Nancy Cote Sullivan, executive director of the Williamsburg Community Foundation, remembers when the organization was housed in an office with a concrete floor and no paint on the walls off John Tyler Highway.
Now the foundation, which is celebrating its 15th anniversary, has a new home in the Williamsburg Office Park on Jamestown Road. After years of renting space, most recently a house on Scotland Street, WCF owns Suite 103 through the generosity of a community member.
Bobby and Hope Beck owned a couple condos in the complex, and when they did not need all the space for the Beck Company, they donated a unit to WCF. The chairman of the foundation’s board, Margaret Beck Pritchard, is their daughter, and Bobby Beck has become involved in supporting the organization over the past few years.
WCF’s office has been named The Hope and Bobby Beck Center for Philanthropy in their honor. The foundation moved in at the end of July.
“We’re thrilled to have a permanent home, and we are excited to be able to continue to increase our grant and scholarships out into the community every year,” Sullivan said.
Because it owns the building, the foundation now has an asset and can save on monthly rent payments.
“It’s a big help for the bottom line, in terms of what we spend, because we have a fairly lean budget anyway,” Sullivan said.
By cutting overhead costs, WCF can focus on raising money to build its endowment, which returns to the community through biannual grant rounds and regular scholarships to area students.
In addition to financial benefits, the new space meets the needs of the foundation and its 21-member board in the day to day. The board previously had to cart boxes of files to meeting places around town, because the old building was not large enough to accommodate the group.
With double the square footage, the new office also has a full kitchen that will let the foundation hold receptions for clients.
“We’re growing rapidly, and this so befits our station,” said Joseph Burkart, vice chairman of the foundation’s board, at an open house Wednesday.
WCF’s new address is 1323 Jamestown Road, Suite 103. To learn more about the foundation, visit its website.
