Flip through our 2014 Annual Report online! Read all about the donors who contributed to another successful year – and some of the great projects that they’ve made possible.

By any measure, 2013-2014 was a good year for the Community Foundation for the Alleghenies. As you can read in these pages, revenue was strong, our investments performed well, and our grantmaking was particularly active. We continued the growth of our staff, welcoming Nancy Marley as our new donor services officer, who came aboard full-time to supplement Carol Stern’s good work. Carol has gone to half-time status, but still reports to both our Johnstown and Somerset offices.

In the pages of this report you will see some articles about donors and some of the projects we are working on. To all our donors, we can’t say enough about what your philanthropy has accomplished. You have made all the difference. To the nonprofits we partner with, we hope we have helped our donors strengthen your good efforts. It’s been said that when people talk about what they value about their community, they mention friends and family, their place of worship, and the nonprofits they support—that suggests how much your efforts are valued.

Community foundations are almost by definition forward-looking, and we like to think that applies to us, too. It’s amazing to think this upcoming year the Community Foundation already will be celebrating our 25^th anniversary. We’ve thought about what that means and we arrived at the four words in the title above—“Inspire, Energize, Impact, Love.”  This upcoming year we will work on putting these words into action. We plan:

• To increase recognition of the Community Foundation for the Alleghenies by branding it as a respected and positive force for change;
• To grow assets, our unrestricted funds (which will now be called the Fund for the Future), connections with wealth advisors, and Legacy Society membership;
• To stimulate philanthropic gifts from across Bedford, Cambria, Somerset, and Indiana counties through enhanced communications;
• To highlight the good that is being done throughout our region and in the process improve our community’s self-perception;
• To encourage others to inspire, energize, impact, and love our shared community.

Thank you again for a wonderful year. Let’s make this new one event better!