1991-2007
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1993
SECF launches Community Foundation Development Project.
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1993
SECF launches Community Foundation Initiative with special funding from Robert W. Woodruff and other foundations.
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1994
Martin Lehfeldt becomes director of Community Foundation Initiative.
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1994
Southern Rural Development Initiative established in Raleigh, North Carolina, advocating for racial and economic justice in the rural South.
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1996
Dorothy S. Ridings succeeds James Joseph as President and CEO of the Council on Foundations; at the time, COF had more than 2,000 members that collectively were disbursing $18 billion in grants annually.
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1996
Martin Lehfeldt reports identifying 92 community foundations in the Southeast region.
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1997
Grant from C.S. Mott Foundation enables SECF to being program to increase philanthropy in the South.
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1998
To diversify top-level staff at SECF, Martin Lehfeldht hires Imani Burnett.
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1998
New Ventures in Philanthropy awards SECF planning grant to establish southern-philanthropy Consortium to promote formation of new philanthropy in areas of the rural South.
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1999
Ford Foundation awards grant for SECF work with new health care foundations in region.
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2001
Annie E. Casey Foundation estatablishes its Atlanta Civic Site.
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2001
SECF helps launch the Georgia Rural Philanthropy Initiative with the Sapelo Foundation.
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2003
Two separate efforts come together, with support from a planning grant from the Ford Foundation, to form the Black Belt Community Foundation in Alabama.
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2003
SECF develops and delivers continuing legal education courses in partnership with bar associations in nine states.
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2004
Congress passes new regulations regarding foundation finances, following rapid growth of foundation assets in the late 1990s
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2005
SECF holds its first family foundations gathering.