Our Mission

November 08, 2019

Our Mission: The Community Foundation of Abilene empowers people to make a lasting charitable impact on our community. We connect donors to causes they care about, manage strategic investments to preserve our endowments, make grants that align with donor intent, respond to community needs and provide philanthropic leadership to enhance Abilene’s future, today.

Our Vision: A thriving Abilene, endowed forever.

Breaking Down the Mission
 

The first line is the statement around which our whole operation is centered. We empower people to make a lasting charitable impact on our community.

The rest of the statement is intentionally simple. And it actually walks you through what we do to empower people to make a lasting impact and why we do it. We break it down line-by-line below.

1) We connect donors to causes they care about.

First, we listen. We want to know what matters to you. Then, we help you identify the organizations doing work in those fields. Together, we’ll develop a charitable giving strategy to maximize your ability to impact the identified causes.

2) We manage strategic investments to preserve our endowments.

This is what we mean by lasting impact. When you establish an endowment fund to support the causes you care about, we invest the principal gift to help the fund grow. Our investment team includes our investment committee, investment consultant and investment managers who work together to carefully and thoughtfully protect and grow these assets for long-term sustainability.

3) We make grants that align with donor intent.

Now for the fun part! Growth from your fund is used to make grants to the nonprofit causes that interest you. Because of our strategic investments, your fund has the potential to eventually grant out more money than the amount of your initial gift, making an even bigger impact on our community. This is what we mean by lasting impact.

4) We respond to community needs.

We do this in a number of ways. Our unrestricted funds give us the flexibility to support the changing needs in our community. Our donor-advised fundholders can also respond to emerging needs by recommending grants from their funds as needs arise.

5) We provide philanthropic leadership.

Our commitment to this community goes beyond grantmaking. We use our resources to equip local nonprofits with knowledge and skills to effectively carry out their missions.

6) The purpose? To enhance Abilene’s future, today.

It’s all about making our community better. That’s been our purpose since our founding in 1985. We believe the power of endowment makes this possible. Abilene is filled with people working to make a positive impact every day. It’s our mission to make that impact lasting.