Stories

Mission Investing

  • Sparking Development where it’s Needed Most

    Big-money real estate developers are flocking to the American South, lured by aggressive economic development policies, generous tax incentives, lax regulations, low-cost land, cheap labor and a booming population. Investors are pouring considerable dollars into large real estate funds that typically target the same five to ten big cities. These dominance of these so-called “mega-funds,” which...

  • Celebrating a Year of Successes

    As we begin a new year, we’d like to toast all of our grantee partners across the South for a very successful 2016. Here are a few of the year’s achievements:

    The Georgia Budget and Policy Institute led the successful opposition to a tax-cut plan that would have damaged the state budget and eroded funding for schools and other services. Late in the legislative session, lawmakers...

    Coalfield Development Corporation
  • MRBF Joins Divest Invest Movement

    In addition to making grants to organizations across the South, the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation achieves positive impact by aligning our financial investments with our mission of moving people and places out of poverty. The Foundation recognizes that climate change has disproportionate impacts on low-wealth people and communities of color across the American South, the nation and...

    Father and daughter fishing on Gulf Coast
  • Justin Maxson: Generational Transition

    From 2002 to 2015, Justin Maxson served as President of the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development in Kentucky, where he supported and generated innovative development strategies, including small enterprise lending and technical assistance solutions, energy efficiency support strategies and targeted research and policy efforts aimed at creating benefits for low-to-moderate...