About the Foundation

Welcome!   

Whether you are interested in making a gift, helping a client, planning a bequest, creating a charitable fund, applying for a grant or scholarship, or simply want to learn more about local philanthropy, you're at the right place! 

Your giving makes a real difference in a lasting way through the Parkersburg Area Community Foundation (PACF) and Regional Affiliate organizations of Doddridge (DCCF), Jackson (JCCF), Mason (MCCF) and Ritchie (RCCF) Counties, and the Little Kanawha Area Community Foundation (LKACF) (Calhoun and Wirt Counties). Our Community’s Foundation is the collective name for PACF and the five affiliates, a non-profit public charity (501(c)(3)) founded in 1963.  

In this section, you can learn about the Community Foundation's mission to strengthen our region, our board and staff, our history, and the charitable funds that make up "Our Community's Foundation."

The Foundation exists because of the generosity of many good people, present and past, who are concerned about improving our region and who share their resources to help others. Our collection of funds represents the personal stories of many individuals, families, businesses and organizations. We encourage you to visit My Story/Our Stories to view a showcase of these stories to see the hope and inspiration that builds with each new fund.

Our Mission   

We serve the people of our region by building permanent assets to meet our community’s broad charitable needs, managing these assets efficiently, and applying them effectively in response to our area’s changing needs and opportunities. Our vision is to build an ethic of philanthropy region-wide.

We are committed to:

• Assisting citizens who wish to support the long-term needs of the community with their giving
• Distributing Foundation funds according to the intent of donors
• Offering maximum flexibility and tax advantages to donors of charitable gifts
• Encouraging the Foundation’s permanent resources to grow 
• Nurturing a "sense of community" in meeting local needs
• Serving as a leader and catalyst for philanthropy

Service Area  

We serve Wood, Calhoun, Doddridge, Jackson, Ritchie, Gilmer, Wirt, Roane, Mason, and Pleasants counties in West Virginia, and Washington County, Ohio.

Governing Board and Staff

The Foundation is governed by a local Board of regional community leaders. The Parkersburg Area Community Foundation Board is the governing body for the whole; each affiliate has a local advisory committee of citizen leaders from within its community and a seat on the PACF Board. In the list that follows, Affiliate relations are designated by acronyms.

Our Board

Our Staff

Judy Sjostedt – Executive Director
Jane Winters – Manager, Regional Affiliates (based out of our Jackson County office)
Marian Clowes – Program & Development Officer
Rita Smith – Office Manager

 Unless otherwise noted, staff are physically located at The Foundation’s Central Office, 501 Avery Street in Parkersburg.

Community Foundation Facts

Tax-exempt public charities created by and for the people of a given area, community foundations are among the fastest-growing types of philanthropy. Community Foundations help people to easily and effectively support the issues that they care about— in the present tense, now - or later, via wills or estate plans. Community foundations often make a better fit for a donor interested in strategic grantmaking than does forming/operating a private foundation or opening a commercial gift fund.

A community foundation can help you to create and name a charitable fund that is aligned with your charitable goals, or you can contribute to existing funds that fit your interests. You can help a community foundation's grant making initiatives that address critical regional issues (to review ours, click here). All donors benefit from their community foundation's local knowledge and strategic approach to grantmaking that improves our community and region.

The first community foundation formed in 1914 in Cleveland, Ohio. Today there are more than 700 in the U.S. and over 1,175 in 46 different countries. In 2006, community foundations collectively made $3.6 billion in grants to nonprofit organizations. About 1/3 of the U.S. community foundations are certified as meeting the National Standards for Community Foundations. Our Community's Foundation is proud to be among the elite group that is certified as meeting standards.

Give where you live and know where it goes

Last year, community support of Our Community’s Foundation and the Regional Affiliates generated: 

• $235,855 in scholarships to 245 students
• $310,104 in competitive grants to 87 organizations for important projects and 9 Humane Societies
• $17,264 in emergency & mini-grants to organizations needing “extra” help
• And, more than $817,000 in directed, designated and advised grants for a wide array of charitable purposes
• Since 1963, we’ve returned nearly $9 million in charitable grants to 600-plus organizations and scholarships to over 3,000 students.
• Less than 2% of Foundation assets are used for administration. That means that more than 98 cents of every dollar is at work for charitable purposes.

 Community Foundation Receives National Award

Parkersburg Area Community Foundation (PACF) and Regional Affiliates of Doddridge, Jackson, Mason and Ritchie Counties and the Little Kanawha Area – collectively known as “Our Community’s Foundation” – was recently honored with a 2009 “Effies Award” for Community Leadership. PACF and the Affiliates represent six distinct organizations through which “local people help local people.” The Foundation’s full service region covers ten West Virginia counties and one in Ohio throughout which it works with local citizens to build community capacity to meet essential needs and develop permanent community grantmaking funds.

Effies™ are national awards for effective philanthropic practice and are a project of the Effective Communities LLC featured on its www.justphilanthropy.org website funded by the Ford Foundation. “Until philanthropic organizations address the structural inequities that contribute significantly to human suffering, their own effectiveness will be limited,” said Steven E. Mayer, Effective Communities Director. “This year’s Effies competition showcases excellent uses of philanthropy to create progress in reducing social, economic, or racial disparities.” Winners earned points for well their work showcased six different “pathways to progress.” Reviewers sought evidence of philanthropy that: strengthens a philanthropic organization’s ability to address issues of equity and justice; creates constructive conversations to develop momentum; advances promising gap-closing ideas and solutions; strengthens relationships, networks, and leadership necessary to move promising solutions along; actually increases resources – financial, human, technical – then allocates them to reduce disparities; and decreases gaps or disparities by artfully combining several pathways – preparation, discussion, solutions, leadership, and resources.

Eight national Effies™ Awards were presented – three for Social Justice Philanthropy (Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation, Arkansas Public Policy Panel, Humboldt Area Foundation); two for Community Advocacy (Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children, Brett Family Foundation); and three for Community Leadership that “effectively leads communities in implementing initiatives which address a pressing community opportunity or problem.” In addition to PACF and the Regional Affiliates, Norfolk Foundation and Headwaters Fund (a collaboration of MN foundations) were recognized for Community Leadership. According to Effective Communities’ press release, PACF and the Regional Affiliates were commended for “building civic capacity and philanthropy in a smaller, rural, dispersed, economically distressed, and too often forgotten part of the country; working to transform its organizational character into one that more fully embraces the broad spectrum of those it serves; substantially increasing the Foundation’s grant funds that can be used to combat persistent poverty; fostering stronger access to education and employment opportunities; and for creating rural networks that stimulate voluntarism, engagement, and resource development.”

“This national award puts the Mid-Ohio Valley on the map as a place where many people are working hard and giving back so that our communities can look forward to a more promising future. Our Board is thrilled to share this wonderful news! We thank those generous citizens who support Our Community’s Foundation, the Parkersburg Area Community Foundation (PACF) and its Regional Affiliates. This national award is a clear tribute to their support and great recognition of the teamwork of generations of caring citizens to build PACF and the Regional Affiliates,” said Jim Crews, Board Chairman.

“Our Board wants to say ‘well done’ to our whole region. From awarding an incredible number of grants and scholarships in multiple counties totaling $1.6 million, to hosting numerous public events such as our Women’s Opportunity Fund “Graduation Party” and “Dave Couch Golf Tournament” to combat Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, to events in our Affiliate communities, like Jackson County’s Charity Challenge benefitting more than 20 nonprofits, Mason County’s Fund for Youth project and the Little Kanawha Area’s Scholarship Challenge in Calhoun and Wirt counties – the Foundation had a really busy and productive year,” said Chairman Crews.

Foundation Executive Director, Judy Sjostedt, said, “Building endowed community philanthropy is critical to creating opportunities at the local level. West Virginia is one of the most philanthropically undercapitalized states in the nation, making it difficult for our communities to obtain the local matching funds needed to leverage resources from government or other funders. Growing philanthropy is essential to improving our region’s self-sufficiency. Supporting Our Community’s Foundation builds resources critically needed for our communities to become more socially, culturally and economically vibrant and self-reliant places. PACF’s affiliate structure maintains the integrity of county identity and the “Our Community’s Foundation” tag line respects the value for “place” at the heart of our hometowns. At the same time, our regional structure acknowledges the practical reality of crafting enough scale to properly run a permanent charitable institution effectively and economically and to attract national partners. Through our combined enterprise, we serve as the Mid-Ohio Valley’s center for philanthropy and develop a much more powerful, sustainable engine for the region’s benefit.”

Sjostedt added “The Foundation links generations of caring citizens in Calhoun, Doddridge, Gilmer, Jackson, Mason, Roane, Ritchie, Pleasants, Wirt and Wood Counties in West Virginia and Washington County, Ohio. To be successful in West Virginia, one must work both within and across county boundaries. These boundaries are really artificial boundaries to team work, and yet they can be pretty intransigent at times. To pull together means thinking beyond boundaries about what’s best for the region and dreaming bigger and doing more. There’s no reason for caring to stop at the county line.

Our progress is a direct credit to those 1,900 generous individuals, families and businesses who supported us last year. Their help allows us to deliver more than four times in grants than we could only ten years ago. This Effie Award belongs to the supporters of Our Community’s Foundation – they’re the ones building the region’s civic and financial resources. We applaud their generosity and we urge everyone to be a part of something that matters – join us in giving for good, forever.”