Georgia Humanities Launches The Connector: Atlanta’s Catalyst for Collaborative Impact
New Imlay Foundation–Funded Initiative Pilots a Collaborative Model for Civic Resilience
ATLANTA—Georgia Humanities today announced the launch of The Connector: Atlanta’s Catalyst for Collaborative Impact, a new initiative designed to strengthen collaboration, build civic infrastructure, and support long-term resilience across Atlanta’s nonprofit ecosystem. The Connector is made possible through the generous support of the Imlay Foundation.
The Connector is a city-based model for cross-sector public engagement focused on amplifying partnerships, multiplying resources, and strengthening the connective systems that allow organizations to work together over time. At its core, The Connector functions as a civic infrastructure and funding model—designed to align modest catalytic resources, shared ownership, and coordinated capacity to make collaboration possible and visible. Rather than operating as a traditional grant program, The Connector invests in coordination, shared ownership, and collective capacity—helping organizations work together more effectively to meet complex community needs.
“At a time when resources are shrinking and community needs are growing, Atlanta needs more than isolated solutions—it needs connective infrastructure,” said Dr. Mary McCartin Wearn, President of Georgia Humanities. “The Connector begins modestly but with great intentionality—focused on building the civic infrastructure of relationships, trust, and shared ownership that make collaboration durable. With the Imlay Foundation’s support, we are laying a foundation designed to grow, adapt, and strengthen Atlanta’s nonprofit ecosystem over time.”
Why Atlanta—and Why Now?
Launching The Connector in Atlanta is a strategic first step in Georgia Humanities’ long-term vision to develop a statewide network of regional collaboration hubs. Atlanta offers extraordinary creativity and leadership, alongside pressing challenges that demand coordinated responses.
Many of the city’s most impactful organizations are navigating funding instability, rising demand for services, and limited capacity to collaborate across institutional boundaries. By starting in Atlanta, Georgia Humanities can leverage the city’s strengths, respond to urgent needs, and pilot a scalable model that can inform future hubs across Georgia.
The Connector Model
The Connector will function as a collaborative programming accelerator, bringing together organizations and practitioners to co-create initiatives aligned with Georgia Humanities’ mission and responsive to community needs.
Each participating organization will contribute both cash and in-kind support, ensuring shared investment and accountability. Georgia Humanities will contribute seed funding and core coordination capacity, helping partners move ideas into action while leveraging shared investment and in-kind support. Georgia Humanities will also provide staffing, evaluation, and documentation to capture impact and share learning. The humanities serve as the connective framework of The Connector—bringing dialogue, interpretation, ethical reflection, and narrative practice into visible, cross-sector settings so their public value can be demonstrated, evaluated, and understood in relation to real community needs.
The Power of This Model
The Connector is built on the understanding that today’s most urgent challenges—such as supporting mental wellness, strengthening education, and building community resilience—cannot be addressed by any one sector alone. By enabling cross-sector collaboration, the model aligns resources and expertise to respond more effectively to complex human needs.
Through this approach, The Connector will multiply philanthropic impact, strengthen partnership infrastructure, pilot a regional hub model adaptable statewide, and support long-term sustainability by diversifying resources and expanding collaborative capacity.
An Invitation to Collaborate
As The Connector takes shape, Georgia Humanities invites Atlanta-based organizations and community leaders interested in collaborative, humanities-informed work to be in conversation. Contact Mary Wearn at mwearn@georgiahumanities.org with inquiries.
About Georgia Humanities
Georgia Humanities connects people and communities to encourage understanding and inspire hope. Through grantmaking and public programs, we engage people of all ages and backgrounds to explore what shapes us as individuals and binds us together as Georgians. Funding for Georgia Humanities is provided by the Georgia General Assembly, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and various foundations, donors, and partners.
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