Profile

JOAN P. GARNER
Executive Director, Southern Partners Fund

As an ambassador, advocate and agent for change, Joan P. Garner has been on the leading edge of social justice activism for most of her life. Whether working to raise public awareness of gay and lesbian rights, or raising funds for AIDS legislation, she is a passionate champion for human rights. Perhaps an even greater opportunity to influence positive change exists in her role as President of Garner Results, Inc. an Atlanta based company founded in 2006. Garner Results provides guidance and support regarding philanthropic and grantmaking activities to individuals and families, established foundations, businesses and nonprofit organizations.

Joan was formerly employed as Executive Director of Southern Partners Fund, a public foundation created by community leaders and activists in the South to support community based efforts for social, economic and environmental justice. With her extensive experience in philanthropy and social justice activism, Joan was named its first Executive Director in 1999, responsible for building coalitions across a twelve state region in the rural south.

Through funding, education and technical support, Southern Partners Fund enables rural grassroots organizations to challenge local power structures and institutions, to take back control of their communities. Individuals gain the power and strength of collective action, learning how to implement social change.

As organizer and advisor, Joan’s work is to build stronger, more vibrant organizations. Relying on a finely honed sensitivity for inclusion, she is able to build consensus and teamwork with a democratic approach to organizing that incorporates the ideas of all within the organization. She has learned to create a place where everyone works on one accord.

Growing up in Washington, DC in a family culture of community involvement, Joan took note of movements for social change as a young child. An inclination to speak out against wrongdoing earned her the reputation as a risk taker. In the early 80’s, Joan recognized she was a lesbian. It was then that her awareness of discrimination and intolerance found a vehicle for becoming actively engaged in social change.

Joan moved to Georgia in 1978, during a time when Atlanta was in the national spotlight of political activism, having elected its first African American mayor. Her work as an organizer for the Human Rights Campaign Fund, the first dinner organized to advocate for AIDS funding, and with the African American Lesbian and Gay Alliance, got the attention of Mayor Maynard Jackson, who first appointed Joan as a senior advisor to his administration on gay and lesbian issues. Being involved in the organizing effort that resulted in a Domestic Partnership ordinance in the city of Atlanta was one of her major accomplishments during the Jackson era. She would become a progressive and respected advocate for the gay community.

While organizing people around and for causes, Joan became adept at raising money to support those issues. She officially became part of the philanthropic community in the 1990’s, serving as Executive Director of the Fund for Southern Communities, the first fund in the South to support gay and lesbian issues. Joan later joined the National Network of Grantmakers as an Associate Director, becoming Co-Director of the Atlanta office. A recognized authority on social change philanthropy, she is co-author of Robin Hood was Right: A Guide to Giving Your Money to Social Change. The book examines the many ways in which donors can ensure that their giving is tied to meaningful social change.

The only openly gay African American woman to head a foundation in the South, Joan is a mainstay of community involvement. She once served on the Atlanta License Review Board at the appointment of Mayor Maynard Jackson. A recent appointment by current Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin placed Joan on the Commission to Memorialize Former Mayors Maynard Jackson and Ivan Allen. She has been appointed to the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library and Library Foundation by Fulton Commissioner Nancy Boxill. Of the many boards she serves, Joan is currently a member of the Council on Foundations, Funders for Lesbian and Gay Issues, Historic District Development Corporation and United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta.

Doing the work of community building satisfies Joan’s life-long desire to make the world a better place for all those who inhabit it. Indeed, she marvels at the fact that she can get paid to do what she would gladly do as a volunteer. Her curiosity about a world outside her own, and a willingness to explore other worlds, has led her to a greater understanding of her own role in life.

Download Joan's Resume