Memphis' giving spirit a product of embracing diversity and supporting community | Opinion

I recently spoke to a group of financial advisors, discussing our work at the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis. Before I even got there, the senior partner – perhaps wearied by the persistent and surging crime in our city – asked if I could somehow find some good news to share with their group. Fortunately, sitting in my chair – at the largest charitable grantmaker in the Mid-South – I get to see lots of good things.

It has been well reported that Memphis is recognized as one of the most generous – if not the most generous – city in the country. In a 2017 study, The Chronicle of Philanthropy calculated that Memphians give a higher proportion of their disposable income to charity than people in any other major city.

And those statistics have been borne out in the  Community Foundation’s experience year after year. I reported the results for our most recent fiscal year at our annual meeting at the Memphis Botanic Garden last month. For the ninth year in a row, our donors – more than 1,000 strong – granted out more than $100 million, this year coming in at a little over $115 million. Total grants over that nine-year period exceeded $1.3 billion.

This year’s results included more than 6,600 grants to nearly 2,000 distinct nonprofits. Those numbers speak to the diversity of people’s giving priorities and to the sheer number of organizations working to improve lives and communities.

86% of those dollars stayed right here in the Mid-South, supporting programs and agencies right here that are working hard every day to make this an even better place to live, work, and play. That is a wealth of good news.

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Why Memphis is a place for philanthropy

What makes Memphis unique is our individual and collective vision for our community. We believe that we can make a difference, and that drives us to seek more and better ways to address our challenges and to improve upon our strengths.

Each of us has a unique vision for our own philanthropic legacy. We all want to make our own contribution to this community, and those desired impacts are based on our own individual or family values.

We all love our community, but so many of us love it in different ways. Some of us are dedicated to building the human service safety net that protects us and our neighbors and keeps us healthy and secure. Agencies like MIFA, Church Health, Christ Community Health, and others are supported largely by gifts – large and small – from ordinary Memphians.

Others support our incomparable arts institutions. The arts are inseparable from what it means to be a Mid-Southerner, and so, so many of us actively support places like Playhouse on the Square, the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, New Ballet Ensemble, Collage Dance Collective, and many, many more.

The list goes on: education, environment, religion, of course, and our many public amenities, the places that make our community so beautiful and such fun to live in. All of them are built on private donations from people who care about these institutions and whose personal values move them to support them.

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Diversity adds to our philanthropy

But it is the richness and diversity in our neighbors’ individual values that allow us to support this dizzying range of causes and organizations. That is what the Community Foundation was founded for 54 years ago, to help our donors manage and grow their giving to the causes they most care about.

So, if you want some good news, just look around. Yes, we have issues. But our greatest asset in dealing with them is the boundless devotion and generosity of our neighbors. Together, we have been working – and will continue to work in the days and years ahead – to invest in organizations and solutions that will address the greatest needs of our community.

That’s what we do.

Robert Fockler is president of the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis, the largest charitable grantmaker in the Mid-South. Under his direction, the Community Foundation manages 1,200 charitable funds for individuals, families, and organizations, with total grants of $115 million last year.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Philanthropy has been a longstanding foundation in Memphis. Here's why.