05 06 ccf logo verticalThe Cumberland Community Foundation is a partnership of donors, nonprofit organizations, and the community working together to find solutions to pressing community needs. The community foundation manages more than 500 different charitable donor funds and endowments of more than 30 local nonprofit organizations. The charitable foundation was established in 1980 by a significant financial gift provided by Dr. Lucile West Hutaff. It was her goodwill toward humanity that laid the foundation for a community legacy of philanthropy.

The foundation facilitates personalized and endowed individual, family and corporate philanthropic contributions. Under CCF’s umbrella tax-exempt status, donors may create ‘’family endowments’’ through an array of fund options. As a 501c3 charitable organization, CCF offers maximum tax advantages available to donors. It is audited annually and certified in compliance by the National Standards Board. For the year ending June 30 of last year, the foundation’s assets totaled $89 million. Grants paid since 1980 amounted to $53 million, while gifts received since then totaled $108 million.

The Cumberland County charitable fund is doling out a record-breaking $847,147 in grants this coming year, board president Kelly Puryear announced at the agency’s annual Founders and Friends Banquet last month. He said the grants being awarded are the most ever in the foundation’s 39 years. He also noted that the foundation decided 10 years ago to double its endowment assets to $100 million by 2020. “Now we are at $95 million,” Puryear said.

The largest of the 2020 grants is $250,000 for the Cumberland County Partnership for Children. It will help provide seed money for a program that will send nurses to the homes of families with newborns. Partnership for Children President Mary Sonnenberg said the program would be offered to the parents of every newborn in Cumberland County. Visiting nurses will make sure the mothers and their newborns are doing well in the first few weeks after birth. Sonnenberg noted that the county health department provides some home visitations but that “it only serves a very small number of families each year. Babies don’t come with instruction books,” she added, “and when they are born, you never know what risk factors might be there.”

Another significant community foundation grant is being made to the Airborne & Special Operations Museum. One hundred thousand dollars will provide funding for the museum to upgrade exhibits and add digital technology. The community foundation emphasized that small gifts are just as important to recipients. A $1,000 grant was gifted to All About Fitness Inc. for boot camp equipment needed to fight obesity. Board member Eva Williams announced the winner of the 2019 Mary Lynn Bryan Leadership Award went to Jesse H. Byrd Jr. He was nominated by Cape Fear Valley Health Foundation for leadership of its endowment campaigns.

During the event, Puryear acknowledged the service of two outgoing CCF board members, Ray Manning and Lynn Legatski. He welcomed two new board members, Carol “Lani” Dickey and Melissa Short.