Committed To Community

Story By Natalie Salvatore Photos Contributed By CFEA

Responsibility, Connect, Charity

These words embody what the Community Foundation of East Alabama Inc. (CFEA) is all about. This nonprofit originally focused primarily on building and administering endowments, fostering funding for philanthropy efforts that targeted specific community needs and strengthening nonprofits. Now, CFEA’s mission statement is “to promote philanthropy by connecting people who care with causes that matter in order to serve the charitable purposes of our donors and the charitable needs of our communities.” Barbara Patton serves as the foundation’s president. The CFEA’s updated philosophy still works towards the organization’s overall goal of serving the community as a local philanthropic center, Patton said. The program all began in 2007 when it was incorporated as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. The CFEA finds its history in the Envision Opelika Foundation Inc., which works to improve the quality of life of citizens in different communities that it reaches. After assessing the challenges citizens of the East Alabama region faced, the CFEA was born to expand beyond the Envision boundaries. Originally, CFEA focused on Lee County, as Patton and the board felt the connections were the strongest there, but the organization has since grown. CFEA then wanted to spread its success and accomplishments more broadly, so such charitable efforts could reach other regions in need.

“Most community foundations begin with big investments,” Patton said. “We began with a committed board, but small investments.”

CFEA now reaches the counties of Lee, Macon, Russell, Tallapoosa and Chambers in Alabama. Its funding comes from private and publicly donated sources and are both endowed and non-endowed funds that are used for local purposes in solving pertinent issues in different geographic areas and communities.

It continues to focus on endowments. This way, the foundation can build for the future and invest in the charitable interests of its current and future donors and families, as well as build legacies to honor those who came before them. The foundation also works closely with corporations, other nonprofits and private foundations, all to help anyone interested in charitable work to achieve their tailored goals. As different communities work towards addressing their own specific issues, the CFEA works to help guide the charitable interests and the non-profits in each and every one of these communities as they make local changes. “For a community foundation to really impact the areas it serves and have the granting dollars to make a difference, we need to grow the endowments,” Patton said. The CFEA has blossomed to host 11 nonprofit endowments, 12 scholarship funds, four field of interest funds, seven donor-advised funds and a general endowment fund. A few of the nonprofit endowments include the Opelika City Schools Endowment, the Storybrook Farm Endowment and the Character Endowment. Some of the scholarship funds include the Wayne Murphy Scholarship Fund, the Nancy Parker Educational Fund and the John & Margaret Melson Scholarship. A couple of field of interest endowments include Economic Development and Disaster Endowment funds.

The foundation’s purpose of funding students is that every student in East Alabama has a potential opportunity to achieve future growth and success in pursuit of higher education. In 2011, the foundation awarded its first named scholarship.

In 2021 the foundation awarded $27,000 worth of scholarship funds to 15 students in the East Alabama area. Students from area high schools were selected. Yearly, these scholarships range from $500 to $1,000 per year for four years. Over the last five years, the CFEA has had a trajectory of growth in its scholarships, grants, endowments and total assets.

The foundation strengthens nonprofits by making grants which aid them in conducting their own services and addressing their own needs. Grants to nonprofits serve as a way for this local foundation to pour back into each community it connects with. A body of East Alabama citizens, eager to achieve a prosperous organization, governs the CFEA. This regional foundation is one of over 795 others in the country.

Citizens of East Alabama also graciously give to the program. The program’s compounded assets reduce administration fees, allowing more of the money donated to go toward charity causes.

“The tornado of March 3, 2019, moved the needle bigtime to help those in the county that were impacted,” Patton said. “Within the past year, we were able to add some board members from Chambers and Macon counties that will enable us to know the needs in those areas, while introducing us to donors there and to their interests.” Working towards providing disaster relief to the counties of Beauregard and Smiths Station, the CFEA began collecting donations and got to work, along with many others, helping to facilitate the cleanup and recovery. The contributions totaled $752,893. Patton shared how a community foundation like this one has so many impactful effects from its important functions.

“From a donor perspective, each reason will be different,” she said. “From a community perspective, there are always needs, and nonprofits are the worker bees in those areas.” The CFEA helps maintain funds for nonprofit efforts and other citizenry projects to create a sustainable, perpetual community.

“It’s often said that community foundations are the savings accounts for a community, whereas the nonprofits are the checking accounts,” Patton said. “However, there are times when community projects come along that just need a nonprofit to work with for the short term, and the CFEA can be there for those times.”

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