‹‹ discover
w
Locals Helping Locals West Virginia’s community foundations have blossomed over the past 20 years. SOMETHING GOOD W STATEWIDE in the late 1990s , West Virginia’s small communities were suffering from the decline of the state’s extraction economies. And yet, residents who wanted to support charitable funds for future good works in their own communities had few options—only 12 community foundations operated in the state, serving just 30 counties. It was like that in small communities around the region and across the nation, too. Recognizing the untapped potential, in 2000, the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation launched a Promotion of Philanthropy Initiative to build up community foundations in its service territory and return power to people in their own communities. In the 20 years since, through the hard work of organizers, philanthropists, national foundations, and others, the size and reach of community foundations inWest Virginia has grown tremendously. Their ranks multiplied from 12 in 2000 to nearly 30, including affiliates, in 2020. Their service area expanded from 30 of the state’s 55 counties to 52, with the remaining three soon to be covered. And their combined asset value quadrupled, from $125 million to over $500 million. According to 2019 data, the state’s community foundations are now able to invest nearly $20 million a year close to home—in food pantries, literacy programs, health care, scholarships, public art, and other important local needs. On West Virginia Day this year, Philanthropy West Virginia recognized that remarkable two decades of growth with the release of its report “Transforming Rural: Accelerating Community-Based Philanthropy.” The report was delayed by a year by the COVID-19 pandemic, a long, debilitating crisis that underscored the point: West Virginia’s community foundations, in cooperation with United Way organizations, created 22 COVID relief funds that granted more than $2.5 million in local communities to address the medical, education, business, hunger, housing, and other challenges created by the pandemic. Learn how you can support your local community foundation at
philanthropywv.org. written by pam kasey
newsouthmedia.com 25
Made with FlippingBook Annual report maker