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Diverse volunteers meet at a local park to paint over graffiti on the wall.
St. Louis is an “extremely caring” community, says Amelia Bond, president and CEO of the St. Louis Community Foundation. “There’s a lot that needs to be done, but the philanthropy here is very strong.”
And when it comes to social investment and charitable giving, the metro region has no shortage of options—there’s a vast range of impact-driven agencies and associations that have their own missions, values, and impact areas. What unites them is a commitment to making St. Louis a better place, whether through improving standards of living, investing in the region’s economic growth, addressing systemic inequities, providing education and skills training, or mobilizing resources during times of crisis.
The St. Louis Community Foundation—the second-oldest such group in the country—specializes in strategic grantmaking: connecting donors to communities in need, managing funds and scholarships, and taking a leadership role in fundraising initiatives and programs. Notable initiatives include Give STL Day, an annual day of giving that has raised $26 million for more than 1,000 local nonprofits since its inception in 2014. Give STL Day also fosters solidarity by creating a community event that organizations can rally around.
At the center of the foundation’s partnerships and engagements is its work with donors and strategists to amass and curate a catalog of more than 800 funds dedicated to a wide range of causes and fields of interest: education, environmental protection, community development, health, and more. All of the foundation’s scholarships are viewable on My Scholarship Central, a regional scholarship search tool. The goal is to inspire purposeful philanthropy—helping donors give more effectively and meaningfully and connecting communities in need with valuable resources.
When properly supported and endowed, funds can become legacies that outlast their original benefactor. Sometimes, they can even evolve into a full-fledged organization, capable of providing not just financial resources but also strategic planning and leadership. That is the story of Invest STL, which transformed from a community investment fund housed at the St. Louis Community Foundation into an independent entity focused on neighborhood development and revitalization. Beginning as a grassroots response to raise funds and provide immediate aid to neighborhoods, Invest STL is now a community development effort that champions a resident-led approach to neighborhood transformation. In April 2020, the organization launched the Neighborhood Solidarity Fund, which awarded grants to 176 neighbor-led collectives, associations, and small businesses that worked to uplift areas hardest hit by the pandemic. Among Invest STL’s larger, multiyear investments is its work with Cornerstone in the West End and Visitation Park neighborhoods. The organization functions less like a traditional funder and more like a community partner that’s available to advise on such tasks as process-building, planning, and facilitating conversations between residents and developers.
THE ORGANIZATION’S MISSION: TO MAKE EVERY ST. LOUIS NEIGHBORHOOD A CHOSEN PLACE TO LIVE, RAISE CHILDREN, AND GROW OLD.
“Part of this work is respecting and supporting residents as experts of their community,” says Vontriece McDowell, Invest STL’s Neighborhood Solidarity partner, who speaks not just as a professional but also as a resident in one of the neighborhoods she supports. When she talks about the organization’s mission—to make every St. Louis neighborhood a chosen place to live, raise children, and grow old—McDowell is also thinking about what she wants to see as a mother, wife, and transplant from Chicago who’s grown to love the city.
Invest STL communications director Michael Pagano echoes McDowell’s sentiment: “We want to create a place where not only our kids but everybody’s kids can feel like their neighborhood is a thriving place to be—where the physical spaces and the assets reflect the vibrancy and the highest hopes of the people who live there.”
While organizations such as Invest STL focus on specific impact areas, others take a more multi-directional, holistic route to help establish a broad safety net for the region. These groups work in diverse populations. At United Way of Greater St. Louis, every donation goes into a community fund—a “safety net fund”—that supports 160 nonprofits across the region in areas such as food, housing and transportation, children and youth success, mentorship and after school spaces, job training and financial literacy, senior care, disability, and crisis response and disaster relief. In 2007, United Way launched the 2-1-1 hotline, which links a person in need—anything from food, housing, employment, mental health, legal work, and income support to education and entertainment—with a specialist who can connect them to the right resources. The hotline is designed to help individuals navigate the vast network of resources, agencies, and organizations. The website, mo211.myresourcedirectory.com, also serves as a database of nonprofits, searchable by category of need.
The Regional Business Council—a consortium of 100 CEOs working to impact business, civic, and philanthropic affairs in St. Louis—invests time and money into nonprofits and initiatives across the region. “Every year, we put $100,000 into smaller nonprofits for things like, ‘My roof is leaking at the nonprofit,’ or ‘We don’t have lights in the parking lot,’” RBC president and CEO Kathy Osborn says of the organization’s It’s Our Region Fund, which provides funding for small projects (in the $1,000–$10,000 range) that make a big impact on an organization’s capacity to carry out its mission.
Another one of RBC’s signature programs, Social Ventures Partners, is a place for philanthropists—entrepreneurs, corporations, foundations, and community volunteers—to invest in nonprofit organizations through hands-on capacity building. But that’s not all. These connections often evolve into a deeper involvement with RBC or an affiliate organization in one way or another.
LaShanda Barnes, for instance, joined SVP from her connection as a founding member of RBC’s Young Professionals Network. Barnes underscores the importance of relationships and network-building, how connections—both on individual and organizational levels—can amplify impact and become a catalyst for radical change.
Whether it’s a one-day ceiling fix or a multiyear project, RBC is just one of the region’s many organizations that invest resources, time, and effort into development and community-building. These investments help support and sustain community leaders, organizers, social workers, volunteers, entrepreneurs, and educators, who in turn service the needs of our community.
As Bond says, “The strength of our philanthropy is critical to our future. St. Louisans invest in St. Louis.”
