HOUSTON, Miss. (WTVA) – A Chickasaw County foundation got both free training and funds for its mission.

The Chickasaw Development Foundation announced it received $25,000 from the Appalachian Regional Commission‘s (ARC) READY Nonprofits.

The foundation plans to use the funds to hire a project coordinator to aid the county in revitalizing economic and tourism development.

To get the grant, Executive Director Patsy Gregory and Project Coordinator Joan Parks represented Chickasaw Development Foundation in the virtual training session alongside a cohort of other nonprofit organizations from across the Appalachian Region.

After 10 weeks, they successfully completed virtual training on topics including nonprofit programming and operations, strategic planning, board development, human resources, marketing and communications, and more.