Community Foundations are grantmaking organizations that serve a specific geographic area.
Tucker Community Foundation is a tax-exempt public charity that serves 8 counties in North Central WV and Garrett County, MD. The Foundation is overseen by a volunteer board of directors and a staff of 2 full time employees and a senior trainee.
The Foundation:
- Works with donors to create charitable funds according to their specific interests and needs
- Manages more than 80 Endowed Funds with $17 million in charitable assets.
- Serves a region that includes Barbour, Grant, Mineral, Preston, Pocahontas, Randolph and Tucker Counties, WV and Garrett County, MD.
- Administers annual grant and scholarship awards.
- Encourages and participates in community initiatives and partnerships
- Builds awareness of the importance of philanthropy
Since the organziation was formed in 1989, it has granted more than $4 million (12-31-10).
Our mission
Create opportunities for the communities we serve.
Our Values
We believe we have the duty to properly steward all donations that are received by the Foundation for the community. We must use the donations to create resources and benefits now, tomorrow and long into the future.
We are a motivational model for a sounder, more productive future through commitment to our community: teaching giving without expecting monetary return.
We believe that promoting and protecting our heritage is so important it should be a part of all decision-making within the Foundation. We define our heritage as:
Our social and cultural environment
Self efficiency coupled with an intense sharing motivation
Family values
Community spirit
Natives frequently returning to the community
Sense of belonging
Rural freedom
We believe in high standards of conduct and ethics; in being open and honest with the community, donors, foundation grantees and ourselves; that avoiding conflict of interest in both acts and appearance is of the utmost importance; and that communication our values to the public is an important part of our organization and its service to the community.
We believe in being open minded and we value the knowledge gained from the opinions of all people.
We believe that all actions taken by the Foundation must yield the greatest benefit for the communities we serve.
Our History
Pennsylvania Avenue, Parsons, WV after the flood of 1985.
The flood of November 1985 and the dire shortage of local resources available for disaster relief prompted members of the Development Authority and local visionaries Dr. Richard Goldman, Tom Cain, Sarah Minear and Jana Kinkaid to begin the quest to establish the Tucker Community Endowment Foundation, nka Tucker Community Foundation.
Grant money from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, seed money from the late George W. Walburn and a donation from the Hambleton-Hendricks English Club enabled the organization to get off the ground in 1988/89. The goal at that time was to strengthen, build, and make a difference in the communities it served by giving of itself, to itself. The organization was run by an all volunteer board of directors until July 2004.
Thanks to the foresight of our founders, and through the generosity of thousands of people since who have chosen to partner with the Foundation to support important causes, nonprofit organizations and communities, Tucker Community Foundation is firmly imbedded in the community and positioned to make a significant impact throughout the region - for perpetuity.
The Foundation is a founding member of both the West Virginia Consortium of Community Foundations and WV Grantmakers, and a member of The Council on Foundations, the largest national organization serving foundations.