FOR FUNDERS AND PARTNERS
Invest in a neighborhood already doing the work.
Sweet Auburn doesn’t need to be saved. It needs to be resourced. SAGE provides funders and investors with a trusted, community-governed partner — a backbone organization with the relationships, track record, and infrastructure to move money effectively in one of Atlanta’s most significant historic corridors.
The Opportunity
Why Sweet Auburn? Why Now?
Sweet Auburn is at a pivotal moment. After decades of disinvestment, the corridor is attracting serious attention — from developers, the city, and national institutions. The question isn’t whether Sweet Auburn will change. It’s whether longtime residents and businesses will benefit from that change or be displaced by it.
SAGE exists to answer that question with a resounding yes — but only with the resources to match the moment.
The Sweet Auburn Context
National Register of Historic Places since 1976; birthplace of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Named a “Place In Peril” by the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation in 2005.
New investment is accelerating. Community-anchored organizations must move with it.
SAGE is grounded in HDDC — Atlanta’s oldest surviving CDC, stewarding Auburn Ave since 1980.
Why Fund SAGE
What Your Investment Supports
Funding SAGE isn’t funding a single program. It’s funding the infrastructure that makes the whole corridor work better.
Community-governed backbone
The connective tissue that helps 30+ organizations coordinate more effectively across the corridor.
Demonstrated track record
Since 2022: 4 gardens, 5 microgrants, 3 art exhibitions, 18 residents with improved financial outcomes.
Trusted intermediary
SAGE channels resources to community members and small orgs that larger funders can’t reach directly.
100% place-based
Every dollar stays in Sweet Auburn, in service of the people who live and work here.
Where We Need Investment
Current Funding Priorities
We’re actively seeking support across five areas – each representing a real gap, not a program that exists only on paper.
Capital access
Community-governed backbone
Expanding the Microloan and Microgrant programs to reach more Sweet Auburn entrepreneurs.
Food access
Urban agriculture and food security
Growing the garden network, adding programming, and addressing the 50+ family waitlist.
Arts & culture
Cultural preservation
Sustaining the Curator in Residence program, gallery programming, and public art on the corridor.
Housing
Housing & self sufficiency
Expanding the Microloan and Microgrant programs to reach more Sweet Auburn entrepreneurs.
