Give Atlanta

Atlanta is a city on the rise, always reaching for more and the next. That’s evident in the city’s economic growth, business innovation, and how it attracts the best and brightest talent from around the country. Thanks in part to challenges like GIVE Atlanta, it’s also a hotspot for generosity.

When the world began to split at the seams, Alicia Philipp, the longtime director of the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, was in a vineyard in Sao Pedro do Sul, Portugal, visiting family. From her vantage point, the deadly coronavirus, already tearing through Europe, was a real, if not necessarily immediate, threat to America.

Michelle Nunn, CEO of CARE, shares her favorite things that give back to the causes she cares about most.

When Woodruff Arts Center's President and CEO, Doug Shipman, greets me on the fourth floor, he’s dressed in a plaid blazer, sneakers, and colorful socks in the style of a cool politician or a millennial tech magnate. It’s a fitting look for someone who both wields immense power and embraces nontraditional priorities, namely to diversify Woodruff Arts Center.

In Grove Park, a neighborhood just west of Bankhead, a familiar story is playing out. The first chapter might begin in the 1950s, when black Atlantans first started moving to the neighborhood and white residents tried various tactics—including bombing one black woman’s home—to keep them out.

A new class of Atlanta philanthropists and activists tell us why they give, how they’re doing it, and what they’ve learned along the way.

The origin story of nonprofit Giving Kitchen, which supports food service workers in times of crisis, has captured the hearts of Atlanta and beyond since its inception in 2013. Since its founding, Giving Kitchen has been dedicated to providing emergency assistance to food service workers through referrals and financial assistance.

The Empty Stocking Fund has been an Atlanta institution since 1927, after a group of employees from the Atlanta Georgian founded it during the Great Depression. The nonprofit allows parents to “shop” for their children and select gifts from the organization’s toy store every December.

Furkids was born out of a need for adoption and no-kill shelter options in the metro Atlanta area after Shelton came across a cat family outside her home in 2001. She started volunteering at a PetSmart in 2002 and organizing adoptions out of the Perimeter store.

Lush greenery softens the edges of Atlanta when viewing the city from a plane, from the upper floors of its many new high-rises, and even on the big screen in the many films for which Atlanta serves as the backdrop. On the ground, the reality of Atlanta’s unbounded development comes sharply into focus.