EWVCF and Affiliate Scholarships – Apply Online

The Eastern West Virginia Community Foundation (EWVCF) and its affiliates work with donors who have established more than four dozen scholarship funds. Awards range from $500 to $6,000. In 2022, the Foundation awarded over $180,000 in scholarships to students in Jefferson, Berkeley, Morgan, Hampshire, and Hardy Counties.

Our scholarship application is available through an online platform, AwardSpring.  Applications must be submitted by 5:00 p.m. on March, 3rd, 2023.

To see a list of scholarships available through the Community Foundation, click on the following links:

• November 1st, 2022 – Our online application goes live.
• March 3rd, 2023 – Applications are Due. No Exceptions. The system will not accept applications after midnight.
• March/April – Our committees will review applications and conduct interviews for certain scholarships.
• May – We will notify applicants only if they’ve been selected to receive a scholarship.
• June 15 – Recipients must submit a completed scholarship acceptance form before we can process their scholarship for payment.
• July – Scholarship awards are mailed to schools (made payable to the school to benefit the recipient).

For step-by-step guidance on completing the online application, download: EWVCF AwardSpring Navigation Guide

For answers to common questions about our scholarship program, download Scholarships-FAQ-2023 

For information about non-traditional scholarships, click here: Scholarships with Separate Applications

The W. Randy Smith Family Fund recently awarded a $100,000 grant to the Martinsburg Union Rescue Mission’s 604 Project campaign to help renovate their building at 604 West King Street. Once completed, the property will feature six transitional housing apartments for homeless families. Pastor Tim Guerino and Randy Smith recently met on-site to check on construction progress. Smith has worked diligently to help address homelessness issues in Berkeley County for many years and was pleased to learn that the Rescue Mission was creating these apartments for families.

More than $800,000 is the total budget to remodel, furnish, and staff the building, which will allow the mission to expand services to families that are experiencing homelessness in the region. Currently, there are no facilities like this in the area for families. In addition to the housing, residents will receive three meals a day from the dining hall at the main Rescue Mission building, as well as services at the chapel, spiritual counseling, fellowship, mentoring, work therapy, clothes, and many other services from the current 608 W. King St. location and the thrift store at 606 W. King St.

Individuals interested in supporting the Rescue Mission’s “604 Project” can learn more by visiting their website at https://martinsburgunionrescuemission.com/604-project/

Since winning the Powerball jackpot in 2010, Smith has contributed more than $5.9 million to the Eastern West Virginia Community Foundation. During the past 11 years, the donor-advised fund he established at the Foundation has awarded $4.9 million in grants to nonprofit organizations serving Berkeley County.

The Hardy County Community Foundation recently awarded 8 grants totaling nearly $90,000 from the Hardy County Founding Fund, the Foundation’s first fund.

Established by Mrs. Ruth Cook Heishman when she created her will in 2003, this donor-advised fund primarily supports the schools in East Hardy County. However, this year, the fund advisors also recommended additional grants to support the Moorefield Schools and the two public libraries.

“Mrs. Heishman was a fervent advocate of a robust education, both as a learner and as a teacher,” said Amy Pancake, the Foundation’s director. “She graduated with honors from Ohio State University with a degree in bacteriology, and worked as a laboratory technician for the West Virginia Department of Agriculture. Later she became a substitute teacher for the Wardensville Schools where she taught every grade”.

During her lifetime, Mrs. Heishman frequently outfitted science classrooms with microscopes and other equipment necessary for the pursuit of knowledge, and bought hundreds of books for the school and public libraries. This legacy continues through The Founding Fund, and educators and students alike will continue to benefit for generations to come.

According to Pancake, this is the twelfth year of grantmaking from the Founding Fund, and the growth in the amount of annual funding demonstrates the power of endowment.

“In 2010, the Fund awarded just over $15,000 in grants,” Pancake said. She continued, “The amount has increased each year, funding opportunities and resources such as spectacular field trips (canoe trips to study the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, STEM challenges at the Air and Space Museum, hands-on geology lesson at the Shenandoah National Park, to name a few), books specifically designed for teaching core vocabulary to students with communication impairments, professional development for teachers, technology for classrooms, new books and technology for school libraries, visiting poets and theater groups, equipment for easier meat processing and preparation for annual Ham, Bacon, and Egg shows/sales, equipment to increase physical activity during school hours to help develop life-long healthy habits, supplies for hands-on exploration of different cultures, and funding to attend state and national educational competitions. This is just a sampling of the programs that have been funded over the years.”

Pancake said that grants this year will support similar activities, and is pleased that the opportunity to access some of the funding has been extended to Moorefield Schools.

For more information about the Founding Fund or other funds held by the Hardy County Community Foundation, contact Amy at 304-358-3431 or [email protected].

August is National Make a Will Month, and the publicity surrounding this designation may prompt you to question if your affairs are in good order. Of course, making sure you have established an estate plan and executed corresponding legal documents is a priority for any attorney, accountant, or financial advisor who practices in the field of estate planning, tax, or wealth management. Still, it’s always ultimately your responsibility to keep your estate plans up to date and review them on a regular basis.

Indeed, despite the many cautionary tales arising out of the Covid-19 pandemic, most Americans do not have a will. Even those of us who do have estate plans in place may not truly understand the difference between a will and trust (and the reason we still need a will even if we have a revocable living trust). We may not understand that a charitable bequest can be part of our estate plan whether the planning vehicle is a will or whether it is a trust.

Of the $485 billion given to charity by Americans in 2021, according to Giving USA, 9.5% of that giving came from bequests–that’s $46 billion. Giving USA’s data visualization tool illustrates the ebbs and flows of bequest giving, which has long been a significant component of philanthropy.

Research reveals fascinating psychological factors behind a person’s decision to leave a bequest in the first place, which helps to understand the motivation for leaving a gift to a charitable organization in a will or trust. Not surprisingly, altruism has long been one of those factors. Bequests to charity are not a new idea. Examples of high-profile estate gifts date back centuries. You may be familiar with the bequests of Benjamin Franklin, who established testamentary charitable trusts dedicated to supporting Boston and Philadelphia tradespeople, and George Washington, who left bequests in his will to colleges and trade schools.

Our team welcomes the opportunity to work with you and your professional advisors to establish bequests to existing funds or by creating a shell agreement at the community foundation. Gifts can come to the community foundation through a will or trust or a beneficiary designation on a qualified retirement plan or life insurance policy. Make a Will Month is also a good time to remember that bequests of qualified retirement plans can be extremely tax-efficient. By naming EWVCF as the beneficiary of your traditional IRA or other tax-deferred retirement accounts, whatever is distributed directly to a fund at the community foundation from such a retirement plan will not be subject to income tax or estate tax.