How the Community Foundation for the Central Savannah River Area Supports Its Region
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Downtown Augusta, Georgia. Photo: Sean Pavone/shutterstock
The state of Georgia is home to around a dozen community foundations that focus on specific geographies beyond the Atlanta metropolitan area. One unique community funder in the region is the Community Foundation for the Central Savannah River Area (CSRA), with giving that extends to counties in both Georgia and South Carolina.
Here are a few important things to know about how CSRA gives locally.
The Masters Tournament Connection
CSRA is based in Augusta, Georgia, a city that is perhaps best known for hosting the Masters Golf Tournament each year. The professional golf tournament is always held in Augusta and typically takes place during the first full week of April. Much of the foundation’s grantmaking ability relies on the Masters Tournament for support, especially for its unrestricted fund and community grants program. CSRA distributes community grants through a competitive process that usually begins in July.
A Wide Variety of Interests
As with many community foundations, CSRA has many different local interests in the community. The most commonly funded include health, environment, art and culture, human services, education and youth enrichment. This funder also responds with emergency funds when unforeseen circumstances arise.
To help guide grantseekers, CSRA hosts grantseeker information sessions before new application periods open up. It also provides a PDF of the previous year’s session information on its website for reference. Additional affiliated funding is available through the Augusta Bar Foundation, Mary Warren Foundation, Border Bash Foundation, Porter Flemming Foundation, St. Joseph Foundation, Women in Philanthropy, Knox Foundation, and Convention and Visitors’ Bureau tourism grants.
Specific Places of Focus
CSRA has a two-state, six-county service area. This encompasses Richmond, Columbia, McDuffie and Burke counties in Georgia as well as Aiken and Edgefield counties in South Carolina.
In these counties, the maximum grant request should be $15,000. There is no minimum grant award amount. The foundation considers grant awards for operating support and start-up organizations on a case-by-case basis. However, most of its funding comes in the form of program and project support.
An Accessible Application Process
In recent years, nearly half of local applicants have ended up receiving grants from CSRA. That means this is definitely a foundation worth getting to know for groups in the area. The foundation’s staff make themselves available for grantseeker questions by both phone and email. CSRA also publishes an e-newsletter that interested organizations should follow for notification when the next application period begins.
Learn more about this community grantmaker and other regional funders in our Southeast regional funding guide.
