John Jamison - Chairman's Challenge
In April of 2007, John Jamison offered the foundation a challenge; to raise $1,000,000 for the Community Endowment. John offered $300,000 in matching funds to make that happen. On November 22, 2009, at the Foundation's 10th Anniversary Celebration, John announced that his Chairman's Challenge had resulted in 83 funds being created, raising nearly $800,000. Over the next few years this will grow the Community Endowment by $1 million.
In the past decade John has been instrumental in building the Foundation. He has seen the Williamsburg organization’s asset base grow to $2 million in its first decade. “Given the way other community foundations grow, I’d say we’re about par for the course. We’re not dynamite, and we’re not hand-to-mouth,” Jamison said. He likes the flexibility of a community foundation and sees donors as partners. “I hesitate to use the word ‘philanthropist’ because it’s high falutin’. It separates people of wealth from people without wealth. But in my book anyone who gives and shares their talents is a philanthropist,” he said.
He added, “You've got to stay loose and go with the flow in a community and have it be fun and a source of joy for people, not a feeling like this is their duty. The challenge is to keep the work of the Foundation on a personal and enjoyable level for everybody and leaving donors with a real sense that things are better in greater Williamsburg as a result of their partnership with the Foundation.”
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