the community foundation of western north carolina PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
Spring 2017
Since we moved into our new offices more than three years ago, CFWNC has been adding local artwork to our walls. The most recent acquisition was commissioned from Burnsville nature painter Robert Johnson. After talking with us about our work and the region we serve, Johnson created a quilt painting called Communities of Western North Carolina (detail above and full painting on newsletter back). Johnson spent the month of September traveling, hiking and sketching the counties CFWNC serves. The resulting work is based on the design of a quilt with squares representing twelve unique plant communities. Johnson said, “Unlike a typical quilt pattern where each square is distinctly separate, I have made the edges overlap just like one sees in nature. A map of the counties served is outlined on top so that the painting shows both the communities of people and the communities of plants.” To me, the painting represents the way that CFWNC strives to operate in the region. Our collaborative work crosses borders. Through our competitive grant programs and focus area work, we make grants to nonprofits that build partnerships and share best practices. We seek to highlight the things we have in common. We recognize that there is strength in working together and working across lines. In this newsletter, we report on more than $460,000 in recent focus area grants. Strength through partnerships is exemplified by many of these grants. Through our Food and Farming grants, schools, land trusts, aggregation centers, food hubs, food pantries and farmers work to eliminate duplication of efforts. Together, they are building a network of food producers, distributors and educators to ensure a safe, affordable and plentiful source of local nutrition. An Early Childhood Development (ECD) grant funded a partnership between Smart Start and United Way to improve outcomes for young children in Transylvania County. Another ECD grant was made to five collaborating organizations working to improve access to quality, affordable early childhood education in Western North Carolina. The Homebase project at Western Carolina University (WCU) is a joint effort of Baptist Children’s Homes and WCU to provide support to some of the most vulnerable students on campus (see page 3). An empty building has become a hub of community and resources with the potential to transform lives through education.
Jordan Ahlers of Blue Spiral 1 and Elizabeth Brazas installing the painting in the Cooper Community Room. Photo courtesy of CFWNC.
It is exciting to see the Women for Women giving circle planning for a 2018 high impact grant that has partnership and collaboration at its core (see page 6). The giving circle exists because generous women band together to help other women and girls. Supporting this collaborative work is a crucial role for The Community Foundation. As an organization, we accomplish more because we partner with our fundholders who co-invest with us in grants as well as provide generous direct nonprofit support through their donor advised funds. Private foundations continue to seek us out as a resource for their grantmaking, and we are happy to support them in achieving their charitable goals across our region. The Johnson painting represents diverse communities of plants and people. There are differences amongst counties, and there is an urban versus rural divide in our service area. But at a time when rancor and division often seem insurmountable, nature can remind us that lines and borders can be crossed and that there is common ground. It is what we share and how we work together that makes us stronger.
POWER OF THE PURSE®
Power of the Purse® to feature Doris Kearns Goodwin Doris Kearns Goodwin, declared the United States’ “Historian-in-chief” by New York magazine, is the keynote speaker for the sold-out 13th annual Power of the Purse® taking place May 23. Response to this year’s event was extraordinary, with reservations selling out in record time. A renowned presidential biographer and award-winning author, Goodwin earned a Pulitzer Prize for her book No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II and the Carnegie Medal for The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft and the Golden Age of Journalism. Steven Spielberg has acquired the film and television rights to The Bully Pulpit. He and Goodwin previously worked together on his 2012 film Lincoln that was nominated for twelve Academy Awards. Goodwin received a Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University where she went on to teach. At the age of 24, Goodwin became a White House Fellow, working with President Lyndon B. Johnson. She served as an assistant to President Johnson in his last year in the White House and later assisted him in the preparation of his memoirs. Goodwin appears frequently on NBC, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, FOX, CNN, The Charlie Rose Show and Meet the Press, as well as satirical news shows like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.
Continued on page 7.
Masthead photo: Robert Johnson’s Communities of Western North Carolina (detail), oil on canvas, photo courtesy of Blue Spiral 1.
Doris Kearns Goodwin