CHEROKEE, NC, April 1, 2008 – Cherokee Preservation Foundation (CPFdn) announced today that Ethan Clapsaddle, CPFdn senior program associate, has been selected to participate in this year’s class of the Southeastern Council of Foundations’ Hull Fellows Program. The prestigious program is a professional development program for the next generation of the Southeast’s philanthropic leaders.
The week-long program in Mableton, GA, in May will enable participants to learn the historic roots and traditions of philanthropy, understand the current challenges facing emerging philanthropic leaders, gain new perspectives about future issues in the philanthropic arena, and form relationships with peers throughout the Southeast that will provide lasting benefits.
Clapsaddle joined CPFdn in 2005 after having been Operations Manager for the Museum of the Cherokee Indian. He earned his B.A. degree in Social Sciences from Western Carolina University and his M.A. degree in Indigenous National Studies from the University of Kansas. His CPFdn responsibilities include a leadership role in Generations Qualla, a community effort to create a sustainable environment on the Qualla Boundary.
Council on Foundations Awards
Cherokee Preservation has been informed that it has been awarded a Gold Award in the Web site category and a Silver Award in the Special Reports category of the 2008 Wilmer Shields Rich Awards for Excellence in Communications. Sponsored by the Council on Foundations, the awards program recognizes effective communications efforts to increase public awareness of foundations.
During 2007, CPFdn commissioned Arm in Arm: Engaged Grantmaking in Local Communities, a special report that addresses a gap the Foundation identified in the philanthropic community’s understanding of the particular challenges faced by grantmakers working with First Nations, Native American and Aboriginal peoples, as well as in rural areas and developing countries. Grantmakers whose mission requires them to make grants over many years in communities that have a limited number of nonprofit organizations appropriate for grant support — as well as a limited number of individuals with the experience and skill required to lead those organizations — have unique challenges. Many have expressed appreciation to CPFdn for undertaking Arm in Arm and for sharing it broadly with grantmakers and grantees to bring them closer together.
The Foundation’s web site (www.cpfdn.org) presents stories to demonstrate CPFdn’s areas of focus and its roles as grantmaker, catalyst, convener and partnership broker; resources that enable grantees to look beyond CPFdn for funding, ideas and other support; downloadable applications and other forms; and other information useful to current and prospective grantees. The number of visitors to the site has increased 30% annually over each of the past three years.
About Cherokee Preservation Foundation
Cherokee Preservation Foundation (www.cpfdn.org) was established on November 14, 2000, as part of the Second Amendment to the Tribal-State Compact between the EBCI and the State of North Carolina. It is an independent nonprofit foundation funded by the EBCI from gaming revenues generated by the Tribe. CPFdn is not part of or associated with any for-profit gaming entity. Since CPFdn’s inception in 2000, it has made 447 grants totaling more than $37 million to EBCI and regional projects and programs that address cultural preservation, economic development and job creation, and environmental renewal and protection. Every dollar of CPFdn support has been matched by $1.38 in secured grants or other funding or in-kind resources, making CPFdn’s total contribution to the region more than $89 million.
