Living Out Our Core Values: The Grant Partners and Westside Future Fund

This month, we did something a little different with our monthly huddle. Instead of sharing the wisdom of some of the amazing people who’ve come to share their insights with us (make sure to go back and read them!), we want to share something from our heart about our call to service.

Here at The Grant Partners, we are committed to a set of core values that drive everything we do. To be honest with you, pretty much every company says that these days … which is fantastic! When it becomes commonplace for companies to write down AND live their core values, then the world is moving in the right direction! We become jaded by watching the news and seeing moral and ethical failings of leaders across the business spectrum. Sometimes it is beneficial to just remind ourselves that there are far more companies who are doing great things than those who are not.

As we all strive to have a positive impact on the marketplace and our community, we often need to come back to the values that ground us and remind ourselves that they are the mirror we must look to daily. For us, one of those values is that we are Purpose Driven. We define that by being “committed to excelling, knowing that we’re serving an audience of one and it’s our pledge to be worthy of this opportunity.” This anchors us and serves as a constant reminder of where we fit in this universe. We serve a God who created us and he calls us to serve.

For many, the idea of service is usually constrained to things like building a habitat house, doing a park or river cleanup day or passing out meals at a food bank. These are all wonderful ways to give back and can be amazingly powerful experiences, but we don’t have to limit service to those projects. From the business aspect, taking the God-given skills that have made us successful in the marketplace and using them to help organizations who can’t normally afford those services is a great way to give back. It sounds so simple, but so often we miss this way to give our time and talents to make our communities better.

Here at The Grant Partners, one place where we’ve taking this approach to service is with the Westside Future Fund (WFF), which exists to help revitalize the Historic Westside of Atlanta. Made up of five distinct communities – Vine City, English Avenue, Ashview Heights, Atlanta University Center and Just Us, the Westside has served as the breeding ground for some of Atlanta’s most impactful leaders – most notably Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – who raised his young family in Vine City. Rooted in the vision of Dr. King’s “Beloved Community,” the WFF helps residents on the Westside renovate and afford quality housing in the area. They also partner with other neighborhood organizations to advocate for community health and wellness, safety and security, and efforts to holistically improve quality of life.

To truly accomplish this bold vision, it requires the support of so many. That’s where we (and maybe you!) come in. Here at The Grant Partners, we have supported the WFF by using our core skillset (executive search) to help recruit inspired leaders to the organization and they work tirelessly to bring the vision to life. So many other Atlanta companies supported the WFF in a similar manner, which is why the WFF is making so much progress toward accomplishing their mission.

Another quote from Dr. King brings us back to that core value of service. He once said that “Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”

I am sure that your company has a set of core values, and they are the bedrock of your culture. You also have a group of talented people with a heart to serve. When we can pair up their God-given talents with organizations that are in desperate need of those abilities, great things can happen.