From Grantmaking to Asset Growth, the past year has been one to remember for the Eastern West Virginia Community Foundation. Thanks to the generosity of several of our donor advised funds, we topped more than $1.7 million in total grantmaking in 2017. Our investment advisors at BCT-Bank of Charles, BB&T, City National Bank, CNB, First United Bank & Trust, and United Wealth all provided excellent returns on investment with what is anticipated to be considerably better than 10% ROI.
EWVCF had more than $2o million under management at the beginning of the year, so we are very pleased with these results and hope that more of the same may be coming our way in 2018. Although we didn’t received any major gifts in 2017, new donations to the Community Foundation continued to help build our assets and provide us with expanded grantmaking capabilities.
The addition of Karin Hammann Dunn as our Program Manager back in July has given Felicia, Amy, and me more time to focus on our core responsibilities and we are pleased with the expertise and enthusiasm Karin has brought to the table. Revisions to our Grant and Scholarship Programs are beginning to pay dividends and we’ve had good feedback about the new application forms and grant deadline. We added several new field of interest funds that will allow us to award grants to more nonprofit organizations providing a wider scope of services to the community.
Finally, we want to thank our friend and leader Darlene Truman for serving as President these past two years. Darlene’s professionalism, keen intelligence and quick wit, provided a calm reassurance to the staff and board at the Community Foundation. For her leadership and friendship, we are most grateful.
We are looking forward to more success in 2018 and are excited to be working with our new President, Lisa Welch who has a long list of her own remarkable skills that she is willing to share with us. This promises to be another great year for the Community Foundation and we are most grateful to have the opportunity to serve our donors, area nonprofit organizations, and the community at large.
Happy New Year!
Michael Whalton, Executive Director