February 2008

+   We're very pleased to welcome Jeanne Cragin as our new Office Manager. Jeanne comes to us from Executive Alliance in Seattle, where she has worked for the past 5 1/2 years as Operations and Events Manager. One of her primary duties was organizing the Washington State Nonprofit Conference, the premiere gathering of nonprofit community leaders, supporters, and board members. Jeanne also has twenty years of experience as a professional chef and is the former manager of catering operations for the Hi Spot Café in Seattle's Madrona neighborhood. In her spare time, Jeanne enjoys high-impact cardio exercise, pursuing "perfect hair", loving her precious Lab/Shar Pei “Ari”, and reminding her husband Kevin to do a better job when washing his silverware.

+   Last year, Wilburforce Foundation commissioned the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) to survey our grantees and prepare a Grantee Perception Report.  CEP surveyed 138 of our grant recipients from 2006.  Our performance then was compared to data collected on other foundations, including a subset of foundations that have environmental programs. Download the Grant Perception Report and Wilburforce Foundation’s response to the findings.

October 2007
+   We are delighted to announce the selection of our Program Associate for Alaska & British Columbia: our own Carol Orr! Carol will work in partnership with Dave Secord, our AK & BC Program Officer who joined the foundation earlier this year. Wilburforce selected an internal candidate who competed impressively in a national search that attracted more than 125 applicants. We are thrilled that Carol will be continuing with us in this new role.

Carol has been the Grants Administrator for the Wilburforce Foundation since April of 2002, where she managed all procedural aspects of Wilburforce’s grantmaking. She joined the Wilburforce staff as Office Manager in March of 2001. Prior to joining Wilburforce, Carol was the Information Systems Manager at Philanthropy Northwest, a grantmakers association, working to promote thoughtful and strategic philanthropy in Washington, Alaska, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. Carol served on the Pacific Northwest Chapter of the Grants Managers Network steering committee. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Humanities from Western Washington University. A native of Washington State, Carol loves exploring the waters of Puget Sound and Desolation Sound, and is a ski instructor for Alpine West Ski and Snowboard School.

+   We are equally pleased to announce that Yolanda Morris, our former Office Manager, has been promoted to the position of Grants Manager. Yolanda had been our Office Manager since May 2002. Before coming to Wilburforce, Yolanda managed donor relations as Development Assistant at the Humane Society for Seattle King County.Yolanda is co-founder and board member of Pawsitive Alliance, working to help end euthanasia of dogs and cats in Washington State. She is currently enrolled at the University of Washington's Evans School pursuing an Executive Masters in Public Administration.

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