Philanthropy

Norwich Partners and its principals are committed to the communities we serve. While we are a profit driven company, we also recognize the importance and the obligation to give back to our communities.

David Leatherwood, CEO of Norwich Partners, has had a longtime ambition of dedicating a percentage of Norwich Partners development profits to charity. In 2003, he and Jenny Williams, a Norwich, Vermont resident and local philanthropist, 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 Norwich Partners development companies, Norwich Partners and Jenny Williams have contributed over $2 million to children's charities.

Norwich Partners encourages our employees to volunteer in their communities. We provide innovative “time-off” credit for full time employees to support non-profit organizations.

Philanthropy is not only “the right thing to do” – it is also good for business. Our customers appreciate supporting like-minded community leaders. We view philanthropy as an investment in our community. We see the return on that investment every day in the form of heightened employee morale, repeat business and new customers.

Children's Fund of the Upper Valley

The mission of the Children's Fund is to provide opportunity for at-risk Upper Valley children, by building fitness, self-esteem and teamwork through outdoor activity. We also aim to teach children and teens about healthy relationships, to prevent gender-based violence.

We accomplish our mission in two ways:

• We make grants to local non-profits whose work is aligned with our mission
• Through the “Finding Our Stride” program, we create and help manage elementary and middle-school based running and fitness teams.

Please visit www.childrensfunduv.org
For the latest "Finding Our Stride" newsletter, please visit https://mailchi.mp/ef241f63d9e7/finding-our-stride-a-brief-year-in-review

Children's Fund Executive Director - Jennifer A. Williams

Jenny Williams has been a Joint Venture partner with Norwich Partners since 2003. Jenny has partnered with affiliates of Norwich Partners of Florida, LLC in the development and/or acquisition of many of our hotels.

Jenny is also the Executive Director of the Children's Fund of the Upper Valley, which strives to combat childhood obesity and build self-esteem through sports and outdoor activities, particularly for at-risk kids – please see the Children's Fund website at www.childrensfunduv.org.

Jenny worked in higher education fundraising for 13 years, 11 of them with Dartmouth College. Her current and past volunteer roles include: Member of the Board of Overseers of the Hopkins Center at Dartmouth College; Chair of the Advisory Board of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation/Upper Valley Region; Trustee of the Montshire Museum of Science; Trustee and Chair of the Board of the Children's Literacy Foundation; Trustee and Vice Chair of the Board of WISE of the Upper Valley; and Trustee of the Permanent Fund for Vermont's Children.

Jenny graduated from Dartmouth College with honors in French is 1985 and holds a master's degree in Public Administration from NYU. She lives in Norwich, Vermont with her husband Stan. They have three children.