Carla Roberts is president and CEO of the Fremont Area Community Foundation, serving Newaygo, Lake, Mecosta, and Osceola Counties in Western Michigan. She also serves on local boards and leadership groups including Michigan Works! West Central, the workforce development board; WE CAN! Newaygo County, the college and career access network; and NC3: Newaygo County Community Collaborative, a collective action network of social service agencies. Fremont Area Community Foundation is a mid-sized community foundation holding one of the largest per capita endowments serving an exclusively rural population. The Community Foundation has set three ambitious decade goals: To reduce poverty, lower unemployment and improve postsecondary achievement.
Roberts is the former vice president of affiliates for the Arizona Community Foundation, where she managed a statewide network of 200 staff, board members and volunteers building community philanthropy. Roberts currently serves on the national board of the Council on Foundations and was on the Council’s Community Foundations Leadership Team from 2008-12. She was the project director for an Idea Lab Grant that developed an affiliate curriculum. In the past, she has served on the board of Native Americans in Philanthropy (2007-2010), on the Council on Foundations International Committee (2003-07) and as an Arizona Advisor to the National Trust for Historic Preservation (2001-06). As a Transatlantic Community Foundation Fellow in 2003, she was in residence at the Community Foundation of Bardejov, Slovakia. In 2006 she was honored as a Synergos Senior Fellow in community philanthropy. She is also a published author and trainer in philanthropy. Carla earned her master’s degree in Nonprofit Management from the University of Iowa in Iowa City.
Roberts is also an associate of the Institute of Cultural Affairs, an international community development agency that developed the Technology of Participation. TOP is a consensus process used for group facilitation, strategic planning, and resource development plans. Roberts has used these methods extensively in her career for over 20 years and is a qualified trainer for both the basic facilitation and strategic planning courses.