New Hanover Community Endowment discusses future plans to disburse grants

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Millions of dollars awarded this year from the New Hanover County Endowment, but it only scratched the surface of requests.

The endowment hosted a public listening session Tuesday night to share data for this year and hear feedback from the community.

Endowment president and CEO William Buster says there were more than 200 applications requesting more than $330 million.

This was the first year the endowment used its strategic plan to create grants.

Buster says they’ve learned and look forward to the future.

“One of the things we want to improve upon is not waiting until one time of year to do grants. Our intent is moving forward is to do rolling cycles so you don’t have to wait until one time of year to submit a grant proposal,” Buster said.

This was also the first year the endowment announced multi-year grants.