North Carolina Pottery Center Meets $400,000 Year 1 Goal for Matching Challenge Grant Opportunity!

Last spring, the Windgate Foundation, a private Arkansas-based foundation, gave the center An Extraordinary Matching Challenge Grant Opportunity – all funds raised for the Challenge, up to $400,000 a year for the next 5 years, will be MATCHED annually, with all funds raised and matched going into an endowment for the center.

We are pleased to announce that the center has met its $400,000 Year 1 Match Challenge Goal as of 3/18/2024 thanks to contributions from 36 individuals and entities and a sizeable portion of the funds just received from the estate of the late Mrs. Helen Jean Anderson, a long-time member of the center who passed away in early 2023. This means the center will soon have an $800,000 endowment since the funds are matched by the Windgate Foundation. Plenty of work still remains to be done in terms of reaching the Matching Challenge Goal in Years 2-5, of course! By mid-2028, the center COULD have an endowment of $4,000,000 or more.

Says Lindsey Lambert, the center’s executive director, “This Matching Challenge Grant Opportunity is the second most important thing to happen in the center’s history following its opening to the public in November 1998. We thank the Windgate Foundation for recognizing the importance of our nonprofit mission of Sharing North Carolina’s Clay Stories, Past and Present, and giving us this amazing opportunity, and we are deeply grateful to Mrs. Anderson for her progressive, forward-thinking and including the center in her estate planning. I think she would be pleased that her funds are going into an endowment that will provide funds back to the center on an annual basis in perpetuity.”

Why is an Endowment needed? To ensure LONG-TERM SUSTAINABILITY. Throughout its existence, the nonprofit North Carolina Pottery Center has always relied heavily, frankly too heavily, on grant funding to help support its normal operational expenses. Such a continual heavy reliance on grant funding isn’t healthy for an organization’s longevity or its people, and it hinders the ability of the organization, in this case, the center, to grow and best fulfill its mission. Why is this Matching Challenge Grant and an Endowment important? Because it is a TRANSFORMATIONAL OPPORTUNITY. – Because the endowment will help to provide Long-Term Sustainability for the center. – Because every gift to the endowment is more than a singular gift. Endowments grow over time meaning contributions will continue to grow and give back each year. – By decreasing reliance on grant funding for normal operational expenses through annual funds provided by the endowment, we will be able to more clearly and fully focus on fulfilling our mission, making the center an even more engaging place where people of diverse backgrounds, ages, and interests can discover and experience captivating changing exhibits and shows (both historical and contemporary), guided tours and demos, our annual educational conference for potters, hands-on educational programming, and more… It’s only an Opportunity though until WE, TOGETHER, make it Reality. And, we would love to have YOUR help making it Reality.