Erie Community Foundation

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The Erie Community Foundation (ECF) is a prominent public charity in Erie, Pennsylvania.

1 Programs
2 History
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Programs

A sampling of the efforts ECF supports includes youth programs, higher education, the environment, the Erie Arts Council, the Erie Art Museum, the Lake Erie Arboretum, and the fight against domestic violence.

ECF has sprouted a number of local organizations that promote good practices within the charitable organizations and planned giving by the donating public in Erie:

The Elisha Mack Society was founded in October 2004 to coordinate planned and estate giving through bequests towards Erie benevolences.
The Nonprofit Partnership was established by the foundation to improve the skills of local nonprofit organization managers.
The Council of Advisors oversees proactive grant-making programs.
The Fund for New Leadership promotes donor education and funding collaborations.

[edit] History

ECF was established as the Erie Endowment on 1 June 1949. Elisha H. Mack, the founder of the Erie Dry Goods Store, later to be known as The Boston Store, placed 100 shares of his store's Class A common stock (at $100 par value each) into an irrevocable trust on 10 December 1935. The endowment was incorporated in 1949 with a value of over $250,000. The balance of Mack's estate was gifted to the endowment in 1953, soon after his death on 23 December 1952.

Mack directed that a small portion of the proceeds go to designated local charities and beneficiaries for fifty years after his death, with the remainder of the proceeds to be directed to local benevolences at the discretion of the trustees. In 2002, the foundation's income became totally unrestricted.

ECF became a public charity in 1971 as a result of tax reforms enacted in 1969. The fund, now valued at over $10 million, consists of over 500 separate endowments. It is recognized by the Council on Foundations as compliant with national accountability standards. It won the Council on Foundations' 2004 and 2006 Wilmer Shields Rich Award (silver medal) for its public information campaigns.

In November 2007, the ECF announced that a donor who wished to be known only as "Anonymous Friend" had given the foundation a "staggering" $100 million gift.^[1]