Cumberland Community Foundation Announces New Scholarship Program and Leadership Award

Cumberland Community Foundation Announces New Scholarship Program and Leadership Award

11/1/2018

Fayetteville, NC, November 1, 2017 – Cumberland Community Foundation gathered with volunteers and endowment founders to announce a new scholarship program, grants, and the winner of the Mary Lynn McCree Bryan Leadership Award. More than 250 supporters attended the event at Cape Fear Botanical Garden on November 1, 2018.

 

Board president, Libby Daniel, thanked two outgoing board members – Lucy Jones and Rakesh Gupta, MD – for their exemplary service. Lucy Jones was elected to the board in 2006 when the foundation had $26 million in assets and Rakesh Gupta was elected in June 2009 when assets were at $33 million. Under their leadership, annual grants and scholarships grew from $2.6 million to almost $5 million and assets grew to $89 million. Daniel also celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Women’s Giving Circle of Cumberland County, a collective giving program founded by the foundation.
 
Gail Riddle, CCF Board Member and Chair of the Robert H. Short Scholars Program, announced the largest scholarship program in the foundation’s history. The annual budget for the program is $500,000. The program will award individual scholarships of up to $60,000 ($15,000/year for four years) for students attending a public university or $100,000 (up to $25,000/ year for four years) for students attending a private university. Awards will be paid on a last-dollar-in basis, after all other scholarships and awards have been paid toward the student’s account. Eligibility requires residency and high school graduation in Cumberland County, an unweighted grade point average of 3.5 or better, and attendance at a four year not-for-profit college or university. Selection will be based on three scoring elements, weighted equally: financial need, academic achievement, and community service. Applications will be available through the foundation’s website www.cumberlandcf.org after November 8. The deadline to apply is December 10, 2018 for the high school class of 2019. Online readers click here.
 
Bruce Dantzler, CCF Board Member, announced two awards. Operation Inasmuch will receive the Lilly Endowment Challenge, in memory of the late Ashton Wilson Lilly, a great philanthropist and a founding director of the community foundation. Cumberland Community Foundation will match gifts to the OIAM Endowment up to $50,000. In addition, OIAM will receive a general support grant of $10,000 while the endowment campaign progresses.
 
Danztler announced the winner of the 2018 Mary Lynn McCree Bryan Leadership Award, Pat Chabra, board member of Fayetteville Urban Ministry. Chabra was nominated by Johnny Wilson, Executive Director of Fayetteville Urban Ministry, for her leadership of the board, strategic planning, and fundraising efforts for the Find-A-Friend Youth Enrichment Center. Dantzler said, The award was created to highlight the importance of the board member role and celebrate good examples of leadership for the nonprofit sector, in honor of Mary Lynn Bryan, who lead the community foundation board in its formative years.”
 
The evening concluded with the foundation’s diverse group of donors celebrating together and congratulating the award winners.
 
About CCF:   Founded in 1980, Cumberland Community Foundation is a public charity with the mission of helping generous people create endowments that will improve the quality of life in the community.  The foundation has almost $90 million in assets, the sum of 540 different charitable funds it holds.  For more information, visit www.cumberlandcf.org.
 

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