With the goal of building thriving communities for all, Communities Foundation of Texas (CFT) works in North Texas and across the state through a variety of charitable funds and strategic initiatives.
The public foundation professionally manages more than 1,000 charitable funds for individuals, families, companies and nonprofits and runs several key initiatives like CFT’s North Texas Giving Day, Educate Texas at CFT, and the W. W. Caruth, Jr. Fund at CFT.
Communities Foundation of Texas has awarded over $2 billion in grants since its founding in 1953.
Since 2006, CFT has made more than 4,000 grants to 1,280+ organizations in Collin County totaling more than $62 million. On North Texas Giving Day 2020, Collin County residents collectively donated $5.5 million in support of 410 Collin County nonprofits.
We each have our favorite nonprofits that we invest in and support today, but we can also achieve incredible impact for our community when we pool our resources together and invest in the future through CFT’s Fund for Collin County, which was created to provide support and funding for our most vulnerable citizens in Collin County and to maintain the current and future health and vibrancy of this place that we call home.
CFT’s Fund for Collin County has helped support COVID-19 needs by making grants through North Texas Cares in partnership with CFT’s North Texas Community Response Fund. Your contribution increases the capacity to provide a long-term, sustainable resource to support Collin County communities now and for future generations. Learn more and view recent grants at: https://www.cftexas.org/fundforcollincounty. More than 200 grants have now been distributed to nonprofits through CFT’s North Texas Community Response Fund. You can read about these grants here: https://www.cftexas.org/community-impact/disaster-relief-and-recovery/covid-19-grants
Supporting the community through crisis is something that’s been part of CFT’s work for decades. The COVID-19 pandemic has further amplified the importance of being flexible in our responsiveness and the critical role we play in matching the generosity of North Texans with our community’s greatest needs. Since March, Communities Foundation of Texas has helped mobilize $175 million for nonprofits through our leadership of community relief efforts such as North Texas Cares, North Texas Giving Day, and North Texas Giving Tuesday Now, as well as the generosity of our donor-advised fund holders and the creation of eight different COVID-19 related relief funds: CFT’s North Texas Community Response Fund, the Dallas County COVID-19 Response Fund, the Dallas Morning News Charities COVID Response Fund, the Emma Lazarus Resilience Fund, the Get Shift Done for North Texas Fund and the Get Shift Done for America Fund, the Revive Dallas Small Business Fund, and the Serve Our Heroes Fund. Collectively, more than $12.6 million has been raised for COVID-19 community response funds held at CFT. CFT also partnered with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas to deploy $1 million to nonprofits across Texas and partnered with United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and Trusted World to provide much-needed free PPE to nonprofits in need.
Seeing community and nonprofit needs evolving in real time, Communities Foundation of Texas helped create North Texas Cares over the course of a week in March 2020, a collaborative partnership of 35 North Texas funders developed to streamline the process for nonprofits applying for COVID-19 related emergency funding via a shared online grant application. From March through July 2020, 1,400 grants were awarded from these 35 foundations, totaling over $40 million in assistance to 630 area nonprofits across the region through the North Texas Cares application process.
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