New Advisory Board and Fayette Together Endowment Using Century Old Idea That is Still Solving Today’s Challenges in Our Community

Caring Communities Foundation is taking two important steps to deepen its work in Fayette County: forming a new local advisory board and launching the Fayette Together Fund, a permanent community endowment designed specifically to support nonprofits serving Fayette residents.

The Caring Communities Fayette Advisory Board brings together respected local leaders with deep knowledge of the area: Josh Bonner, Stephen Childs, Joe Domaleski, Abby McCollum, Cyndi Plunkett, Ellie White-Stevens, Katie Pace Quattlebaum, and Lindsey Wooddy. These individuals understand the strengths, pressures, and opportunities present in Fayette County. One of their key roles will be helping guide grantmaking from the new place-based endowment created to answer needs unique to the community.

The Fayette Together Fund is an unrestricted community fund designed to support only local nonprofits meeting needs in Fayette County. Unlike restricted gifts that can limit how money is used long after circumstances change, the Fayette Together Fund is structured to remain flexible. Its purpose is straightforward: keep charitable resources available for the organizations doing the daily work of strengthening this community and ensure those resources can respond as needs evolve. The new local advisory board will help ensure that happens.

This model is already working in Coweta County through the Coweta Together Fund. That fund has provided flexible, local support to nonprofits addressing real needs in the community, demonstrating how a permanent, place-based endowment paired with local guidance can strengthen the organizations closest to the work. The Fayette Together Fund builds on that proven approach.

Communities have always needed more than good intentions. They need permanent ways to gather resources, adapt to changing needs, and keep decision-making close to the people who live and work here. When charitable dollars are managed from a distance, or locked into rigid purposes that no longer fit, the organizations and neighbors closest to the work often feel the gap first.

For more than a hundred years, community foundations have offered a proven answer to that challenge. The model was created to solve problems that still exist: gifts that become too inflexible to adapt, fragmented efforts that never quite connect, and the absence of a lasting local institution that can convene public, private, and nonprofit leaders around shared priorities. Community foundations were designed to pool local generosity, keep capital permanent yet flexible, and place stewardship in the hands of people who understand the community they serve.

That is the work Caring Communities Foundation is advancing in the communities we represent. We are not inventing a new approach. We are applying a century-old model that has already proven its value—and adapting it carefully to the priorities of this community.

The same local focus shapes the full range of tools we offer. Families, businesses, and nonprofits can establish donor-advised funds, scholarships, endowments, agency funds, and payroll deduction programs through Caring Communities Foundation. These vehicles are straightforward to start, and families do not have to be wealthy to participate. Starting a fund is accessible and practical. More importantly, these tools work best when managed by an organization connected to the community itself—not by a national chain or a distant state organization that lacks day-to-day knowledge of local needs and relationships. When the fund is held locally, the advice, the grantmaking, and the long-term stewardship stay rooted here.

This approach also supports tangible community projects that improve quality of life—parks, memorials, amphitheaters, and other shared spaces. Community foundations have long helped residents and local partners gather the resources needed to get these projects done, keeping the process local and the results visible. Whether through dedicated funds or collaborative efforts, the goal is the same: turn community priorities into completed work that benefits people here.

Together, the Advisory Board, the Fayette Together Fund, and these tax-smart giving tools strengthen our ability to convene. A community foundation’s value has always rested in part on its capacity to bring different sectors to the same table. Government brings scale and policy perspective. Businesses bring capital and practical insight. Nonprofits bring direct knowledge of local needs. The foundation provides continuity so collaboration can outlast any single project or leadership cycle.

This structure also serves families who want to leave a lasting gift, businesses looking for meaningful ways to invest where their employees and customers live, and nonprofits that need more reliable support. Permanent funds can honor donor intent while remaining adaptable. Corporate giving can be directed toward priorities that strengthen the community that supports the business. Local nonprofits can access grants and capacity support rooted in local knowledge rather than distant priorities.

Community foundations were created more than a century ago because communities needed permanent, flexible, place-based institutions that could steward resources and relationships over time. That need has not disappeared. In the communities we serve, Caring Communities Foundation exists to meet it – through local leadership and practical tools that make it easy for people to invest in the places they care about most.

Our community thrives when it invests in itself. We invite families, businesses, and partners who share that belief to join us in building that capacity here.

For more information or to explore starting your fund: 

caringcommunitiesfoundation.org