Closing the philanthropy gap – county by county

FAO was founded upon the belief that access to local philanthropy is vital to a community’s well-being.

Appalachian Ohio’s boom-to-bust development caused our communities to miss out on securing their own sources of philanthropy. Our wealth was extracted before our region had the capacity to retain it for future resilience. The result? Appalachian Ohio has 90 percent less philanthropic assets per capita than the rest of our state.

All our Appalachian communities face significant philanthropy gaps, prompting our founders to focus on building a philanthropic structure and mindset in areas that have historically lacked those resources. Their bold goal? That every Appalachian Ohio county have access to a source of sustained philanthropy to meet unique local needs and opportunities.

In 2004, the Guernsey County Foundation (originally known as the Cambridge Foundation) joined FAO as our first affiliate foundation partner. Since then, we have teamed up with or incubated 13 additional place-based affiliate foundation partners and the regionwide African American Community Fund. Each is led by local visionaries who know their communities best and are growing philanthropic resources to seize the most promising opportunities, fill the greatest needs and ensure that our people flourish.

In 2022, we celebrated the realization of our founders’ dream, when we welcomed three affiliate foundation partners, serving Lawrence, Noble and Vinton counties, to our community of givers. And now, every county in Appalachian Ohio is supported by a local community foundation.