Racial Justice and the Future of our Community
Speaker Date: Nov. 12, 2021
The last 18 months living with Covid was like no other period of time in modern memory-desperation, isolation, fear, sadness. While it was a period of tragedy, it was also a period of compassion and generosity from philanthropy responses. Going forward, this Covid period will have a profound impact on our community, our nation and globally as we address the residual effects of this pandemic.
The Foundation for the Carolinas was at the center of responses addressing the fallout from Covid and residual problems like racial justice, and inequality. Michael Marsicano, President & CEO of the Foundation for the Carolinas will address the specifics of how this community and our Community Foundation came together to respond to community, national and global problems created by Covid, During this period there was an unprecedented outpouring of generosity to address immediate needs as well as the formation of a plan to prioritize community needs going forward.
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Dr. Michael Marsicano President and CEO Foundations for the Carolinas

Michael Marsicano is President and CEO of Foundation for the Carolinas, the community foundation serving Charlotte and a 13-county region. Since joining the Foundation in 1999, its assets have grown from $245 million to more than $3 billion. During this time, FFTC rose from the 35th largest community foundation in the U.S. to currently the 6th largest and now manages nearly 3,000 charitable funds funding a variety of civic initiatives in areas such as affordable housing, economic opportunity, public school reform, the art, the environment. The foundation recently launched E4E Relief, a wholly owned subsidiary that is now the nation’s leading provider of employee disaster and hardship funds.
Prior to joining the FFTC, Dr. Marsicano was President and CEO of the ARTS & Science Council for 10 years leading it to become the nation’s highest in per capita in annual giving.
He has been active in many national and local organizations. He currently serves on the Governing Board of Charlotte Center City Partners and as Strategy Advisor to the Charlotte Executive Leadership Council. He recently retired from boards of Duke University, Duke University Health Systems and Charlotte Chamber of Commerce. He is immediate past chair of the Queens University of Charlotte Board of Trustees.