(June 2026) The Community Foundation of Western North Carolina (CFWNC) recently approved focus area grants in Cultural Resources and Natural Resources totaling $130,000.
Cultural Resources
Mainspring Conservation Trust received $55,000 to develop a cultural landscape plan for the Siler-Jones historic restoration on Main Street in Franklin. The plan will guide the preservation, interpretation, and public use of a site with deep Indigenous, enslaved, and early settler significance. Located on traditional Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians land near the historic Nikwasi mound, built in the early 1800s, the Siler-Jones House is the homestead of the first Anglo-American settler in what is now Franklin and remains one of the few surviving structures from that era. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and in 2024 was designated as a Witness Structure along the Trail of Tears – the only one of its kind in North Carolina. Recent restoration work has uncovered artifacts dating back thousands of years, highlighting the site’s long and complex human history.
The Gretchen Batra Fund, Minigowin Fund, Dogwood Charitable Endowment Fund, and two anonymous funds provided co-investment for this grant.
Natural Resources
Highland-Cashiers Land Trust received $75,000 toward due diligence costs for the acquisition of the “Trout Creek” tract, an almost 1,000-acre property providing essential habitat for unique and rare southern Appalachian species that also safeguards critical headwater resources within the Little Tennessee River basin. The property is anchored by high-quality cold-water streams which support native Brook Trout populations and are well-known local fishing destinations. Protecting this landscape is critical in a region identified nationally as a top conservation priority in the face of changing climatic pressures and accelerating loss of natural places and biodiversity.
The Concord Mountain Charitable Fund, White Pine Fund, Minigowin Fund, Dogwood Charitable Endowment Fund, Little Acorn Fund – W, Thomas L. and Phyllis Day Davis Fund, Fund for the Environment, Stewart Fund for Life & Love, and two anonymous funds provided co-investment for this grant.
CFWNC works with families, businesses and nonprofits to strengthen communities through the creation of charitable funds and strategic grantmaking. CFWNC awards discretionary funding in Education, Cultural Resources, Human Services, and Natural Resources. A permanent charitable resource, the Foundation manages over 1,300 funds and facilitated $69 million in grants last year bringing total distributions to more than $456 million since its founding in 1978.