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The Columbus Foundation is committed to strengthening the nonprofit sector in central Ohio. Through its Summer Fellowship Program, the Foundation also engages the next generation of young leaders in the sector through career-related work.

Building community doesn’t have to be complicated. Sometimes it starts with showing up, sharing a table, and trying something new together. 

The statistics are grim. Ohio leads the nation in opiate overdose deaths. The numbers are rising, and no one is immune. Opiate addiction affects individuals from all walks of life, and does not discriminate based on gender, geography, or socio-economic background. In December 2016, The Columbus Foundation launched a Critical Need Alert (CNA), Addressing the Opiate Epidemic, to benefit the Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Board of Franklin County (ADAMH) and its work with local partners to address prevention, awareness, and treatment options for those wrestling with addiction.

Toni Cunningham knows the work she oversees is changing lives. As Managing Director of Per Scholas, the students who come through her doors are looking to do more than take classes—they are poised to launch careers and set their lives on a new trajectory.

In late 2020, CFA teamed up with Franklin County and Welcoming City, an organization that helps New Americans find employment in central Ohio, to design, construct, and distribute masks to underserved communities through its SLAY SAFE campaign. The effort’s agenda was twofold: to offer free masks to the community and provide income for local entrepreneurs. Supported by a $13,500 grant from The Columbus Foundation’s Emergency Response Fund, CFA contracted with six local minority fashion designers who each created a unique mask design.

The Payne Theological Seminary is the oldest freestanding African American seminary in the country and is home to students from all over the world. In 2017, the board at Payne established the Payne Theological Seminary Endowment Fund, an Organization Endowment Fund at the Foundation, to ensure ongoing growth and honor the stewardship and legacy of a significant gift made to the school.

What started as a classroom project between teachers in two central Ohio high schools has blossomed into Erase the Space, a nonprofit organization that gives students and teachers a broader perspective of life in our city. In September, Erase the Space received a $10,000 grant from the Columbus Foundation Racial Equity Fund to continue its work with NExT Hub.

Beshert, Yiddish for 'meant to be,' is a word both Carol Fey and Joan Wurmbrand, MD, regularly use to characterize their life together. The couple, together for 34 years and parents to three children, regularly give back to the communities they are passionate about.