Helping to Move People and Places out of Poverty

Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation

Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation

The Babcock Foundation partners with organizations and networks working to alleviate poverty and increase social and economic justice in 11 Southern states. We believe in democracy, opportunity and the power of partnerships, and we follow the lead of local experts who know what their communities need to thrive.

We support collaborative, multi-strategy, place-based work focused on democracy and civic engagement, economic opportunity, and supportive policies and institutions. We believe sustained, general-support grants are critical to helping organizations remain nimble and effective. In addition to grantmaking, we make strategic investments aligned with our mission and values. 

Established in 1953 with a $12 million bequest from Mary Reynolds Babcock, in its early days the Foundation supported historically black colleges and universities, grassroots advocacy groups, voter education and government accountability efforts – a unique legacy for Southern family philanthropy. 

The values that guided the Foundation in those days – fairness, democracy, equity and opportunity – continue to be our North Star today. 

Our Mission & Vision

Grants

Stories

Welcome our Chief Equity Officers

All of us at the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation are thrilled to welcome two new staff members who will help us advance our equity work and that of our grantee partners. Both chief equity officers will serve on the equity, program and management teams, enhance our programs, learning and culture...

COVID testing in Georgia

Combining Forces to Help Southerners Weather the Pandemic

Foundations of all sizes are thinking creatively about ways to address the staggering implications of the COVID-19 crisis through our nonprofit partners. For the Babcock Foundation, an opportunity presented itself last month when our friends at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation invited us to...

The Fierce Urgency of Now

“We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late.” - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Riverside Church, 1967

If there is any...

MRBF

Issues

Places

  • Seeding a Better, More Equitable Normal

    This article originally appeared as a guest post on the Center for Effective Philanthropy's website on November 10, 2020.

    If 2020 has reinforced any lesson, it is that the people and organizations seeking to advance social, economic, and racial justice need flexibility and stability to adapt to whiplashing context changes in already hostile environments. Those of us...

    Communities Unlimited

  • Welcome our Chief Equity Officers

    All of us at the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation are thrilled to welcome two new staff members who will help us advance our equity work and that of our grantee partners. Both chief equity officers will serve on the equity, program and management teams, enhance our programs, learning and culture, and manage grant portfolios. Given their backgrounds and expertise expanding equity in the South,...

  • Investing our Endowment with a Focus on Racial Justice

    This article appeared in ImpactAlpha on August 13, 2020.

    The disproportionate harms to Black Americans wrought by COVID and those wrought by police brutality are symptoms of the same disease: racism hardwired into our political, economic, social and cultural systems.

    What Black and Latinx communities are experiencing is the culmination of four centuries of laws,...

    Wayne Lee-Sing, Unsplash

  • Combining Forces to Help Southerners Weather the Pandemic

    Foundations of all sizes are thinking creatively about ways to address the staggering implications of the COVID-19 crisis through our nonprofit partners. For the Babcock Foundation, an opportunity presented itself last month when our friends at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation invited us to submit a simple application for a $4 million “expenditure responsibility grant” to redeploy to...

    COVID testing in Georgia

  • Building a Bigger Table: COVID Response Funds Across the South

    “If you are more fortunate than others, build a longer table, not a taller fence.” - Unknown

    While it has been said COVID19 doesn’t discriminate – anyone from any background can be affected by the virus – this sentiment doesn’t tell the whole story. The virus has and will continue to disproportionately affect our most marginalized communities. The South is home to uniquely...