Mary Lynn Bryan is beside herself with an unbridled joy at the generosity of 4,385 financial commitments from this community in what is a record-setting effort of the recent Cumberland Community Foundation’s GivingTuesday campaign.
Bryan, you might say, simply is overwhelmed.
“Christmas is a good time to look at all the positive things that can happen,” Bryan says, “and Mary Holmes and her team have outdone themselves.”
Foundation folks on Green Street still are pinching themselves every day, as Maddie Kellogg said this week about the 9-day campaign, which closed December 2, and brought in $4.1 million in support of community nonprofits and foundation endowments in comparison to $2.88 million in 2024.
“GivingTuesday 2025 once again showed us the generosity of people in Cumberland County,” said Kellogg, the donor services manager and a co-chair of the campaign along with Tara Martin, the foundation’s program manager, and Kendra Murray, the foundation’s community grants manager.
“We received gifts of all sizes—from $10 to $231,000. We had growth in all categories of giving—checks, online gifts, gifts from donor-advised funds, stock gifts and gifts from IRAs. What works about GivingTuesday is generous people of all means are able to give together to make a difference.
“The most common gift we received was still $100,” Kellogg said. “That is what is great about GivingTuesday. People of all abilities to give come together to make a lasting difference together. This is an unusual change from our daily work of building and managing endowment funds, but we love it. The entire team is involved, and it gives us a great chance to connect with donors and our grantees.”
Success this 2025 GivingTuesday campaign was buoyed with the generosity of the Fayetteville New Car Dealers Association, headed up by Eason Bryan, Holmes Security Systems led by Stephen Wheeler, Elizabeth “Beth” Keeney, Daphne and Ray Manning, Carol and Sammy Short, four anonymous donors, and unrestricted CCF endowments, all of whom provided a $500,000 match pool to amplify donations.
“The match makes the difference for GivingTuesday,” said Holmes, president and chief executive officer of the foundation. “We want to thank the Fayetteville New Car Dealers Association, Holmes Security Systems, Elizabeth “Beth” Keeney, Daphne and Ray Manning, Carol and Sammy Short, unrestricted endowments of CCF, and anonymous donors. People mean to give, but having the match and the deadline to give on GivingTuesday moves them to action.”
June 30, 1987
With encouragement from late insurance executive Harvey Oliver Jr., the CCF was birthed by the late Dr. Lucile Hutaff, a Fayetteville resident who, on August 29, 1980, donated $576,840 of her stock as seed monies for the foundation.
“I remember talking with Lucile, and she said this community needs to come together,” Mary Lynn Bryan said. “It started with her gift and her thoughtfulness.”
Bryan and Hutaff were close friends who often took morning walks along Winterlochen Road, including that walk on June 30, 1987, when a dying Hutaff talked about what the Cumberland Community Foundation meant for the community as she pleaded with Bryan to carry on the foundation.
Dr. Lucile West Hutaff died at age 75 on July 1, 1987.
“I admired what she had done,” said Bryan, who was the foundation’s board president from 1985-1997 and from 1998-2010. “Everybody in this community needs to be grateful to her. She was an important person for this community. She was a person in my life who still guides me, and I will never forget her. She is somebody I count very fortunate to have known.”
Bryan says Hutaff never wanted the Cumberland Community Foundation for herself alone.
“She wanted it for everybody,” Bryan said, and for all in this community, no matter their financial station in life, to feel a part of Hutaff’s philanthropic vision.
Epilogue
No matter the amount of your donation to this year’s campaign or in previous years, it matters.
“If they gave $100, they feel like they were helping somebody else,” Bryan said.
Maddie Kellogg says as much.
“Dr. Lucile Hutaff’s letter to the board of directors in 1982 shared her vision of bringing the community together to improve the quality and spirit of community life,” Kellogg said. “That’s our mission, and GivingTuesday shows how it’s being fulfilled.”
Mary Lynn Bryan cannot help but think of her morning walks with her friend as Bryan marvels at $4.1 million this year for the CCF’s GivingTuesday windfall.
“Lucile would be excited that people who participated are from all walks of life,” Bryan said. “I suspect she is looking down on us with a sparkle in her eye and a smile on her face and looking at what the Cumberland Community Foundation is doing for our community.”
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
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