What Is The Children’s Fund of the Upper Valley?
David Leatherwood, CEO of Norwich Partners, and Eric Sachsse, President, formed a partnership in 2003 with Jenny Williams, a local developer and philanthropist, to build the Courtyard by Marriott at Centerra Park in Lebanon, NH. Leatherwood had a longtime ambition of dedicating a percentage of hotel profits to charity, so he and Williams established the Children’s Fund of the Upper Valley, a component fund of the Upper Valley Region of New Hampshire Charitable Foundation.
Through revenues from their hotels, they have contributed over $1 million to children’s charities since 2005. The fund was established with a preference for supporting organizations, such as CHaD (The Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth), and projects that improve the lives of children in the local community, through quality healthcare, childcare, arts, and educational initiatives. “We hope other local businesses and entrepreneurs will follow our example,” said Williams, the Executive Director of the Children’s Fund, and a 20-year veteran of non profit fundraising. “We want to create a groundswell of philanthropic support for worthy local causes.”
The Children’s Fund is particularly interested in entrepreneurial philanthropy, which helps the grantees expand their own organizational or fundraising capacity; and in programs or projects that expose children and teens to the joys of volunteerism and giving.