Black Belt Community Foundation | Giving Tuesday 2024

Let’s do something big together!

This Giving Tuesday, we invite you to join the Black Belt Community Foundation (BBCF) in our mission to create a brighter, healthier, and more resilient future for the Black Belt region. With your help over the past 20 years, we’ve already made remarkable strides, but there’s still so much more to do!

Here are just a few of the ways your support is helping us currently tackle some of the region’s toughest challenges:

Properly Functioning Wastewater Systems: We’re advocating for and investing in wastewater solutions. These efforts ensure families can live in safe and sanitary conditions—free from the health hazards of failing septic systems.
Access to Quality Healthcare: We’re working tirelessly to ensure every county has reliable ambulatory services, equipped hospitals, and community resources such as defibrillators and oxygen tanks for volunteer fire departments, and that’s just scratching the surface. Having quick and close access to high quality healthcare is a must for every community as being far removed from such is a matter of life and death. BBCF’s H.O.P.E. (Health, Outreach, Prevention and Education) has made impressive strides in health equity.
Storm Recovery and Preparedness: The scars of the devastating tornadoes of 2023 in Selma and other parts of the Black Belt are still visible, but so is our resolve. Your support has helped rebuild homes, provide storm shelters, and restore hope to affected families. We are continuing and expanding in this work. Our partnership with the Selma Housing Authority in building the first 100 new homes to address recovery housing and the housing shortage in general is a great example. We are also empowering first-time homeowners who now have a chance to escape decades of home renting as their only option.

Tamicka Newberry holding up keys to new house — ABOVE: Mrs. Tamicka Newberry of Selma proudly holds up the keys to her new home awarded to her through community raffle. In 2023, her family's home and all of their belongings were destroyed in the historic Selma Tornado Disaster. The new home was made possible through a partnership between BBCF and the Selma Housing Authority. A first phase of 100 new affordable homes are now being built to continue resolving the housing shortage in Selma.

Ending Food Deserts: No children and no family should go to bed hungry. By supporting local farmers and community food hubs and meal programs, we’re working to ensure access to fresh, nutritious food in communities that need it most.
Empowering Youth Through After-School Programs: We’re nurturing the next generation by expanding reading and learning programs across our service counties. From literacy initiatives to STEM learning, these programs provide children with the tools they need to succeed in school and life, fostering a love for learning and a brighter future.
Community Grants & Arts Grants: In 2024, BBCF gave out its all-time record amount of funding to dozens of community non-profit organizations and arts organizations serving the region. Over half a million dollars was awarded with grant recipients being vetted and reviewed by local granting committees operating county-by-county across our 12 county service region.

Every dollar you give allows us to more fully address these critical needs. Together, we can unlock the potential of the Black Belt by empowering its people, strengthening its communities, and ensuring no one is left behind. The communities have spoken and we have been listening. Now it is our turn to deliver responsively, and we need YOUR HELP!

Your generosity is the key to continuing this vital work. Let’s unlock doors of opportunity and shape a future where every resident of the Black Belt thrives.

Thank you for standing with us.