As Match Magic opens November 10, CCF links a clearer understanding of local needs with practical ways to support nonprofits.
“Sometimes having an opportunity isn’t enough. Sometimes what makes the difference is having a community beside you who helps you and believes that the opportunity is possible,” said Nikky Cotton, a Cobb mother of seven who shared the many challenges her family faced and the support that helped them move toward stability. Cotton’s story was central to the launch of Cobb Community Foundation’s long-term initiative, Cobb Vital Signs, held on November 6 at Marietta High School’s Performing Arts Center.
Following a warm welcome from CCF board member and Marietta City Schools Superintendent Dr. Grant Rivera, CCF board chair Susan Tillery introduced Vital Signs as bringing data and residents’ lived experiences together to build shared understanding and guide collective action. “It is not a report or a project that just sits on a shelf,” she said. “It is meant to be a living resource, a North Star, if you will, to help inform our conversations, strengthen our partnerships, guide our investments, and support better decisions over time.”
Developed by CCF with Kennesaw State University and Neighborhood Nexus, Vital Signs combines public data with community input to build a fuller picture of life across Cobb. The effort included 810 completed resident surveys, 20 in-depth resident interviews and input from 54 nonprofit leaders. Neighborhood Nexus mapped conditions across Cobb’s 186 census tracts. The study identified Cobb’s key barriers as housing affordability, transportation, family care and access to services. It, further, made clear that these challenges are intimately interconnected.
Over 120 residents, researchers, nonprofit leaders and public officials attended the event with more participating via livestream. Award-winning journalist Condace Pressley moderated a panel with Cotton, Neighborhood Nexus Executive Director Tommy Pearce and Kennesaw State University researcher Dr. Cameron Greensmith. Pressley’s questions traced the study from its goals and findings to residents’ experiences navigating services, then asked what leaders and neighbors can do together to address barriers.
Pearce illustrated how local systems can create barriers by overlaying CobbLinc bus stops on the housing heat map. “It’s kind of interesting that all the bus stops connect low-income communities to other low-income communities,” he said, then asked whether jobs are located where the buses are going. Noting that he began mapping Cobb conditions nearly a decade ago, he challenged attendees: “I’m curious why the map looks exactly the same as it did 10 years ago.”
Greensmith pointed to the role of community connection in Cotton’s story: “Community kept people going. Community kept people from feeling disconnected.”
In a second panel moderated by CCF Director of Programs and leader of the Vital Signs initiative, Lisa-Ruth Karnes, Keo Buford of MUST Ministries, Barbara Garner of Circles Cobb, Kelsey Thompson-White of the City of Marietta and Ellyn Cochran of Quality Care for Children discussed how shared understanding could help Cobb address interconnected needs such as housing, transportation and child care. “We don’t do anything in isolation. 100% partnerships,” Garner said. Thompson-White urged a focus on lasting outcomes: “I care what happened to those people after you served them.” Panelists emphasized that stronger coordination can make services easier to access, help funders balance immediate needs with long-term outcomes, and encourage employers to address how housing, childcare and transportation barriers affect workforce productivity.
Beginning in Q1 2027, CCF will organize community gatherings along two paths. Shared Understanding conversations will bring Vital Signs findings and residents’ stories, including Cotton’s, into local communities. Collective Action gatherings will bring residents, nonprofits, businesses and public leaders together to identify and implement ways to address shared challenges.
“Today, this is the launch. This is not the finish line. We are just getting started, and we need your help,” said Shari Martin, CCF president and CEO.
CCF’s annual three-week holiday giving campaign, Match Magic, offers a timely way for people to support local organizations, bringing donors together with 31 local nonprofits selected through an application process and reviewed by CCF’s Grant Review Committee. Match Magic generated more than $811,000 for 25 participating organizations in 2024 and more than $1.7 million for 27 nonprofits in 2025. Those gifts helped organizations meet urgent needs, care for neighbors and create opportunities for individuals and families.
This year, the 31 participating nonprofits aim to raise $2 million, and local businesses and community partners are helping build a $200,000 Match Pool. Donors give to the organization they choose, while eligible nonprofits can receive a proportional share of the pool, stretching the campaign’s collective impact.
Together, Vital Signs and Match Magic connect a shared understanding of community conditions with practical ways to take part and support local organizations. Martin described Vital Signs as CCF’s “why,” and Match Magic as “a what and a how—just one what and how among many.” The 2026 campaign runs November 10 through December 1.
Learn about the participating organizations and give beginning November 10 at tinyurl.com/matchmagic26. Individuals and organizations interested in hosting or joining a Q1 2027 gathering can visit https://form.jotform.com/262986187312062. The Vital Signs report and interactive heat maps are at cobbfoundation.org/vital-signs, and the November 6 launch recording is on our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fip3LgJ2qjs.
About Cobb Vital Signs
Cobb Vital Signs is a long-term, countywide initiative led by Cobb Community Foundation in partnership with Kennesaw State University and Neighborhood Nexus. It brings together data, resident experience and community knowledge to build a shared understanding of local conditions and support ongoing collective action.
About Cobb Community Foundation
Cobb Community Foundation works as a catalyst for a thriving community by mobilizing people, ideas and resources to improve quality of life in and around Cobb.
VITAL SIGNS HEAT MAPS AND EVENT PHOTOS
Cobb Vital Signs heatmap illustrating degrees of need relating to workforce & economic issues
Cobb Vital Signs heatmap illustrating degrees of need relating to housing with overlay of CobbLinc bus stops and CobbLincGo microtransit areas
L-R Condace Pressley, Nikky Cotton, Tommy Pierce and Dr. Cameron Greensmith
L-R Condace Pressley, Nikki Cotton
L-R
Lisa-Ruth Karnes, Keo Buford, Barbara Garner, Kelsey Thompson-White, Ellyn Cochran