You might call this something of a homecoming for those who have played integral leadership roles in the life of the Cumberland Community Foundation, the philanthropic nonprofit that has been making a difference in this community since 1980.
They don’t seek accolades.
They’ve never sought personal praise.
They simply give of themselves for a better community.
“It was such a happy event,” Mary Holmes said about February 25, when CCF board of directors alumni gathered for an update from Ricky Lopes and Holmes about how far the benevolence has come in the past 46 years.
Lopes is chair of the CCF board of directors. Holmes is president and chief executive officer of the foundation.
Among past board members attending were:
- Dr. Franklin S. Clark III (1983-1986)
- Mary Lynn Bryan (1985-1997 and 1998-2010)
- Lynn Legatski (1991-1997 and 2005-2019)
- Dr. J. Wesley Jones (1992-2004)
- Naoma Ellison (1994-1998)
- Nancy Broadwell (1996-1997)
- Eleanor Fleishman (1997-2009)
- Samuel Short (1999-2011)
- Elaine Bryant Hayes (2002-2014)
- Dr. Loleta Wood Foster (2003-2015)
- Barbara Richardson (2004-2016)
- John Ayers (2004-2016)
- Ray Manning (2005-2019)
- Lucy Jones (2006-2018)
- Gen. (Ret.) Dan K. McNeill (2009-2021)
- Dr. Rakesh Gupta (2009-2018)
- Cathy Blackwell (2010-2020)
- Elizabeth Marler Keeney (2010-2022)
- Libby Stanfield Daniel (2011-2023)
- Eva Williams (2011-2023)
- James Konneker (2011-2023)
- Sandra Monroe (2011-2023)
- Ellenor Barker (2016-2020)
- Amy Perko (2021-2025)
Let there be no mistake. They represent a “Who’s Who” of those who care about this community. And let there be no question about their respective benevolence for others.
“Board members shared about their experiences over the years trying to grow CCF,” Holmes said. “Dr. Franklin Clark, who served on the board in 1983, shared that they were just trying to figure out what a community foundation was and how to get started.”
Clark said Monday he had heard of similar foundations in New York and one in Winston-Salem, where the late Dr. Lucile Hutaff was a physician and Fayetteville native. It was Lucile Hutaff who had the vision for the CCF here, donating $576,840 of her stock on August 29, 1980, as seed money for the foundation.
“Dr. Hutaff was nice enough to ask me to be on the original board,” said Clark, a retired general and vascular surgeon and today a land developer. “I was on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Board of Visitors. I was on the board with another member from another North Carolina town. It was a medium-size town not unlike Fayetteville. He said he was executive director for a foundation in his town. He told me how they raised their money and invested it. I went back and gave a report to our board, and it gave everybody an idea. But when you are starting, it’s a whole other ball game. He was very helpful, and that helped us get going better to make an impact.
“We wanted to do something. We wanted to fulfill Dr. Hutaff’s wishes, and that is why she gave the seed money.
“We needed to have some visibility and let our community know about it,” Clark said about the seven charter members, which also included John E. Raper Jr, the late Dan T. Barker, the late Dell Kistler Hollstein, the late Ashton W. Lilly, the late Dr. A.A. Markley, and the late Robert O. McCoy Jr. “And that’s what we did.”
Numbers Tell the Story
February 25 was an occasion for renewing old acquaintances and for learning from CCF Chairman Ricky Lopes and Mary Holmes about 46 years of growth and success.
The numbers tell the story:
- 2,318 donors in 2025, including 924 first-time donors, for $12,940,733.38 from 6,346 gifts received.
- A total of $111,360,312 in grants and education scholarships paid since 1980, which includes 1,308 grants and 152 scholarships, and $11,033,144.14 paid in 2025.
- More than $4.19 million raised in the 9-day 2025 GivingTuesday campaign, with $536,000 matched by the CCF.
- The $10.5 million Bob Short estate gift, which has grown to $15 million, with $7.5 million distributed in education scholarships since 2011, including $537.160 in 2025.
- $76,490 in grants to the Summertime Kids Program, where the CCF sent 1,480 youth to summer camp in 2025.
- $1,000,506.08 in grants awarded by the Women’s Giving Circle since 2008 to help women in need and their families.
- $1 million for the start-up of the Cape Fear Valley Methodist University School of Medicine.
- $580,060 for the CCF-Fayetteville State University Cumberland First Scholars Initiative.
- $500,000 for the Cape Fear Botanical Garden’s Always Growing Campaign,
- $150,000 over five years for the News Foundation of Greater Fayetteville to support a dedicated local government reporter.
- $120,000 over three years for the Cumberland County Council on Older Adults’ Cornelia Bullock Wilkins Senior Information Hub.
And a drum roll, if you will, of $167 million in CCF total assets since 1980.
Epilogue
Franklin Clark’s mind turns to Dr. Lucile Hutaff.
“Isn’t it wonderful?” he said about what the Cumberland Community Foundation has become. “I think of the wisdom Dr. Hutaff had. She knew the impact a foundation could have on a town, and she was the principal person of that happening. The whole Hutaff family was generous to Fayetteville, and particularly Dr. Hutaff. She made an impact, and it takes people like that to make an impact on a community, and it really changes the life of a community.”
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
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