T.L.L. Temple Foundation Shares Operational Planning Midpoint Update
LUFKIN, Texas — The T.L.L. Temple Foundation today released its Operational Planning Midpoint Update, a report that shares what the foundation has learned, what other rural funders are doing, and the decisions it has made so far as it develops a new operational plan to follow its 2021–2025 strategic plan.
The report draws on more than 500 interviews and conversations across East Texas in the past 12 months, including a survey with more than 160 community respondents and 18 interviews with grantees, community leaders and peer funders, as well as research into how other rural, place-based foundations work.
“We are sharing a midpoint update so there’s visibility into our direction, decisions, and evolution,” wrote Charlie Glover, President & CEO of the foundation, in a letter that opens the report.
Three immediate shifts
The report describes three ways the foundation is changing its approach:
- Organizing around place. The foundation is shifting from organizing its work and program structure by sector (health, education, human services) to planning, staffing and organizing through a lens of place, with a greater presence in rural East Texas communities. Expertise and best practices remain part of the approach.
- Updating the service area. Marion County and Harrison County have been added to connect the Deep East and Northeast service areas, the first expansion into new counties since 1962. Miller County (with the exception of the city of Texarkana) and Harris County are no longer in the formal service area, and organizations located outside the service area remain eligible for grants that support programs serving people within it. The foundation will serve East Texas through three service areas: Northeast, Deep East and Southeast.
- Taking a Total Impact Approach. The foundation is expanding the definition and use of every type of capital, including financial, human, social, physical and intellectual capital, to support progress toward communities’ goals. It is piloting the approach now, and the full structure will be released when operational planning concludes in spring 2027.
What it means for staffing
The change in approach has required a restructuring of the foundation’s team, and the sector-based program officer roles have come to an end. The foundation is creating three new roles: Impact Director, Northeast Texas; Impact Director, Deep East Texas; and Impact Director, Southeast Texas. The foundation is hiring for these positions now and expects to have all three directors in place by early 2027.
“We are not moving away from health, education, or human services,” the report states. “What is changing is how we staff the work and, for a small number of counties, where we work.”
What comes next
The operational planning process will continue through spring 2027. In the next phase, the foundation will work with communities to build tailored priorities for the newly identified service areas, and will identify, build and advance data collection, measurement, learning and evaluation frameworks.
Read the Operational Planning Midpoint Update (PDF)
About the T.L.L. Temple Foundation
The T.L.L. Temple Foundation works alongside communities to build a thriving rural East Texas. Created in 1962 by Georgie Temple Munz, the foundation has invested more than $630 million, primarily in rural East Texas.
Media contact: communications@tlltemple.foundation