Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation celebrates 50 years of improving lives, community
The Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation has a volunteer board of trustees that is very community oriented, Foundation President and CEO Becky Ceperley said. From left to right: Stephanie Hyer, Susan Hoover, Bev Davis, Ceperley and Nelle Chilton.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Katie Mayes wouldn't be able to make her Liberty University tuition payments if it weren't for the scholarship she's earned for the past three years.
President Paul Gilmore said the Capital City Striders youth track and field team wouldn't exist today without the multiple grants it has received over the past 20 years.
The Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation is celebrating 50 years of managing charitable funds to improve the quality of life for people in the community, said President and Chief Executive Officer Becky Ceperley.
In the philanthropy business since 1962, the Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation has distributed $135 million to its six-county region that includes Kanawha, Putnam, Clay, Fayette, Lincoln and Boone counties.
"We are celebrating 50 wonderful years and want to thank the people who have kept it going for what they have done," Ceperley said. "Every day, we see the need in the community. So we know our work isn't done, but you do need to stop and say, 'Look at what we have accomplished.'"
Mayes, a Liberty junior and Charleston native, said the $2,500 Robert D. Ashworth Scholarship helps her pay for tuition and housing. Without the scholarship, she wouldn't have been able to attend college, she said.
The foundation has about 100 scholarship funds in its statewide scholarship program. West Virginia college students receive more than $800,000 in scholarships a year from the foundation, Ceperley said.
In some cases, donors set guidelines for the recipient -- the student has to attend Marshall University or West Virginia University or major in a specific field -- but that's not always the case. Sometimes, the scholarship is based on financial need, and others don't have a preference at all.
The foundation also has about 500 charitable funds, Ceperley said. The funds benefit 200 nonprofits in the group's six regions, allowing the foundation to invest the money that's donated back into the community, she said. It takes $10,000 to start a charitable fund.
Ceperley said donors are not all wealthy individuals. Donating to a nonprofit through a will is a way to leave a legacy.
"A lot of the donors have worked hard and saved their money and they want to give back to the community," she said. "It proves how strong of a commitment they have to the community. They want to make sure the community stays strong and they're very generous with their money."
The Capital City Striders, a nonprofit organization that is a club member of USA Track and Field, as well as the Amateur Athletic Union, has received 10 grants worth about $50,000, Gilmore said. While track and field isn't an expensive sport, he said, there are costs associated with it -- traveling across the country to compete -- that the group can't always afford.
About 50 percent of the 4- to 18-year-old athletes -- who use the University of Charleston's stadium at Laidley Field -- come from economically disadvantaged families on fixed incomes, Gilmore said.
Because of the foundation's grants, the group has numerous success stories of student athletes who have been the first person in their family to attend and graduate from college, he said.
"For programs that don't really have true revenue streams, the community foundation is a great resource to maintain programs in the community that have a positive impact on the citizens," Gilmore said. "We wouldn't have 30 years to talk about if we weren't getting some assistance from the foundation."
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Katie Mayes wouldn't be able to make her Liberty University tuition payments if it weren't for the scholarship she's earned for the past three years.
President Paul Gilmore said the Capital City Striders youth track and field team wouldn't exist today without the multiple grants it has received over the past 20 years.
The Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation is celebrating 50 years of managing charitable funds to improve the quality of life for people in the community, said President and Chief Executive Officer Becky Ceperley.
In the philanthropy business since 1962, the Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation has distributed $135 million to its six-county region that includes Kanawha, Putnam, Clay, Fayette, Lincoln and Boone counties.
"We are celebrating 50 wonderful years and want to thank the people who have kept it going for what they have done," Ceperley said. "Every day, we see the need in the community. So we know our work isn't done, but you do need to stop and say, 'Look at what we have accomplished.'"
Mayes, a Liberty junior and Charleston native, said the $2,500 Robert D. Ashworth Scholarship helps her pay for tuition and housing. Without the scholarship, she wouldn't have been able to attend college, she said.
The foundation has about 100 scholarship funds in its statewide scholarship program. West Virginia college students receive more than $800,000 in scholarships a year from the foundation, Ceperley said.
In some cases, donors set guidelines for the recipient -- the student has to attend Marshall University or West Virginia University or major in a specific field -- but that's not always the case. Sometimes, the scholarship is based on financial need, and others don't have a preference at all.
The foundation also has about 500 charitable funds, Ceperley said. The funds benefit 200 nonprofits in the group's six regions, allowing the foundation to invest the money that's donated back into the community, she said. It takes $10,000 to start a charitable fund.
Ceperley said donors are not all wealthy individuals. Donating to a nonprofit through a will is a way to leave a legacy.
"A lot of the donors have worked hard and saved their money and they want to give back to the community," she said. "It proves how strong of a commitment they have to the community. They want to make sure the community stays strong and they're very generous with their money."
The Capital City Striders, a nonprofit organization that is a club member of USA Track and Field, as well as the Amateur Athletic Union, has received 10 grants worth about $50,000, Gilmore said. While track and field isn't an expensive sport, he said, there are costs associated with it -- traveling across the country to compete -- that the group can't always afford.
About 50 percent of the 4- to 18-year-old athletes -- who use the University of Charleston's stadium at Laidley Field -- come from economically disadvantaged families on fixed incomes, Gilmore said.
Because of the foundation's grants, the group has numerous success stories of student athletes who have been the first person in their family to attend and graduate from college, he said.
"For programs that don't really have true revenue streams, the community foundation is a great resource to maintain programs in the community that have a positive impact on the citizens," Gilmore said. "We wouldn't have 30 years to talk about if we weren't getting some assistance from the foundation."
West Virginia Health Right, a free clinic for the medically uninsured, is a nonprofit that relies on funds from the community, including grants and donations.
Without a $100,000 grant from the foundation in 1999, Health Right's move from a 4,000-square-foot building to its current 16,000-square-foot building wouldn't have been possible, Health Right Executive Director Pat White said.
Health Right has been able to double the number of patients its 400 volunteers, including doctors, are able to see each year, White said.
The foundation also has been a critical source of funding for the clinic's operational costs, she said. In 20 years, the foundation has granted Health Right more than a half-million dollars, White said.
"They have been enormously helpful and, every year, they support Health Right in some capacity," White said. "They're an excellent philanthropic organization that is critical to the Valley. It's very good stewardship of the money but, in addition to that, it's very focused on the community and what the community's needs are."
The foundation has not only had a positive impact on the local community it serves, Gilmore said, but it also has supported other community foundations in the state, "so that other communities can feel the impact of the foundation."
Greenbrier County used to be an affiliate of the Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation, Ceperley said. The group is now its own stand-alone community foundation, she said.
The idea to bring a community foundation to the Kanawha Valley sprung up in the early 1960s, Ceperley said. Cleveland formed the nation's first community foundation, which inspired several men - Ned Chilton, Robert Spilman, Stanley Loewenstein, Deal Tompkins and Charles B. Stacy -- to start a similar foundation in the Kanawha Valley, Ceperley said.
The men created the Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation with a single fund worth $45,000. It was the Frank A. Knight Memorial Fund. Knight had been editor of The Charleston Gazette.
The Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation is hosting a 50th anniversary gala celebration at the Clay Center from 6 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, the group's official birthday.
Author Homer Hickam will be the guest speaker at the black-tie optional dinner. Ceperley said Hickam, of "The Rocket Boys/October Sky" fame, would offer an inspirational speech for young people "and for all of us to shoot for the stars."
Larry Groce will emcee the event and Bob Thompson will provide entertainment.
Ceperley said she is excited to celebrate what the group has already accomplished but also looks to the future.
"We want to look at the future and to continue to build on their great work and to be here 50 years from now, still having this opportunity to contribute to the community through a vehicle called the Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation. We really are celebrating a success."
Reach Megan Workman at megan.work...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5113.
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