WHEELING, W.Va. — Meet Janet Nolan, Director of Stewardship and Office Manager for the Community Foundation for the Ohio Valley. Chances are, if you’ve ever called the office or walked through the door, she was the first voice you heard or the first face you saw.
Her role at CFOV covers a lot of ground. She handles gift processing and receipting, prepares grant letters to accompany checks, and serves as the first point of contact for anyone reaching out to the Foundation. But one of the parts of her work she finds most meaningful is teaching nonprofit organizations how to search for funding through the Candid Foundation Directory. Helping an organization find its footing in the funding world is the kind of work that ripples outward in ways that are hard to measure.
“I truly enjoy working with area nonprofits in the Foundation Center helping them search for possible funders,” Janet says. “I feel especially proud when they get funding due to their efforts and the information they received.” After five and a half years at CFOV, moments like those are still what drive her.
Her professional background is, to put it plainly, remarkable. For over 30 years she worked as a professional fundraiser, and at the same time she owned and operated a women’s retail consignment store for 31 years. Running two demanding careers simultaneously for three decades says everything you need to know about how Janet approaches her work.
Outside of CFOV, she helps with events at St. Michael’s in Wheeling, staying connected to her community the way she always has, by showing up.
She’s not someone who sits still. “I do not like to be idle and am always looking for the next project or challenge,” she says. That restless energy is matched by a warmth and philosophy that shapes everything she does. The best professional advice she’s received and lives by: everyone is important and special in their own way and should be respected accordingly. “We are all here to help each other,” she adds, and she means it.
Outside the office, Janet is a devoted thrifter. Garage sales, estate sales, the thrill of not knowing what you might find around the next corner. It suits her. And it connects to one of her more unexpected areas of expertise: she has a sharp eye for jewelry, able to spot gold and silver and identify different designers with the kind of confidence that only comes from years of looking closely at things other people walk past.
If travel called her name, she’d head to Ireland, drawn by the same pull that brings many people there: family history waiting to be uncovered and understood.
As for what she hopes for in the year ahead, her answer is as genuine as everything else about her. “My goal is to be present each day mentally and physically and to always think of others before myself,” she says. “If I can make someone’s life better by doing what I do daily, then I am good.”
After more than three decades of serving others in one form or another, that’s not just a goal. It’s simply who she is.
