The Greater New Orleans Foundation: A History of Giving
1720s-1910s
Organized giving has been a part of New Orleans history since the beginning. Countless religious charities, neighborhood-based private organizations, and societies based on ethnicity and profession formed in the 1700s and 1800s to serve the sick and needy in their communities. A national movement toward collaborative charitable financing began in the early 20th century. In 1914, a group of prominent New Orleans civic leaders formed an organization called the Federation of Non-Sectarian Charity and Philanthropy of New Orleans. It was unable to raise enough money and dissolved the following year. Collaborative philanthropic efforts were renewed after the end of World War I.
1920s
With the support of the Committee on Philanthropy of the Association of Commerce of New Orleans, civic leaders formed the Community Chest in 1923. All charitable organizations in the city were invited to join. The city’s foremost African American, Catholic, and Jewish charitable organizations all agreed to join. Learning from the experience of a decade earlier, an operating budget was in place before the first campaign began. The Community Chest exceeded its goal to raise $887,000 in its first year, which covered all the expenses of 64 member organizations. The following year, 18 additional organizations clamored for membership.
The Community Chest partnered with the Citizens Relief Committee to provide food, shelter, and other emergency services to those victims of the 1927 Mississippi River flood who did not qualify for Red Cross aid. The Community Chest continued to expand its services, publishing a Directory of Welfare Agencies and approving two major capital campaigns to benefit the YMCA and Dillard University/Flint-Goodridge Hospital.
1930s
Julius Goldman took over the directorship of the Community Chest after the sudden death of its first director, Sherman Conrad. Shortly before he took office, the stock market crash of 1929 plunged the country into depression. Many Community Chest programs had to be cut, and funds and assets were frozen. The Community Chest developed close working relationships with governmental agencies, especially the newly created City Department of Public Welfare.
1940s
New Orleans, like the rest of the country, was just beginning to recover when World War II erupted. New Orleans soon became a shipbuilding mecca. In 1942, thanks to a bequest of Fannie Levy Mayer, the Community Chest purchased the Tulane-Newcomb building at 211 Camp Street, which housed its offices and those of affiliated “red feather” agencies for 40 years. For four years during the war, the Community Chest expanded its mission to become the Community and War Chest, raising $6,000,000.
1950s
Following a national trend to expand in scope, the Community Chest played a major role in establishing the United Fund for the Greater New Orleans Area, which would eventually become the United Way. The United Fund broadened the base of giving, substantially increased funds, and took on national as well as local projects. The Community Chest, however, still had stable endowments and continued to receive generous bequests, including $500,000 from pharmaceutical executive Robert Jessie Bynum in 1955.
1960s-1970s
As the Bynum funds were being depleted, a bequest from Hattie M. McClure came just in time to fill the void. One of the most fortunate uses of the Bynum money came in early 1965 when, at the urging of the Chest-United Fund Insurance Committee, member agencies reviewed and upgraded their insurance coverage. This wise council proved prophetic when Hurricane Betsy struck later that year.
The Tax Reform Act of 1969 adversely affected private foundations, causing some to consider termination. The Community Chest extended an invitation to these foundations to transfer their funds to the Chest, which would allow them to keep their name and foundation intact and enjoy the tax status of a public charity. This was the beginning of the transformation of the Community Chest into a community foundation.
1980s
In 1982, the Community Chest and United Way moved into the new Norman Mayer Building at 2515 Canal Street. In 1983, the Community Chest changed its name to the Greater New Orleans Regional Foundation to reflect its expanded role. Whereas the Community Chest had been created to raise operating funds for member agencies, a community foundation focuses on attracting, managing, and making grants from permanent assets, which allows it to have a much greater philanthropic impact on the community. The Fall 1984 issue of the GNORF Newsline informed supporters that “TGNORF continues The Chest’s long-standing policy of assistance to worthy human care services but now also embraces support of educational, arts, cultural and other philanthropic organizations….We are by definition, a community foundation—the first to be established to serve this city and region.”
The name was simplified to the Greater New Orleans Foundation in 1986. By 1987, the Greater New Orleans Foundation had a full-time, year-round staff and nearly $7 million in assets. That year, the Foundation granted $400,000 to 64 agencies and also began to share its newly acquired knowledge of grant writing and fund-raising. In 1989, GNOF was selected by the Ford-MacArthur Foundations as one of 10 community foundations in the nation with potential to grow—a recognition that came with a $500,000 grant and a challenge to raise another $1 million.
1990s
In 1991, the Foundation took a leadership role in establishing the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, a resource to create affordable housing through neighborhood-based Community Development Organizations. In 1992, GNOF set a strategic plan for the next five years: 1) To develop the Foundation’s assets to $50 million (from $13 million); 2) To increase the Foundation’s presence in our nine-parish region; 3) To model the values and practices of a fair and equitable community.
In 1993, at the request of the Ford Foundation, GNOF assembled representatives of neighborhood groups, government, and donors to form the New Orleans Neighborhood Development Collaborative. This $1.5 million program became a national model for affordable housing.
A court settlement following a phenol spill in the Mississippi River led to a $6 million gift to the Foundation, its largest ever, in 1994. The money was used to create the Environmental Fund, which gives grants each year to support projects that encourage ecological, economic, and cultural vitality, resilience, and sustainability in the region.
In 1997, the Ford Foundation chose the Greater New Orleans Foundation as one of four sites for its Regional Initiative, a multi-year grant which allowed GNOF to support the ECOnomics Institute—creators of the Crescent City Farmers Market—and the African-American Faith-Based Economic Institute. In 1998, GNOF moved to its current location at 1055 St. Charles Ave.
2000s
GNOF continued to experience rapid growth, topping 500 funds and $100 million in assets by 2001. Collaborations between GNOF and national funders including the Ford, Annie E. Casey, and F. B. Heron Foundations led to ambitious programs supporting economic development in both urban and rural areas and a small grants program to uplift the Central City neighborhood.
Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 changed the Foundation’s role forever. In the immediate aftermath, GNOF created the Rebuild New Orleans Fund and directed more than 1,200 grants to organizations responding to storm victims’ needs. Suddenly finding itself in a position to advise national funders on how best to help the city rebuild, GNOF coordinated the local efforts of the Rockefeller Foundation, the State of Louisiana, the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund, and others to develop the Unified New Orleans Plan (UNOP), the city’s comprehensive plan for recovery and rebuilding.
By mid-2007, the Foundation was ready to move beyond the initial phase of Katrina recovery and take a more proactive, strategic role. UNOP identified the lack of quality, affordable housing as the primary obstacle to recovery in the city. In response, GNOF brought together 22 local and national foundations to create the five-year, $25 million Community Revitalization Fund, which has supported the building and rehabilitation of 6,500 new housing units in New Orleans. In 2007, the Foundation also received its largest gift ever, of $20 million from philanthropist and lifelong New Orleanian John Albert Marque.
GNOF established affiliate foundations in St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes in 2006 so that the rebuilding process in those hard-hit areas could be run by the people who live and work there. GNOF also established an affiliate foundation in Jefferson Parish in 2008. GNOF seeded these foundations with $100,000 each and continues to work closely with them.
In 2009, GNOF responded to the effect of the economic downturn on nonprofits by creating the Community IMPACT Program, granting a total of $1 million to 49 organizations.
The region faced another unprecedented disaster when the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in April 2010, causing the largest oil spill in the nation’s history. GNOF responded within days by opening the Gulf Coast Oil Spill Fund, designated for projects that would support and strengthen the communities and environment affected by the disaster. Donations poured in from around the world. The Fund gave its first $50,000 grant in May, and a competitive grants process to give out another $400,000 was announced in October.
Today, GNOF manages more than 700 funds and has $214 million in assets. As one of the oldest and largest philanthropic organizations in the region, the Greater New Orleans Foundation and its family of donors have invested over $100 million in the greater New Orleans region over the past 27 years.
