Sparking Generosity in Philanthropy
This year, the Community Foundation of Louisville celebrates 40 years of philanthropy in this region. In 1984, under the leadership of Baylor Landrum Jr., the Foundation sought to drive philanthropy in Louisville by stewarding donors’ financial assets and charitable aspirations, growing from $1.1 million in assets to nearly $800 million today.
At our core, the Community Foundation is a financial institution with a social mission. Through our personalized charitable and investment services, your generosity helps us build a more resilient community.
Together with our community investors, nonprofit and private foundation partners, government agencies, and other collaborators, the Foundation creates positive impact through funding opportunities and community support while working to advance solutions to critical community issues.
Action Areas
The Foundation is defining new ways to spark meaningful change in and beyond Louisville. Over the next year, you will hear about exciting initiatives to:
- Prioritize racial equity
- Move more capital resources to historically underinvested and overlooked areas in our community
- Provide new investment options to support our vision of a Louisville where everyone prospers
The Foundation will continue to support Louisville’s most pressing needs through the Fund for Louisville. To target key issues that need resources immediately, we have defined three new action areas supported by this fund:
Sparking Change Mini-Grants
In February, we are launching our Sparking Change Mini-Grants.
Supported by the Foundation’s Action Areas, the Community Foundation of Louisville will award three $1,000 grants each month to nonprofit organizations whose operating budgets are under $250,000.
This grant is open to any verified nonprofit in Jefferson, Oldham, Shelby, Spencer, and Bullitt counties in Kentucky and Clark, Floyd, and Harrison counties in Indiana. Organizations only need to apply once within a calendar year to be considered each month thereafter.
An organization can only be awarded this $1,000 grant once in one calendar year.