Cumberland Community Foundation & NCGives:
Giving is rampant in Cumberland County, NC. People help each other. People share their time, talent and treasure. People give and give back. NCGives and Cumberland Community Foundation are working together to leverage that giving through the creation of two giving circles, as well as the development of community knowledge that will help inform grantmaking for both the giving circles and the Foundation.
Cumberland Community Foundation has a strong value of inclusion. Still, we realize there is so much more that we can do. The more the community knows, understands, and accesses the community foundation, the more our community can leverage and inform our work to improve lives.
The E.E. Smith Academic Excellence Giving Circle - This giving circle will engage the community in support of E. E. Smith High School and its area schools.
- Philanthropic objective: To increase the number of individual givers, as well as total dollars given, for the benefit of the E.E. Smith attendance area.
- Program objective: To improve math and science outcomes in the E.E. Smith attendance area.
Women's Giving Circle of Fayetteville - A second giving circle will engage women to improve the lives of women and girls in Cumberland County.
- Philanthropic objective: To build and encourage philanthropy in women, engage all generations, and to encourage women to be more intentional with their giving.
- Program objective: To improve the lives of women and girls in Cumberland County, NC.
Community Knowledge Center (name pending) - Finally, Cumberland Community Foundation will develop a system of Community Knowledge that will inform our Community Grants Program and the grantmaking of the two giving circles. We invite ideas about a sustainable system of tracking community benchmarks on key quality of life indicators. We want to establish a system that we can afford to maintain over the years and that will be of service to nonprofit organizations, community groups, leaders, and donors.
So far our work has been centered on learning by staff and volunteers, engagement of prospective leaders for the two giving circles, and researching community data tracking systems. We are being very intentional about starting the work in a way that we can continue after the NCGives partnership is over.
To do this work, we are learning from our community, the NCGives Partners, other giving circles across the country, other community foundations, and the Giving Circle Knowledge Center of the Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers. We are making every effort to learn from best practices in motion. We will share our progress soon.
About Cumberland Community Foundation (Fayetteville, NC)
Cumberland Community Foundation is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) public foundation founded in 1980 by Dr. Lucile Hutaff, who acted on her dream of bringing the whole community together in philanthropy.
Thus, we value all gifts and all givers. We frequently support community-led fundraising in our core interest areas, evidenced by the fact that 80% of our gifts are under $250 each year.
Fast Facts:
- We were founded in 1980 and received a "jump start" again in 1990 with renewed board commitment to building permanent charitable assets for the community.
- Our service area is primarily Cumberland County, NC.
- About one third of our assets are unrestricted endowments for grantmaking called "Community Funds."
- Community Grants are available to nonprofit organizations in six areas of interest (guidelines and instructions are available on line).
- In celebration of our 25th anniversary, our board decided to focus on "big impact" through unrestricted asset development and outcome based grantmaking.
- NCGives made it possible for Cumberland Community Foundation to begin two giving circles through a partnership beginning in late 2007.
All you need to know is one click or a phone call away.
http://www.cumberlandcf.org/video.php
Tel: (910) 483-4449
Mary M. Holmes
Executive Director
mary@cumberlandcf.org
Kimmie Teague
EE Smith Math & Science Giving Circle
kimmie@cumberlandcf.org
Meghan Wieten-Scott
The Woman's Fund / Giving Circle
meghan@cumberlandcf.org
