Name: Peter Cooper
Age: 65
Occupation: Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga President Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga-a bridge between nonprofits and the local philanthropists who support them-just celebrated its 50th anniversary under the guidance and direction of President Peter Cooper. Since Cooper’s arrival at the foundation in 1990, the foundation has grown exponentially from several thousand dollars in annual giving to more than $15 million. This funding is poured into Chattanooga’s local charities and projects-many of which can be attributed to making our city the great place that we know and love today.
Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga was incorporated in November of 1963. I was employee No. 1, and I came in 1990. When I came there was no office or telephone. I sat in someone else’s office. I was in the executive meeting room for the Benwood Foundation for the first week because I had nowhere to go. We went from one employee to the 8 1/2 employees we have now.
The beauty of my job is that I see things that are coming up long before the general public, and we’ve got young people just dreaming about all kinds of things and I’ve learned quite quickly to not tell them that it can’t be done because they’ll probably do it. Whether it’s a bike co-op, folk music school or 3D printing- whatever it is, there are really smart ambitious engaged young people behind it that are going to make it work. In most cases it’s not the money that makes an idea fail. It’s the leadership, the vision or just plain not dedicating time to make it work. Very few things in Chattanooga fail because of lack of money.
This town is willing to bet on young people. It’s not about whether your last name isn’t something or you didn’t grow up on a certain mountain, now they look at you by how bright and dedicated you are. That’s how you build a city. Not around 10 names or one mountain. Philanthropy isn’t just money. It’s thinking and time, and it’s your love of mankind being played out.
I do have the best job in town. First of all, I’m giving away $15 million a year, so most people- whether it’s true or not-think of me as tall and handsome. As Jack Murrah used to say, ‘Foundation presidents never have a bad meal or hear the truth.’ When I retire I’m going to be short, fat and bald, but until that time, I guess I’m tall and handsome.
Last year we gave over $15 million in grants, which is over 3,000 grant checks. We also are the depositories for a lot of projects in town. All your public art is going through the Community Foundation, all your tree planting downtown, the money for MainX24, the women’s fund … there are more than 360 funds. We do an enormous amount of different things in the community. Some of it is things like buying library books for inner city schools or helping with the public education plan which is being worked on right now. There are a lot of ways that we work that are sometimes very public and sometimes very private.
One example is the River Gorge Explorer. The Aquarium was looking for an additional draw, something that would keep people down there longer, perhaps a course of revenue. We were talking to them and donors about what we could do and it was sort of a challenge because the bank that held their debt didn’t want them to add any more debt to their balance sheet, so we talked to donors who had funds at the Community Foundation and they agreed to come up with $2.8 million to build this boat. The way we structured it was we gave the boat to the Aquarium under a revenue sharing agreement that pays the Community Foundation back over time, and at the end, they have the right to buy the boat for $1. This was a 2-2 ½-year process and a perfect example of something the Community Foundation can do that’s not in the public eye, that nobody knows about until all of a sudden a $2.8 million boat shows up down on the riverfront.
We’re working right now on the Riverwalk. The long run plan is to link the Riverwalk to Cloudland Canyon-84 miles away-with hiking and biking trails. This is the exciting part of my job. I think it’s so cool. And these are the types of things that young creative folks really want in the city, and if we can keep adding these, we can keep those people coming here or staying here.
I love that we have more openness here in Chattanooga … anyone can talk with the four major presidents of our largest companies. It’s a methodology that serves Chattanooga well, and I don’t think any other city in the country can do what we do. Memphis can’t do what we do; Nashville can’t do what we do. At 65, I’m as excited about the future of the city as I ever was. When I retire, I’m not going down to Florida. I’m staying here.
The highlight of my life is my wife, Linda. For 18 years we took in foster children. We tended to get special needs children, because of my wife’s background. My wife is just a saint. I don’t know how she did it. She would be getting up with them six times a night and she did it night after night and woke up with a smile. We fostered 49 children, and we have four children and four great-grandchildren. I don’t really know how many people call me dad.
Everybody can do that. It doesn’t cost you anything. Everyone can extend their definition of family to include someone else … like that elderly person in church without anyone else. It doesn’t have to be by blood or marriage that people end up at your house. Reaching out to someone can be the thing that makes their day or year. Invest in people and you’ll get a good dividend.