Inspiration Magazine Spotlights Success of Mary Black Foundation

With 30 years of successfully starting some of Spartanburg's major health and community initiatives, the Mary Black Foundation has garnered a lot of attention. But a recent piece in Philanthropy Southeast’s quarterly edition of its magazine Inspiration spotlighted another transformative idea from Mary Black Foundation: Open Philanthropy.

This is an initiative that seeks to show the community the exact details of how and why the organization makes its funding decisions.

“Ultimately, the goal of the series is to demystify the grant-making process” said Mary Black Foundation President and CEO Molly Talbot-Metz. “We want to be transparent about how we make decisions, what we are learning, and changes we make in response to the feedback we get.”

Open Philanthropy has had an added benefit of creating more meaningful conversations between the foundation’s team and the people it works with in the community.

Talbot-Metz said, “It’s been rewarding to hear how much the foundation’s nonprofit partners appreciate the information. More importantly, they appreciate the honesty and vulnerability of our sharing. That builds trust and, I hope, makes us a better partner to the nonprofits in our community.”

Philanthropy Southeast is the premier philanthropic network for courageous leaders, ideas, and resources focused on the American South and U.S. Caribbean territories.

They connect their members to experts, innovations and best practices in philanthropy while promoting peer-to-peer learning and leadership development.

The Mary Black Foundation is an independent grantmaking organization to improve the health and well-being of the people and communities of Spartanburg County. Learn more at maryblackfoundation.org.