LOCAL

BRIDGES meets $20 million endowment goal

Katie Fretland
The Commercial Appeal

The BRIDGES youth leadership organization is celebrating its completion of a $20 million endowment, the result of a years-long campaign.

The campaign started in December 2010 when an anonymous donor issued a $10 million matching challenge. Now the fund will provide $1 million annually to support the organization's operating costs.

“BRIDGES’ success in meeting its $20 million endowment goal is an incredibly important achievement,” Robert M. Fockler, president of the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis, said in a news release. “It obviously represents a major step forward in securing BRIDGES’ future, but more than that, it shows that the Memphis community — as evidenced by the broad range of donors who contributed to this effort — understands and supports the importance of building endowments to ensure the long-term financial viability of our cornerstone agencies."

On Tuesday, which is National Philanthropy Day, BRIDGES will host a celebration from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at 477 N. Fifth Street. The event also will celebrate Jim Boyd, the retired BRIDGES president and chief executive officer, who led the organization from 1995 to 2011.

“Tuesday, November 15 will be a great time to celebrate not only the successful meeting of the $10 million challenge grant for the BRIDGES endowment campaign, but the renaming of the building as the Jim Boyd BRIDGES Center,” Rebecca Webb Wilson, co-chair of the endowment campaign committee, said in a statement. “Jim was the visionary who orchestrated the name change from Youth Service to BRIDGES. He transformed the board of directors to be reflective of our city’s population, and he championed the creation of the first green commercial building in Memphis to be an inspiration and teaching tool for young people. It is only fitting that this amazing building bear his name.”

On Tuesday, which is National Philanthropy Day, BRIDGES will host a celebration from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at 477 N. Fifth Street.