Dr. Cam Cruickshank, the founding president and CEO of the Greater Cabarrus Foundation, will leave Dec. 31. He built the Concord-based nonprofit from scratch into an organization with more than $6 million in charitable assets.
The Cabarrus Compass first reported Tuesday, Oct. 27, that Cruickshank plans to spend more time with family in the Midwest and North Carolina. No successor or transition plan has been publicly announced.
Cruickshank was named the foundation's first president and CEO in May 2024, according to the foundation's website. The organization's origins trace to 2022, when board chair Bob Bratton began exploring the need for a community foundation in Cabarrus County. A feasibility study followed in 2023, and the decision to launch came in February 2024.
The office opened in Concord in July 2024. The Cabarrus Chamber held a ribbon-cutting ceremony that November.
The foundation received its 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status in December 2024 and established its first permanent endowments the following month. By February 2025, it had held its first quarterly lunch-and-learn workshop for local nonprofits. Its first grantmaking cycle began in July 2025, and by December 2025, funds raised for the community surpassed $5 million, according to the foundation's timeline. The Cabarrus Compass reported the total has since grown past $6 million.
At the foundation's ribbon-cutting, Cruickshank described the work ahead. "Nonprofit agency capacity building is central to our mission, and the provision of free consulting services is one of the ways we hope to help these wonderful agencies extend the outstanding work that they already perform," he said, according to the Cabarrus Chamber.
The growth was fast. Unlike some other local philanthropic organizations that focus on capital projects, the Greater Cabarrus Foundation provides financial support for agency operations, according to its website.
Cruickshank has been active in the broader Cabarrus County nonprofit community during his tenure. He served on the Community Planning Council that helped produce the 2025 Community Health Needs Assessment, according to a Cabarrus Health Alliance report. He also spoke on surviving the nonprofit financial crisis at a countywide nonprofit workshop in August 2025.
The foundation's board includes Bratton, Doug Stafford, Jon Yancey, Britt Leatherman, Pat Horton, Jan Beatty-Hendley, Kelly Propst and Holt Morrison. The foundation has not publicly announced a leadership search.
