{"id":3944,"date":"2025-05-19T11:23:56","date_gmt":"2025-05-19T16:23:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blackbeltfound.co\/?p=3944"},"modified":"2025-05-19T11:23:56","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T16:23:56","slug":"bbcf-president-writes-letter-to-editor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blackbeltfound.org\/?p=3944","title":{"rendered":"BBCF CEO &#038; President Writes Letter to Editor"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"3944\" class=\"elementor elementor-3944\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-74e8150d elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default parallax_section_no qode_elementor_container_no\" data-id=\"74e8150d\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-504a9155\" data-id=\"504a9155\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-f8218c7 elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"f8218c7\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"384\" src=\"https:\/\/blackbeltfound.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-21-at-11.22.02-AM-768x384.png\" class=\"attachment-medium_large size-medium_large wp-image-3946\" alt=\"Chronicles of Philanthropy - Letters to the Editor - Correspondence from Chronicle Readers\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blackbeltfound.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-21-at-11.22.02-AM-768x384.png 768w, https:\/\/blackbeltfound.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-21-at-11.22.02-AM-300x150.png 300w, https:\/\/blackbeltfound.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-21-at-11.22.02-AM-1024x511.png 1024w, https:\/\/blackbeltfound.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-21-at-11.22.02-AM-1536x767.png 1536w, https:\/\/blackbeltfound.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-21-at-11.22.02-AM.png 1726w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-4bc8a641 elementor-widget__width-initial elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"4bc8a641\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h5>The Gates Foundation\u2019s Big Message to \u201cSmall Philanthropy\u201d<\/h5><p>By: Felecia Lucky, CEO &amp; President, Black Belt Community Foundation<\/p><p>The Gates Foundation\u2019s decision to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.philanthropy.com\/article\/the-gates-foundation-the-worlds-biggest-philanthropy-announces-plans-to-shutter-in-2045\">spend down its assets by the end of 2045<\/a> is clearly huge news for international philanthropy \u2014 especially as massive cuts to USAID and other federal agencies are disrupt health and humanitarian aid to communities across our globe.<\/p><p>Like many, I hope this move will inspire other big foundations to rethink how they use their resources. But it should also shake up small philanthropy, particularly foundations that serve rural areas, such as the one I lead in Alabama, the <a href=\"http:\/\/blackbeltfound.co\/\">Black Belt Community Foundation<\/a>.<\/p><p>Rural communities across the South \u2014 and the country \u2014 are staring down a humanitarian crisis. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/pulse\/gates-foundations-big-message-small-philanthropy-felecia-lucky-hj6ae\/\">Read more &gt;&gt;<\/a>.<\/p><p>To read the full letter, please visit\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/pulse\/gates-foundations-big-message-small-philanthropy-felecia-lucky-hj6ae\/\"><strong>Felecia Lucky&#8217;s LinkedIn page<\/strong><\/a> or download a PDF using the button below!<\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-2989c94 elementor-widget elementor-widget-button\" data-id=\"2989c94\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"button.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"elementor-button elementor-button-link elementor-size-sm\" href=\"http:\/\/blackbeltfound.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Letters-to-the-Editor_-Readers-Respond-to-Gates-Wind-Down-With-Calls-for-Change.pdf\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"elementor-button-content-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"elementor-button-text\">Read Full Letter<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-6d2ff96 elementor-widget elementor-widget-spacer\" data-id=\"6d2ff96\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"spacer.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-spacer\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-spacer-inner\"><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Gates Foundation\u2019s Big Message to \u201cSmall Philanthropy\u201d By: Felecia Lucky, CEO &amp; President, Black Belt Community Foundation The Gates Foundation\u2019s decision to spend down its assets by the end of 2045 is clearly huge news for international philanthropy \u2014 especially as massive cuts to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5995,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-event","category-news","category-press-release"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackbeltfound.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackbeltfound.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackbeltfound.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackbeltfound.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackbeltfound.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blackbeltfound.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackbeltfound.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackbeltfound.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackbeltfound.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackbeltfound.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}