What is Alabama Giving doing to encourage philanthropy?

  • Providing training to strengthen organizations that make grants
  • Educating grantmakers about statewide issues and encouraging collaboration
  • Publishing the 2009 Guide to Alabama Grantmakers on CD-ROM which provides a listing of all grantmaking organizations in the state and promoting it to nonprofits
  • Assisting with the development of two new community foundations and providing ongoing resources and support for other grantmakers
  • Providing information about national funding opportunities
  • Encouraging professional advisors to speak with their clients about the benefits of charitable giving through continuing education courses and social media 
  • Creating and distributing a corporate giving guide/toolkit that builds the case for business and corporate philanthropy programs and supplies useful tools and state specific research on the current status of business and corporate giving
  • Offering the Philanthropy Index, a process through which Alabama communities can discover their giving potential and establish their own philanthropic programs
  • Providing web-based research resources for those who want to learn more about philanthropy and state-specific research on philanthropic assets and potential

Philanthropy Making a Difference
Alabama Giving helped create the Alabama School Readiness Alliance (ASRA), whose public awareness campaign was instrumental in increasing the state’s funding for preschool sites in Alabama from approximately 4.5 million to just over 20 million in four years.  With the support of Governor Riley, legislators, and community leaders, Alabama Giving and other advocates in the nonprofit and business communities have been successful in making high-quality pre-k a continuing priority in Alabama. In the last three years, the Pew Charitable Trust has contributed $365,000 to ASRA in collaboration with Alabama foundations.