPOC homeownership initiative to preserve and/or help create over 6,000 BIPOC homeowners over the next four years. And, this is why we and our donors will give back over $130 million this year to nonprofits across metro Atlanta who make a difference every day in the lives of our neighbors.
Ultimately, giving back is about believing in the power of community. Believing that none of us is perfect, none of us has a perfect understanding of the truth. And, believing that all of us need each other, all of us should take care of each other.
Or as Buddy the Elf would say – there’s room for everyone on the “nice” list!
Frank Fernandez is president and CEO of the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, which is one of the largest philanthropic service organizations in the Southeast.
About the Author
