Cape Area Community Foundation

10/07/2026

Excited to share our story in Southeast Missourian’s The Best Years (TBY) this month.

Cape Area Community Foundation offers giving options, including donor-advised funds, planned gifts and endowments, to support causes across Southeast Missouri.

09/29/2026

Connections between nonprofits and philanthropists are critical and helping make these connections is one of the cornerstones of a community foundation’s work! SEMO-NASV (one of our agency partners) received a grant from Cape Area Community Foundation in 2025 to assist with transportation needs. When SEMO-NASV had a need this year, we were pleased to make a connection to the Rotary Club of Cape Girardeau. Learn more about this special project and the support Rotary provided below.

09/21/2026

Board Member Spotlight:
Dr. Edward Crowley is an Associate Professor at Southeast Missouri State University's Harrison College of Business and Computing, where he teaches corporate entrepreneurship and innovation, strategy, and family enterprise classes. He came to the classroom after a career as an entrepreneur and strategy executive in technology firms including Texas Instruments, Lexmark, IntelliQuest, and IBM: he founded and led the market-intelligence firm Photizo Group, founded and led the software analytics company Virtulytix, and advised Fortune 500 clients in 52 countries around the world before returning to Missouri in 2020. He holds a doctorate in business administration from the University of Manchester and a certificate in Family Business Advising from the Family Firm Institute.

Ed grew up on a dairy and beef cattle farm and never left agriculture behind. He and his wife, Terri, own Mesta Meadows Farm and Atelait Crèmery in Glenallen, where they raise a dairy sheep flock, fine wool flock, beef cattle and operate a commercial creamery (Atelait Creamery), as well as hosting the annual Ozark Highland Farm, Fiber & Craft Festival. He also chairs the Mayfield Entrepreneurial Center and serves on the SEMO Regional Planning Commission Revolving Loan Fund Committee. Ed serves on the 12 Member American Wool Council which, as the largest division of American Sheep Industry (ASI), works to improve the American wool industry and to promote the usage of American wool – both in domestic and international markets. Ed is a father of five and grandfather of three.

09/03/2026

Board Member Spotlight:
We'd like to introduce you to our next Board Member. Stan Irwin has lived in Cape Girardeau his whole life. He attended Cape Central High School, Southeast Missouri State University, and graduated from Northwood University in Dallas, TX.

He has served the Cape Girardeau community in many ways -- Jaycees (member and board), Rotary Club of Cape Girardeau (member, board and president), and the Cape Girardeau Public Library (member, board, and president).

For 25 years, Stan has been a Financial Advisor with Edward Jones Investments and because of his financial background, has served as Foundation Chair of the Rotary Club, Board of Directors and Investment Policy Committee for the Community Foundation of the Ozarks and locally, the Cape Area Community Foundation Board as past president.

Stan's passion is to see the power of local philanthropy to create a meaningful and lasting change in our community. The power of CACF to help manage and create funding for many non-profits and projects in our community by granting money back to organizations that make a difference in our community, assist in managing finances for other non-profits, and provide donor advised funds for places to park and manage future gifting.

CACF helps strengthen our community!

08/13/2026

It's Board Member Spotlight Time! Our next board member to introduce you to is Tameka Randle.

Tameka is a dedicated leader driving community development across Southeast Missouri. As CEO of the PORCH Initiative, she leads neighborhood revitalization and helps families achieve homeownership. She brings vital civic experience as a City of Cape Girardeau Councilwoman representing Ward 2, complemented by her position as a Commissioner for the Missouri Housing Development Commission, which provides a critical statewide perspective on housing policy.

Serving on the Board of Directors for the Cape Area Community Foundation, Randle leverages her multifaceted expertise across non-profit work, local government, and state policy to guide regional philanthropy and build a more resilient region.

08/08/2026

Proud to have Friends of the Cape Girardeau Public Library Foundation as one of our agency partners! Their upcoming book sale is a great way to support our public library … and find new treasures to add to your own library!

It's almost time to restock your TBR piles at the Friends Book Sale!

Save the date:
📚Thursday, August 20 – Friends members preview @ 6–8 PM
📚Friday, August 21 @ 6–8 PM
📚Saturday, August 22 @ 8 AM–5 PM
📚Sunday, August 23 @ 1–5 PM

Not a Friends member? Join online or at the door for VIP early access!
https://capelibrary.org/about/friends

07/16/2026

As a proponent of education in Cape Girardeau, Bollinger, and northern Scott counties, the Cape Area Community Foundation is pleased to provide a grant to Junior Achievement in Southeast Missouri this year.

For over a century, Junior Achievement has focused on helping young people understand business, citizenship, economics, entrepreneurship, ethics/character, financial literacy, and workforce readiness, including soft skills and career matching based on skills, interests, and values. Now more than ever, it is critical to inspire and prepare young people to succeed in a global economy.

Thanks to grants like ours, along with contributions from many other individuals and businesses throughout our region, Junior Achievement in Southeast Missouri is able to provide over 60 different programs with hands-on materials, online apps, and many other learning resources, to students from pre-K to 12th grade, all at no cost to the schools.

Pictured below are CACF Board members Stan Irwin, Katie Earnhart, Trudy Lee, Tameka Randle, and Laura Hatcher with Becki Arends from Junior Achievement in Southeast Missouri.

07/08/2026

One of the grants made during Cape Area Community Foundation's grant round in the spring of 2026 was to the Girl Scouts of the Missouri Heartland (GSMH), which serves 67 counties across southern and central Missouri, southeast Kansas, and northeast Oklahoma.

In 2025 GSMH began to develop school-based and community-based troop models to remove barriers to participation such as transportation, after-school supervision, and volunteer availability. This grant will assist in creating additional school-led Girl Scout troops within the Cape Girardeau School District during the upcoming 2026–2027 school year by supporting teacher/facilitator stipends, membership fees and uniform components for underserved participants, and program materials and badge supplies. GSMH programming for its troops includes leadership development, STEM exploration, outdoor skills, financial literacy, and community service.

Pictured below are CACF Board members Stan Irwin, Katie Earnhart, Tameka Randle, Trudy Lee, and Laura Hatcher with Erin Ragan from Girl Scouts of the Missouri Heartland.

07/02/2026

The Cape Area Community Foundation is pleased to support the Safe House of SE Missouri this year through a grant to assist survivors of domestic violence with attorney fees for civil matters, including orders of protection, divorce from an abusive partner, and child custody cases. Many survivors do not have the financial means to hire an attorney to represent them in these types of cases, leaving them with few options. To bridge this gap, Safe House of SE Missouri has created partnerships with two local attorneys to provide services to their clients at significantly reduced rates, and the CACF grant will be beneficial to clients who need assistance paying these attorneys fees.

Safe House of SE Missouri is a not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) domestic violence agency providing safe shelter, 24-hour crisis hotline services, intensive case management, counseling, court advocacy, referral services, and educational programs. Safe House provides residential services through its 10-bedroom confidentially-located shelter as well as nonresidential services through its outreach office, both located in the Cape Girardeau area.

Pictured below are CACF Board members Stan Irwin, Katie Earnhart, Tameka Randle, Trudy Lee, and Laura Hatcher with Kim Dixon and Jessie Green from the Safe House of SE Missouri.

06/23/2026

The Community Counseling Center Foundation has been one of CACF's agency partners since 2016 and is a recipient of a grant awarded during our most recent grant round.

The Community Counseling Center Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting the life-changing work of the Community Counseling Center, ensuring the sustainability and expansion of critical mental health and substance use disorder services across its five-county service area.

The CACF grant to the Community Counseling Center Foundation will help to expand and sustain the QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer) Su***de Prevention Training initiative. QPR is an evidence-based 'gatekeeper' curriculum that empowers everyday citizens to recognize su***de warning signs and lead a person in crisis to professional care. While the Center's clinical staff provides the expertise, this grant will cover the costs of training materials, participant booklets, resource cards, and the certification of additional staff instructors to keep this life-saving training free for all residents, businesses, and civic groups in the region.

Pictured below are CACF Board members Stan Irwin, Katie Earnhart, Trudy Lee, Tameka Randle, and Laura Hatcher with Michelle Ramsey, Executive Director of the Community Counseling Center Foundation.