Carolyn W. and Charles T. Beaird Family Foundation

History and Mission The Foundation began life as the Charles T. Beaird Foundation on December 28, 1960 in Shreveport, Louisiana. At the time, the primary purpose of the Foundation was to facilitate the philanthropic interests of the Beaird-Poulan Corporation. In 2009, the Foundation became a stand-alone family foundation with no affiliation to any business, and its assets consist of contributions made by the Beaird family. It was renamed the Carolyn W. and Charles T. Beaird Family Foundation in honor of its founders and their vision of perpetual family involvement within the Foundation. The founders, Carolyn and Charles, met as students at Centenary College and were married for 63 years and inseparable before their deaths in 2006. Carolyn and Charles were widely recognized, locally and nationally, for their civic and charitable work. For over 60 years, Carolyn was an active civic leader with an insatiable interest in supporting organizations that provided access to opportunity and pursuit of knowledge. She co-founded the Juvenile Justice Program, which continues to thrive and is now known as Volunteers for Youth Justice. As a longtime active, faithful member of First Presbyterian Shreveport, she also established the Carolyn Williams Beaird Chair of Christian Ethics at Union Theological School in New York. Carolyn served on numerous boards of higher education institutions and nonprofit organizations. Her family cherishes memories of her love of people and service to the community. Charles, was a life-long resident of Shreveport. With strong interests in innovation, Charles was an industrialist, a newspaper publisher, an investor, a college professor, a collector and a philanthropist. At the age of 50, he earned a Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy from Columbia University. Similar to Carolyn, he served on numerous nonprofit organization boards. He was a director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Texas and chair of the Citizens Committee on Desegregation for Caddo Parish Schools. His innovative vision continues within the Foundation mission of supporting programs that are small, local, innovative and perhaps even unpopular. Carolyn and Charles established a Foundation that continues their work under the direction of their family’s second, third and fourth generations and an Executive Director. The Foundation awards grants to qualified nonprofit organizations, mostly in the Shreveport and Bossier City region of Louisiana. It has supported a wide range of interests, including but not limited to education, housing, health care, social services, the arts and community development. From its small beginnings in 1960, the Carolyn W. and Charles T. Beaird Family Foundation has grown, enabling its Board to award over $1,400,000 to nonprofit organizations in 2020. The Carolyn W. and Charles T. Beaird Family Foundation is committed to improving the Shreveport and Bossier City region of Louisiana through assisting organizations to add opportunity, freedom of action and choice, self-betterment and a climate for change to the lives of the people they serve. The Foundation’s priority is to fund organizations in, or projects which take place in, the Shreveport and Bossier City region, but it may also fund requests from other locations, especially those with the potential to be replicated in its geographic scope if proven effective. The Foundation is particularly interested in supporting those programs which are small, local, innovative and perhaps even unpopular. The Foundation leaves to others the funding of grants to individuals and the support of large national causes such as the American Cancer Society and the American Red Cross.