Courtesy of BRAF
Chris Meyer, CEO of BRAF
With New Year’s resolutions in mind, we sat down with Chris Meyer, the CEO of the Baton Rouge Area Foundation (BRAF) to discuss his grand-scale ambitions for Louisiana’s Capital Region. One of the largest community foundations in the country, BRAF strategically connects donors with local nonprofits and community leaders to enact tangible, lasting change across the region.
Meyer is a native of Shreveport, and prior to his appointment as the head of BRAF in 2022, he held experience working directly under U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, as a special advisor to the Louisiana Department of Education, and as deputy superintendent of the Louisiana Recovery School District. In 2012, he founded New Schools for Baton Rouge—a nonprofit that advocates for a system of autonomous public charter schools to provide better education options in the city.
In his current position, education remains a priority as he looks toward a better future for Baton Rouge, a future he believes will be best achieved in community with one another.
What goals is BRAF focusing on in 2026?
Our goal, always, is to expand opportunity in Baton Rouge and all of South Louisiana. For 2026 in particular, we’re hopefully going to be moving from a place of really reactive philanthropy to one of proactive philanthropy, where we’re beginning to make really big moves and changing underlying systems and dynamics related to how we organize early learning, or how we invest in downtown—all kinds of things.
Could you give an example of what that might look like in practice?
Sure, I mean, for early childhood education, for example; we put out a report last year that showed that most kids who are showing up to kindergarten are not actually on level. They’re not prepared. And that’s really tragic, because you can just see the compounding effects that ends up having on a kid’s ability to live an opportunity-filled life. So, we began looking at how we might transform that system of early learning, which right now is really siloed based on how you’re able to pay for it. If you’re, you know, my kids, I can write a check and send them to whatever early learning center I want. But other families sometimes need assistance, public funds, and are then sort of limited to where they can go to early learning based on the funding source. And it really changes the quality, the access, and ultimately the outcomes.
"Everyone has the opportunity to give, whether that’s financially, or that’s through volunteerism, or that’s simply in helping a neighbor." —Chris Meyer
So, this year, we’re really focused on bringing people together to put a plan together that we could then use to really grow that access and opportunity. In this moment, we’re trying to raise short term funds, one-time funds to alleviate the costs for some of those families. But that’s not a systemic change, it’s kind of a band aid. Obviously, we want to help everyone we can today, but we also can help so many more people if we just fix the underlying system—whether that’s around youth violence prevention, youth opportunity, early learning, downtown investment. We’re really trying to have these more comprehensive plans that bring everyone together.
How does BRAF determine the most important areas for investment/support when it comes to bettering the Baton Rouge area?
We’ve built what we call our opportunity agenda, where we’ve tried to name the kind of drivers of opportunity in a community, and we’ve got a research base behind it that’s called the Opportunity Data Project.
We really try to distill what is the real challenge in quality of life. If we don’t fix these issues fundamentally, people aren’t going to stay here, or people who have the ability to leave, will. Our kids and grandkids are not going to choose to come back. So, there’s this real kind of emphasis that we’ve got to address these more systemic, long-term issues.
In addition to transforming the system of early learning in Baton Rouge, what are some other areas that BRAF will be focusing on in 2026?
Next year, we’ll be focusing on unlocking our quality of life and entertainment assets in Baton Rouge. We’ve talked a lot about, ‘how do we have the right infrastructure in place to attract the right kind of music events and major entertainment events for our community?’ And we’re on the path to actually, now, putting real investment into a new arena. We’ve got these new shows coming up at Tiger Stadium, and they’re going to start happening more regularly.
"Ultimately, community strength is based on its people. Baton Rouge is one of these places where we have every amenity of a major, big city, but we have the charm of a small town and the relationships and connectivity that allow you to make really big change. You can bring a group of leaders together, talk about a big vision, and commit to seeing that through. I just don’t think that happens in every community. And it’s so powerful in a place that is already incredibly charitable." —Chris Meyer
We’ll also be taking on Plan Baton Rouge III, which follows two downtown master plans over the last twenty years, both of which we successfully implemented. And so now, we’ll have this stage of the master plan fully wrapped up right at the beginning of the new year, and then it’s off to the races of starting the investment. Because we know that once we catalyze some of these major projects, others are going to come on right behind us.
I think our role is just to continue to have a focus on these kinds of transformative community projects and make sure our partners and others have what they need to do their jobs and get it done.
What advice do you have for individuals and small business owners who are interested in getting involved in Baton Rouge area philanthropy?
So, first of all, I’d say, we want everyone in the community to see themselves as a philanthropist. Everyone has the opportunity to give, whether that’s financially, or that’s through volunteerism, or that’s simply in helping a neighbor. I think we at BRAF can help people give in a way that their individual efforts are not in isolation, but really can be then collected with so many others to make major change.
The Foundation offers a number of pathways to get involved in making that kind of civic change. One is that you can become a member of the Foundation, which really just supports our civic leadership initiatives. And that’s a way that people can kind of get on the inside to understand what they want to do on these specific issues.
The second thing is you can open a fund. People can actually create their own donor-advised fund, where they can direct their giving to charitable causes that matter to them. It’s almost like a bank account for giving back. And we’re here to support donors, when they have those funds, when they need advice on which nonprofits or which issue areas to give, that’s the partnerships we really create.
Finally, we have a lot of fellowships, where we are training folks actively to go serve on nonprofit boards. We do a lot of matchmaking to connect people so they can really get on the ground of an organization that is helping create change in Baton Rouge.
So, there are no shortage of opportunities to get involved and engaged in making our community a better place.
Would you say a few words about why it’s important to be knowledgeable, involved, and generous in one’s community?
Ultimately, community strength is based on its people. Baton Rouge is one of these places where we have every amenity of a major, big city, but we have the charm of a small town and the relationships and connectivity that allow you to make really big change. You can bring a group of leaders together, talk about a big vision, and commit to seeing that through. I just don’t think that happens in every community. And it’s so powerful in a place that is already incredibly charitable.
So, I think you take that, and if you can, you think about ways not just to alleviate challenges today but transform those underlying systems. We want every kid to have access to high quality early learning opportunities, right? And when you look at the numbers, it’s totally doable. We’re talking about 10,000–15,000 kids in a city of 500,000 people. We can do it. It’s just incumbent upon us if we want things to be better, you have to put forth the effort. And effort can be lending money, it could be lending your time, it could be lending your voice. But everyone ought to be engaged in that. And I think when we all get in the game and pick a passion area, we can make really, really big change.
Read more about BRAF and its mission at braf.org.
