The Cumberland Community Foundation is having its annual Giving Tuesday, running from Nov. 20 to Nov. 29.. Each year, they award more than $800,000 in college scholarships to students from Southeastern North Carolina.
Giving Tuesday is a global day of generosity celebrated on the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving. Every year, people across the globe come together to thank, help, give, show kindness and share what they have.
CCF works with charitable organizations in this compiled directory to make it easy for those to give to locals to support their important missions.
The funding is essential to enhance the quality of life across the Cumberland County area.
CCF manages more than 60 scholarship endowment funds created by local individuals, families, civic organizations and corporations who want to provide a path to higher education for future generations.
Most scholarships are selected by the CCF’s Scholarship Committee, and a few are selected by external selection committees at the individual high schools.
Donors go to the catalog online at CumberlandCF.org and choose which organizations they would like to support. CCF then processes the gifts and passes them through to each of their 79 participating nonprofits, along with matching funds.
Maddie Kellogg is the Donor Service Manager at CCF and speaks about the importance of Giving Tuesday. In past years, CCF noticed that local organizations were not participating in Giving Tuesday campaigns.
“Our nonprofits are doing important work in our community. The only problem is they are stuck in a constant hamster wheel of fundraising to support their important work. We noticed that our local nonprofits were not running Giving Tuesday campaigns.
"A lot of them did not have the capacity to do so. The community foundation noticed this and jumped into action. Processing gifts and managing funds is what we do. So, in 2020, we ran our first Giving Tuesday campaign to raise general operating funds for local nonprofits while providing matching funds, and the rest is history. In 2022, we raised almost $2.4 million for local nonprofits,” said Kellogg.
She speaks highly about her work with CCF, “I couldn’t be happier to be a part of the dream team at Cumberland Community Foundation. Being able to help donors create legacies that support charitable work forever is a gift. I get to see the best of Cumberland County every day.”
CCF would like to extend their thanks to Will Gillis, Elizabeth "Beth" Keeney, Daphne and Ray Manning, Carol and Sammy Short, Fayetteville New Car Dealers Association, Healy Wholesale, and anonymous donors for making the $550,000 match possible.
Cumberland Community Foundation will amplify gifts on Giving Tuesday with matching funds made by sponsors.
Visit their website to donate or to learn more about Giving Tuesday at www.cumberlandcf.org or by calling 910-483-4449.