Impact Spotlight: Ben B. Cheney Foundation
World Forestry Center thrives thanks to a dedicated community of friends and partners who contribute their time, energy, and resources to advance our mission. Among them is the Ben B. Cheney Foundation, which is supporting this effort by funding a free day series at the Discovery Museum this year. We spoke with the foundation’s executive director, Erika Tucci, to learn more about their 50-year legacy and commitment to enhancing quality of life in many ways, including expanding access to educational resources.
What role do you think the foundation plays in enriching the quality of life in so many communities, and what challenges do you hope to address through its work?
As we celebrate our 50th anniversary, we continue to engage with and support the communities where Cheney Lumber Company operated in WA, OR, and CA. Those communities were with us then, and we are still with them today.
We take great pride in maintaining trusting relationships with community members, so they feel comfortable telling us what they need to help their communities thrive. Our main goal is to help communities have the resources they need to accomplish their mission. What we’re seeing lately, and something that we get excited about, is more space created for the purpose of gathering people together.
Many are still coming out of a period of isolation, so seeing community members intentionally building spaces for kids to play together, for elders to gather for meals and creative time, or for everyone to share in the joys of a community festival is particularly rewarding for us.
Ben B. Cheney, founder of the Cheney Lumber Company, 1957
What kind of impact do you hope to see/achieve by supporting the free day series?
World Forestry Center has been kind enough to honor our founder’s legacy through its Leadership Hall. Ben Cheney was incredibly creative and resilient. It was important to him that he could support the people and places that helped the forest industry thrive. We hope that through the free day series, visitors can learn a bit about Ben’s journey and be energized by his entrepreneurial spirit and innovation. We also hope that individuals who have not given thought to the importance of our local forest and timber industry find themselves learning something new and considering the contributions of that industry, the people who helped it thrive, and the impact it has had on our region through the decades.
What kind of long-term impact does the foundation hope to see from its philanthropic giving?
Often when I meet people, they have a story to share about the foundation’s impact on them and their community. Stories date back decades, and in many cases, the building, room, structure, or thing the Foundation helped support is still in use. That kind of longevity and impact in a community is rewarding, but it is the kindness and partnership that individuals reference, time after time, that means the most to us. It is our utmost goal to be kind and caring collaborators in the communities we serve. There’s nothing more special than having those characteristics validated and reflected back to us, especially years down the road. People often remember the collaborations we had years ago, even if we haven’t worked with them since. When people can reference the work we did together decades ago, that tells me it was meaningful. That’s where we truly feel the success.
A young Ben B. Cheney in the mid-1920s taken shortly after he moved to Tacoma, where he would start the Cheney Lumber Co.
Cheney Lumber Company Employees (1947, exact location unknown). The Cheney Lumber Company operated in rural locations across WA, OR, and CA.
What role do partnerships and collaborations play in advancing the foundation’s mission to improve the quality of life in the communities it supports?
Collaboration is everything to us. We would never be able to effectively meet the vision a community has for itself without that community’s trust and guidance. We get to make new friends every day. We get to cheer for many successes, and share in lessons learned.
Part of our superpower is that we work in both rural and urban communities across three states. We often encounter a nonprofit partner doing innovative work in one community and know about someone hoping to do similar work in another – so we connect them to each other so they can share knowledge. Connecting people and building healthy communities is truly at the core of who we aim to be.
As the foundation celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, how do you reflect on its journey and the evolution of its efforts over the years?
Allowing our communities to lead the evolution has been an interesting experience. We have many partners who have been with us the entire 50-year journey, and we can see that evolution in our grant records with them. While refrigerated food lockers may be the best food security distribution model for one community, another community might be better served by building a larger kitchen and gathering room for people to come together around food. Either way, the communities are helping teach us as they learn and try best practices for their needs, and we get to come along with them to support that vision and share the learnings widely.
Kindness and curiosity have been core principles for our foundation leadership at every point in our history. We have been able to build multi-generational relationships in communities where we operate, and there are few people fortunate enough to experience that kind of success. We have 50 years of making new friends, celebrating success, working together through tough times, and building community. We are grateful to be welcomed into the communities we serve, and look forward to what the next 50 years has to offer.
Ben B. Cheney stands in front of a Cheney Lumber Co. location in Chehalis, WA.
About the Ben B. Cheney Foundation: Businessman, entrepreneur, and sports enthusiast Ben B. Cheney lived life fully and richly, devoting himself to his work, his family, and his community. The Ben B. Cheney Foundation strives to carry on his hopes and dreams by making grants and helping to improve the quality of life in the communities where the Cheney Lumber Company operated.
Learn more about the foundation’s work at benbcheneyfoundation.org
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