Focus area grants of $1,715,520 announced

Press release from The Community Foundation of WNC:

The Community Foundation of Western North Carolina (CFWNC) approved grants totaling $1,715,520to nonprofits across the region.  The awards were made in CFWNC’s Early Childhood Development, Human Services and Natural and Cultural Resources focus areas.

Seventy-eight Human Services grants totaling $1,505,520 were awarded to nonprofits serving people across the Foundation’s 18-county service area. CFWNC fundholders and donors contributed $617,510 to the total. The co-investors are: Carol Waggle Oliver Fund, Charles F. Hamrick and Marguerite D. Hamrick Charitable Fund, Connestee Falls Endowment Fund, Consuelo’s Fund, Crutchfield Charitable Fund, Delphinium Fund, Dogwood Charitable Endowment Fund, Dr. Robert J. and Kimberly S. Reynolds Fund, Ero Fund, Fenton Family WNC Fund, Fidel Duke Fund, Gretchen Batra Fund, Henri Landwirth Family Endowed Fund, John and Janet Garrett Charitable Fund, Minigowin Fund, Oliver Family Fund, Perez Family Fund, Peterson Endowment Fund, Reichman Family Charitable Fund, Rick and Bridget Eckerd Charitable Fund, Samuel and William Elmore Fund for Mental Wellness, Terrence Lee One Love Fund, Thomas L. and Phyllis Day Davis Fund, Travis and Jenny Boyer Fund, Walnut Fund, Wasson – Stowe Charitable Fund, Yeager-Cole Fund and five anonymous funds.  A complete list of the grants is available at cfwnc.org.

Several private foundations partner with CFWNC to support projects in Western North Carolina. The Klunk Family Foundation, The Leon Levine Foundation and Lipscomb Family Foundation provided generous support for these grants.

“We often refer to CFWNC as a community of givers, and the collaborative effort that makes the scale of these grants possible epitomizes that spirit,” said President Elizabeth Brazas. “Community foundations exist to bring people together to address issues facing a specific region and to build permanent resources so that the funding can continue over time. The network of people doing good work in our communities, supported by people investing together in solutions, gives me hope for the future. CFWNC is honored to play a role in this supportive ecosystem of giving.”

Blue Ridge Partnership for Children (BRPFC) was awarded a $180,000 Early Childhood Development grant over two years to sustain and evolve a collaborative, regional approach to the provision of parent education for children prenatal to age 14 in Avery, Mitchell and Yancey counties. The AMY Parent Education Collaborative (PEC) currently offers evidence-based classes and informational resources to parents and caregivers. The goal is to provide a reliable, easily accessible slate that strengthen caregivers’ abilities to build their child’s brain through consistent positive, nurturing interactions. The Dogwood Charitable Endowment Fund and an anonymous fund provided co-investment for this grant.

Wildlands Network (fiscal sponsor for the Safe Passage Fund Coalition – SPFC) was awarded a $30,000 Natural and Cultural Resources grant to improve SPFC’s communications and outreach to raise financial and public support for mitigation measures to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions along a 28-mile stretch of Interstate 40 in the Pigeon River Gorge. SPFC members include Wildlands Network, National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), The Wilderness Society, Great Smoky Mountains Association, The Conservation Fund, North Carolina Wildlife Federation, and Defenders of Wildlife. SPFC is a subset of a wider collaborative known as “Safe Passage: The I-40 Pigeon River Gorge Wildlife Crossing Project,” which includes people and organizations sharing a vision of balancing the needs of native wildlife with those of the ever-growing human population. The broader group includes local, tribal, state, and federal agencies, land managers, conservation organizations, nonprofit partners, and other invested North Carolina and Tennessee community members. Co-investment from the Ecology Wildlife Foundation Fund, Rick and Bridget Eckerd Charitable Fund, Trillium Fund and Dr. Robert J. and Kimberly S. Reynolds Fund fully funded this grant.

The Community Foundation of Western North Carolina (CFWNC) works with families, businesses and nonprofits to strengthen communities through the creation of charitable funds and strategic grantmaking. A permanent charitable resource, the Foundation manages over 1,200 funds and facilitated $23.5 million in grants last year bringing total distributions to more than $328 million since its founding in 1978. Learn more at www.cfwnc.org.