Coastal Baldwin forms endowment foundation to help nonprofits

Leaders from three south Baldwin County cities are raising money to establish an endowment fund with the goal of awarding community grants to nonprofits. The Tri-City Community Foundation aims to serve Foley, Gulf Shores and Orange Beach and surrounding communities. It’s the latest of three established under the umbrella of the Community Foundation of South Alabama (CFSA) in Mobile, which serves Baldwin, Choctaw, Clarke, Conecuh, Escambia, Mobile, Monroe and Washington counties. “Civic leaders come together and say they want to be on an advisory committee to participate in a foundation for our community, basically to be able to give back to the community in perpetuity,” CFSA President and CEO Rebecca Byrne said. “To have some type of an endowed community fund for the benefit of that particular community. That gives those communities a chance to identify the issues they want to address.” Tri-City is still in the fundraising stage and will spend 2019 trying to raise seed money to generate interest. The fund got its start with a grant from the Coastal Resiliency Coalition (CFC), a local nonprofit created after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Disaster and focused on helping local Gulf Coast businesses and individuals survive, sustain and succeed, Tri-City Chair Michelle Hodges said.