Meet the team

Craig Burkholder joined the SCCF Board of Directors in July 2019, and he has been an active volunteer at the foundation for many years. Craig met his wife, Cheryl, at Huntington College. They moved to Virginia for a few years, then Craig came to Northeast Indiana in 1989 to serve as the pastor of Hudson United Brethren Church. Craig and Cheryl have five grown children and two grandchildren.

Craig has served on the Ashley-Hudson Community Fund committee since 2000. He was encouraged to join the grants committee by a friend, and he has been the chair of the grants committee since 2015. “I like the spiderweb effect of SCCF’s grants. There are a bucketload of nonprofits in the county who touch a lot of lives, and to have a small hand in helping the community help those nonprofits, it seemed like a good reason to get involved,” he shared. Craig was also motivated to get involved by his Christian faith, and he sees volunteering with SCCF as a way of giving back beyond his church.

While on the committee, he has enjoyed the diversity of backgrounds and experience of committee members and seeing how they come together to ask tough questions of the requests and each other. “The Grants Committee works extremely hard to make good stewardship decisions,” said Craig. He looks forward to working to help nonprofits address the root causes of big challenges.

Craig spends most of his free time involved in church and various school activities. Over many years, you could find him coaching youth baseball, softball, soccer, and basketball. He has been involved in Prairie Heights athletics for more than 22 years. He has been the high school soccer coach for 18 years. When not coaching soccer, you might see him as a high school referee at basketball games or as an umpire at softball and baseball games. Other areas of involvement have been volunteering for Junior Achievement in the county, as well as serving on the Steuben County JA board.

Craig was previously chair of the Ashley Hudson Chamber of Commerce and helped start the Ashley Hudson festival. He likes the mentality and perspective & outreach of church and community groups, as well as the connections and friendships made from years of involvement.