Community Foundation of the Ozarks

Our Story We pursue our mission through resource development, community grantmaking, collaboration and public leadership — connecting passion to purpose since 1973. In the early 1970s, a group of estate-planning attorneys learned of a sizeable estate gift that left Springfield because there wasn’t a place here to accept a general gift for community betterment. Those 11 founders, supported by then-Springfield Mayor Jim Payne and businesswoman Anne Drummond, created the region’s first public charitable foundation in 1973. Today, the CFO is governed by community volunteers and run by a professional staff that serves a network of donors, regional affiliate foundations, nonprofit partners and professional advisors through approximately 3,700 charitable funds. Our mission is to enhance the quality of life in our region through resource development, community grantmaking, collaboration and public leadership. We help donors achieve their philanthropic goals through professional management and investment of charitable funds. We work with nonprofit organizations to help them fulfill their missions through fund administration, grantmaking and learning opportunities. We award scholarships to deserving students to help them achieve their educational goals.