Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham awarded $1.4M for its Fall 2024 grant cycle

The Meals on Wheels van loaded up with food for delivery. (Jacob Blankenship / Bham Now)

The Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham awarded $1.41 million in grants to 59 nonprofit organizations for its Fall 2024 grant cycle.

Established in 1959, the foundation serves Blount, Jefferson, Shelby, St. Clair and Walker counties.

This particular round of funding focused on supporting several priorities identified in their strategic plan, including:

• Creating Economic Opportunity for All
• Fostering Equity and Inclusion
• Overcoming Persistent Poverty
• Nurturing Thriving Communities

“Through our competitive grantmaking process, the Community Foundation supports the work of the many dedicated nonprofits throughout our five counties.

The most recent grant cycle includes support for building a 20,000-square-foot food distribution center for Alabama Childhood Food Solutions, creating study pods and laptop workspaces at the Birmingham Public Library, and empowering youth through Cahaba Riverkeeper’s Environmental Leadership Program — just to name a few. 

We look forward to seeing the transformational impact all of the 59 grants from our fall cycle have on the greater Birmingham region.” 

Sample of Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham 2024 Fall grantees

Momentum Works participants (Momentum)

Here are examples of the Fall 2024 grantees:

Creating Economic Opportunity for All 

• Central Alabama Redevelopment Alliance — $50,000 to expand small business efforts in Jefferson County, specifically targeting Tarrant, Kimberly and Hueytown.
• Innovation Depot — $38,000 to support the Mentor and Strategist Network, which provides a dual approach to support founder-to-founder mentorship and expert-led strategic advice.
• Momentum — $15,000 to serve an additional 50 women in 2025 through Momentum Works, a six-month program that delivers successful leadership training to a broad demographic of women.

Fostering Equity and Inclusion

• Big Canoe Creek Preserve Partners — $22,000 to create trails that are handicap accessible, ensuring that everyone in our community can enjoy the beauty and serenity of our natural environment.
• Alabama Symphonic Association, Inc. — $43,000 to support the second annual Momentum Symposium, an immersive event aimed at making classical music more accessible to collegiate musicians as a profession and to the community as an art form.
• Low Income Housing Coalition of Alabama — $47,000 to support the Voices for Change Academy, a six-month pilot program that will establish an affinity group for people with lived experience in homelessness and housing instability.

Overcoming Persistent Poverty

• Alabama Childhood Food Solutions, Inc. — $50,000 to support building a 20,000-square-foot food distribution center, allowing Alabama Childhood to serve up to 10,000 people each month.
• Community Food Bank of Central Alabama — $75,000 to support construction of a new facility allowing for increased food storage, enhanced logistics, and safe staff and volunteer spaces.
• Meals on Wheels of Central Alabama — $15,000 to purchase two delivery vehicles, enabling Meals on Wheels to serve more seniors, more efficiently. Program vans are relied upon to deliver 100+ meals on nine routes per day and to deliver emergency food in response to calls from seniors.

Nurturing Thriving Communities

• Cahaba Riverkeeper — $13,000 to support the Environmental Leadership Program that educates youth with an interest in their local environment and in being leaders in their community as the nation adapts to a changing climate. 
• Cahaba Valley Health Care, Inc. — $45,000 over three years to add an additional dental clinic day, allowing the clinic to be open up to three days per week beginning in 2025. 

The Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham’s Spring Grant Cycle opens on January 17, 2025. To learn more about the grantmaking process, guidelines and deadlines visit https://www.cfbham.org/grants/

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Pat Byington

Longtime conservationist. Former Executive Director at the Alabama Environmental Council and Wild South. Publisher of the Bama Environmental News for more than 18 years. Career highlights include playing an active role in the creation of Alabama's Forever Wild program, Little River Canyon National Preserve, Dugger Mountain Wilderness, preservation of special places throughout the East through the Wilderness Society and the strengthening (making more stringent) the state of Alabama's cancer risk and mercury standards.