The Birmingham Change Fund is officially listed as a giving circle of the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham. But you might call it the Birmingham Change Family, since the varied members of this group have grown as close as the best kind of family as they have shared their time, talent and treasure to create positive change in greater Birmingham.
All the members are different, from a seminary student to an attorney to an engineer. They have in common a love of this community, which they share by giving $250 a year and their volunteer time and talent to nonprofit organizations which they choose as a group. It’s the power of philanthropy multiplied by the 16 members of BCF.
Since its beginning in 2003, first as an interest group nurtured by the Ford Foundation and now as a component fund of the Community Foundation, BCF has made grants of more than $25,000 and contributed hundreds of volunteer hours to the nonprofit organizations they decide to support.
”Our interests have brought us close together, and we refer to one another as family,” said Martha Emmett of BBVA Compass Bank. “We are growing together as we learn more and more about collective philanthropy.”
Click here to find out more about what BCF members say about the group and how you can participate in this or another giving circle, one of the fastest-growing forms of philanthropy. This is Way #47 in our series of 50 Ways to Love Your Community.
Filed under: Education, giving | Tagged: Birmingham Change Fund, community, giving circles, nonprofit organizations, philanthropy
