“I started my best job when I was sixty-five years old.” Bea Bragg is an accomplished and nationally recognized author, playwright, and journalist. But her favorite job, she jokes, began after she had retired. She came to work for the El Paso Community Foundation. “It is the epitome of the most fair and common-sensical organization I have ever known of or heard of,” says Bea. “The idea of a community giving back to its own community is wonderful.”

Bea Bragg started in Oklahoma as a newspaper reporter. She traveled the world with her husband, James Bragg, and the youngest of her two daughters. From Liberia, West Africa, Bea saw the United States from the outside. She saw how much we all really have, and how important it is to help each other.

When the Braggs moved to El Paso, it was the 1980s—the height of the “me” generation—and the El Paso Community Foundation was only a few years old. Bea Bragg helped shape the message for the Foundation, and set the standard for outreach of Community Foundations throughout the country. She made giving “a good investment”. When Neiman-Marcus released its first catalogue, Bea Bragg hit an idea. She loved the beautiful graphics, but was appalled at the crass materialism.

Bea developed a “Spirit of Giving” catalogue for the El Paso Community Foundation. It navigated people through the needs of the community, and allowed them to give on a personal level to people whom they did not know. It was a stroke of genius. So much so, that community foundations across the country used Bea Bragg’s invention as a model for their campaigns.