Staff & Leadership
2022–2023 Board of Directors
The CFO stands on the shoulders of its volunteer leaders, past and present. These are the individuals who will govern the foundation during the 2022–2023 fiscal year.
Meet the BoardOur Story
We pursue our mission through resource development, community grantmaking, collaboration and public leadership — connecting passion to purpose since 1973.
In the early 1970s, a group of estate-planning attorneys learned of a sizeable estate gift that left Springfield because there wasn’t a place here to accept a general gift for community betterment. Those 11 founders, supported by then-Springfield Mayor Jim Payne and businesswoman Anne Drummond, created the region’s first public charitable foundation in 1973.
Today, the CFO is governed by community volunteers and run by a professional staff that serves a network of donors, regional affiliate foundations, nonprofit partners and professional advisors through approximately 3,500 charitable funds.
Regional Affiliates
The CFO’s affiliate network supports giving in communities across our region.
In 1993, 20 years after the CFO’s founding, the first affiliate
foundation was created in Nixa. Affiliate foundations are governed by
local volunteers who are supported by the CFO’s professional staff.
Affiliates represent cities, counties and multi-county regions stretching from the Missouri River south to the borders of our neighboring states.
Meet Our Staff
Driven by mission, guided by experience.
The CFO’s staff in Springfield, West Plains and Cape Girardeau stands ready to help our constituents achieve their charitable goals.
