Improving Northeast Mississippi for decades
The Tupelo-based CREATE Foundation, the first community foundation established in Mississippi, has been improving the quality of life for residents in Northeast Mississippi for more than 50 years.
CREATE’s staff of 10 assists donors in setting up their charitable fund and providing guidance to donors in choosing where they want their gifts to be distributed. Long term permanent endowments through CREATE can fund scholarships or other charities. But CREATE has been called a hybrid foundation because it goes beyond the traditional role of providing donor assistance to fund charitable purposes.
“A traditional community foundation assists individuals, companies and organizations with their charitable giving to improve the quality of life in those communities they serve,” said Mike Clayborne, CREATE’s longtime president. “We help people with charitable giving and also focus on community development.”
Besides being the first in the state, CREATE is the largest of seven community foundations in Mississippi. As of Sept. 30, 2024, CREATE had 317 permanent endowment funds and 259 donor-advised pass through funds with a combined total of $176 million in assets. In 2016, CREATE’s assets topped $100 million for the first time.
The foundation’s assets include the $50 million endowment Toyota Mississippi established in 2010 to support public education in the three counties where its auto manufacturing plant operates. The endowment is one of the largest gifts ever made to support public education in the state’s history.
But funds come in all sizes. Clayborne said he finds it especially gratifying to work with individuals and groups that have a relatively small amount of money for building a permanent endowment fund. “They may start out as small as $5,000 or $10,000,” he said.
Clayborne joined CREATE as a consultant in 1994 and has a background working for chambers of commerce and in economic development. The Amory native was named president in 1996.
He calls the establishment of the foundation in 1972 by George McLean one of the more interesting parts of its long history.
“George McLean, who owned the Tupelo Daily Journal and other newspapers, had a very strong belief that a locally owned newspaper was essential to the success of a community,” said Clayborne.
He said McLean and wife, Anna Keirsey McLean, decided to establish a community foundation that would provide a means for their charitable giving and make sure that the Daily Journal would remain locally owned. When McLain passed away in 1983, 100 percent of the newspaper stock was transferred to CREATE.
“The paper is now the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal and we still own the stock today,” said Clayborne. Journal Inc. owns five other papers in the region. Mississippi Business Journal was sold to Coopwood Publishing Group earlier this year.
The CREATE Foundation is led by a board of directors representing 17 counties. It has grown to become a leading community foundation that strives to make Northeast Mississippi the best place to live as it carries out its mission of encouraging philanthropy and providing leadership to impact regional issues.
“Without question CREATE has a tremendous impact on our region,” said Mary Childs, CEO of Peoples Bank in Ripley and CREATE’s chair. “Promoting philanthropy while providing such an easy way to establish and maintain endowments, scholarships, and special project funds, makes a long lasting impact by assisting donors with contributions to those things most important to them.”
Childs added, “Effectiveness is also much greater when leaders and citizens from our 17 counties come together to identify and work toward common goals for the betterment of Northeast Mississippi.”
CREATE’s original service area was the 15 counties where the Daily Journal was delivered to its subscribers. In 2002 Oktibbeha County was added followed by Lowndes County in 2012. “That completed the Golden Triangle being part of the region,” said Clayborne.
He pointed out another significant feature of the expanded region. “Both Ole Miss and Mississippi State are in our 17 counties,” he said. “That is a point of pride, as well.”
Over those 50-plus years since CREATE was established, said Clayborne, there have been significant changes but probably the most significant was when the Commission of The Future of Northeast Mississippi was born in 1995.
“In addition to our CREATE board members from all over our region, we have another group of leaders on the Commission’s board that represents our 17 counties,” he said. “They are working to help create more regional unity and to identify issues and opportunities that our region can work together on.”
The Commission’s goal is to strengthen regional cooperation and unity by engaging in regional community development. Its members are charged with leading their communities on such issues as broadband access, education and health. “Just about any issue that collectively the leaders in the region believe are important to the future of the region,” said Clayborne. “We try to be the place where they can come together to think about the bigger picture of what we can together.”
Another milestone in CREATE’s “History of Giving” timeline came in 1997 when the Community Affiliate program was established with a $750,000 donation from Anna Keirsey McLean and a $750,000 dividend from the Daily Journal.
“The Community Affiliate program is one of the most significant things we do,” he said. “There are currently 16 affiliates in 15 of our counties,” said Clayborne.
The affiliates work together on a range of initiatives to help develop new community leaders, increase civic involvement and grow private investment with the goal to revitalize and energize the region.
The largest Community Affiliate is CARE (Corinth-Alcorn County) with assets of over $2 million. Five other affiliates exceed $1 million.
The donation funds CREATE’s $100,000 Challenge grants which help fund ongoing or special needs in communities. A community affiliate must raise $200,000 to receive the full grant, which is managed by a local board of community leaders.
“One thing we do understand about our region is that, fundamentally, people care most about where they live and they know best what they need,” said Clayborne. “That is one of the most important partnerships we have with local communities, supporting them and addressing local needs.”
Another area CREATE is active in is Special Project program which assists in administering short term philanthropic efforts that meet specific community needs. Clayborne said, “If a donor has an idea of starting a nonprofit to benefit a certain purpose, we will partner with them and handle disbursements until their organization is approved as a 501(c) 3.”
There are well over 250 special project funds. “We think it’s something important to do to help people who have ideas that will benefit their community and region to help them get started,” said Clayborne.
CREATE also sponsors the Northeast Mississippi Youth Foundation that teaches 11th- and 12th-graders about philanthropy, fundraising and grant-making by growing their own endowment fund and awarded grants in the region.
Clayborne said the seven community foundations in the state work together regularly. “There are some counties that are not in one of the seven, so we all work together to try to support those counties,” he said.
After more than five decades since it was founded, CREATE continues to work on ways to improve its region. That track record promotes optimism about its future.
“Two of the main reasons I see for CREATE’s great success are the generous and caring people in our 17 county region who have chosen to partner with CREATE in making Northeast Mississippi a better place to live, and also the dedicated, passionate staff of CREATE who instill confidence to the donors and communities they serve,” said Childs.
“As we continue to raise awareness throughout our communities about all that CREATE offers, expand our current initiatives and continue growing our donor relations, I have no doubt that the CREATE Foundation will persistently strengthen and be a driving force into the future for the success of Northeast Mississippi,” she said.”