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.”