Community Foundation of NCW Targeting Residents For Involvement

The Community Foundation of NCW is expanding its reach to get individual residents involved in charitable causes. 

The Foundation is partnering with several other non-profits to offer a new program that encourages community members to get more involved in their local government and civic activities. 

Foundation Executive Director Beth Stipe says the new Civic Leadership program helps people use their passion for the good of the community. 

"That can be volunteering for the PTA," said Stipe. "It can be advocating for a stop light in a neighborhood or on a busy intersection." 

The Community Foundation is launching the Civic Leadership program under a new Director of Community Engagement early this year. 

Claire Oatey, currently the Director of Community Grants, will be assuming that new role. 

The foundation is partnering with Our Valley Our Future, Thriving Together NCW and other organizations to offer the Civic Leadership program 

Meanwhile, the Community Foundation is also branching out in the new year in another way to get local residents involved in charitable causes. 

Its grantmaking program is being completely redesigned with a new Director of Community Grants taking over for Oatey.  

Jennifer Short will be working out of a brand-new office in Omak in that capacity.  

She’ll start organizing and overseeing local advisory boards that will participate in the grantmaking process. 

Stipe says one advisory board will be made up of residents from Cashmere. 

"They'll have a budget of charitable resources that they'll be able to allocate out to those nonprofits (in Cashmere)," Stipe said. 

The Community Foundation will have more than 10 different community advisory boards in the region. 

Previously, the trustees of the Foundation would award grants after conducting site visits to nonprofit groups that applied for funding. 

The new office in Omak will also serve as a nonprofit resource center, according to Stipe. It’ll have conference rooms that can be used by community members and nonprofit organizations to host board meetings and training sessions.  

The Community Foundation serves Chelan, Douglas, and Okanogan counties using charitable gifts to support local communities. It manages assets including scholarships as well as grant funds.  

It’s also one of more than 25 community foundations around the state along with counterparts in Seattle, Snohomish County and Tacoma, among others.  

The Community Foundation of North Central Washington is funded through private donations and receives no government grant funding.