Inspiration Magazine spotlights success of Mary Black Foundation
September 9, 2026
With 30 years of successfully starting some of Spartanburg’s major health and community initiatives, the Mary Black Foundation has garnered a lot of well-deserved attention.
But a recent piece from Philanthropy Southeast’s quarterly edition of its magazine, Inspiration spotlighted another transformative idea from Mary Black Foundation: Open Philanthropy. This is an initiative that seeks to show the community the exact details of how and why the organization makes its funding decisions.
“Ultimately, the goal of the series is to demystify the grantmaking process” said Mary Black Foundation President & CEO Molly Talbot-Metz. “We want to be transparent about how we make decisions, what we are learning, and changes we make in response to the feedback we get.”
Open Philanthropy has had an added benefit of creating more meaningful conversations between the Foundation’s team and the people it works with in the community.
“It’s been rewarding to hear how much the foundation’s nonprofit partners appreciate the information. “More importantly, they appreciate the honesty and vulnerability of our sharing. That builds trust and, I hope, makes us a better partner to the nonprofits in our community.”
Philanthropy Southeast is the premier philanthropic network for courageous leaders, ideas and resources focused on the American South and U.S. Caribbean territories. They connect their members to experts, innovations and best practices in philanthropy while promoting peer-to-peer learning and leadership development.
Click here (https://maryblackfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Spring-2026-PSE-Inspiration-Speaking-Up-Open-Philanthropy-article.pdf(opens in new tab)) to read the entire article.
About Mary Black Foundation
The Mary Black Foundation is an independent grantmaking organization to improve the health and well-being of the people and communities of Spartanburg County. They invest in trailblazing organizations and solutions. They are philanthropic risk-takers who make calculated bets on bold, data-informed solutions to entrenched community health problems. Learn more at maryblackfoundation.org(opens in new tab).
