By MARIA SAPORTA / Staff
The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation is pledging to contribute
at least $100 million over the next five years on quality-of-life
initiatives and on providing opportunities for children and youth.
Arthur Blank, a founder of Home Depot who now owns the Atlanta
Falcons, has emerged as one of Atlanta's top philanthropists. Since his
family foundation was established in 1995, it has awarded $128 million.
The foundation's new pledge shows that giving will not only continue
but occur at a more intense pace.
Over the past year, the Blank Foundation has conducted a strategic
review of its goals by getting feedback from community leaders and
grantees.
The result is that the foundation will still focus on the needs of
children, the acquisition of green space in the city of Atlanta, and the
support of the arts and cultural institutions.
But its process will change. It will no longer accept unsolicited
grant requests. Instead, the foundation will invite identified partners to
receive grants around its initiatives. The foundation's staff also will go
beyond funding specific programs. It will seek to convene people and
organizations around those initiatives and communicate findings to the
larger community --- hoping to spark civic action and community
involvement.
The foundation's new president comes onboard next week. Penelope
"Penny" McPhee joins the foundation from the John S. and James L. Knight
Foundation in Miami. The Blank Foundation also is moving into its new
offices next week, in a building on Howell Mill Road.
