CFV Annual Report 2021

PRESIDENT’S LETTER

I am honored to succeed Mr. Kermit Moore as the President of our Foundation. I accepted this responsibility with pride and hope to continue to provide leadership as demonstrated by Mr. Moore. The mission statement of the Community Foundation of the Virginias is to promote philanthropy by fostering charitable giving serving our donor’s interests, and effectively responding to our community’s needs and opportunities. Each year the foundation meets the goals of the mission statement. One goal for the year was to evaluate our operation, procedures, and policy statements, etc. The CFV rejoined the Council on Foundations and sought their opinion by providing our regular finance reports, and policy for their review. We were pleased to learn the financial reports provided to the finance committee and board of directors passed their review, they suggested adding “the Prudent Man rule” to the finance committee policy statement. The board of directors approved the suggestion and the addition was made. The Corporate Insurance policy was reviewed and found to be adequate. We reviewed our investment management arrangement with the local banks that manage and report our investments monthly. These arrangements also passed the review by the Council on Foundations with their only suggestion that we continue to monitor any conflicts of interest the local banks might have. Invested assets had significant growth over the past several years. As of December 31, 2021 the CFV had total invested assets of $15,537.43, compared to $9,987,038 as of 12/31/2018, the last year we had our annual fund-raising dinner. An increase of $ 5,550,445. The growth came in the investment portfolio, contributions to existing endowed funds, and several new endowment funds. The Foundation has experienced the best periods of financial growth in our history. Naturally, the growth in investable assets provide more funds for scholarships and grants. All news and events recently were not good or positive. On January 31, 2022 we were all shocked and left speechless by the sudden passing of Lynn Forlines. Lynn was our Administrative Assistant for the past 20+ years and was largely responsible for all our success. Lynn was the hands-on person who watched over everything and kept all the wheels turning. She was our rock of Gibraltar and will be missed. We all dealt with the COVID 19 virus pandemic and the loss of friends and loved ones. Due to the severity of COVID 19 and cancelling large group meetings, CFV has not had the annual fund-raising dinner since 2018. Naturally, we must thank our Board of Directors for their support and direction. Additionally, many thanks to Smokey Shott as our Executive Director for his leadership and attention to details. We were blessed and pleased to add Rebekah Ritter as our new executive assistant to work with Mr. Shott. She has far exceeded our expectations to fill this position. Going forward, our Mission Statement will continue to be met by effectively responding to our community’s needs and opportunities through charitable giving. Thank you for this humbling opportunity to help better our communities. In 2021 we granted 72 scholarships in the amount of $278,800 and 62 grants totaling $338,984.74.

Very truly yours,

Charles D. Shortridge

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