…d distributed more than $4 billion in annual grants. But the intrinsic value of Goff’s concept goes beyond the amassing and awarding of financial resources. As evidenced by the spread of community philanthropy throughout the world, from Astrakhan, Russia, to Mozambique, to New Zealand, the concept’s universal appeal lies in a community foundation’s ability to bring people together around a common cause. From the asset-rich cities and towns of…
…isbursement of endowment income. Goff insisted that a community trust’s income must be distributed by an independent group of citizens, of which a substantial number were to be named by the holders of positions of honor and trust in the community. Breaking with the practice of setting up foundations as private corporations with self-perpetuating boards, he proposed that only two of the five members of the Cleveland Foundation’s grantmaking body…
…a graduate (class of 1915) of Oberlin College…. Read Bio in Timeline Leyton E. Carter CEO: 1928–1953 The Cleveland Foundation board set high leadership expectations for its third director, Leyton E. Carter (see video), recommending that the former political science professor and municipal researcher lend his personal expertise to civic endeavors to a much… Read Bio in Timeline J. Kimball Johnson CEO: 1953–1967 Chicago…
…er was unable to land a job as a high school coach after applying to more than three dozen area school systems. The secretary to the president of Baldwin Wallace empathized with the plight of this talented African American struggling to break into a segregated job market. She put him in touch with her sister who worked as the secretary to the director of the Cuyahoga County Welfare Department, where he was hired as a caseworker. Within nine…
…e occupancy had been slowly declining. Wishing to help PSF find new tenants, the foundation affirmed its satisfaction with its decision to relocate to the Hanna Building in 1984 by signing a new long-term lease. As evidenced today by the building’s busy Starbucks, market forces have been restored to the district. Indeed, a private developer is now converting the Hanna Building annex into rental apartments, realizing the last component of the…
…ted to the position of partner, assembling a personal fortune in the process. Upon his death in 1929 at the age of 64, the “Czar of the Great Lakes” left an estate of more than $4 million, the equivalent of about $62 million today. The Cleveland Foundation’s receipt of the bulk of the estate catapulted the foundation into the ranks of the country’s five largest community trusts. More important, it cushioned the foundation from the impact of the…
…lp administer his charitable affairs. Edith studied at Flora Stone Mather College of Western Reserve University and at the Cleveland School of Art, becoming a published poet. She was one of the first women to be appointed a trustee of the Cleveland Public Library. When she determined to honor her father with a prize, she chose literature—a universally popular vehicle—to bring national attention to the causes they both embraced. So in 1934, Edith…
…of a sailing vessel and circumnavigated the Great Lakes. In his first month as an attorney, he earned fees totaling $2.40—about $50 today. Goff made an offer to John D. Rockefeller, his law firm’s client, to take on the restructuring of Standard Oil to meet federal antitrust regulations. The proposed negotiation was rejected by President Theodore Roosevelt, whose administration subsequently entered into litigation that forcibly broke up the…
…degrees from Louisiana State University and, despite a passion for politics, ultimately decided to go into teaching. He studied for his second master’s at Harvard University’s Littauer School of Public Administration. During World War II, Norton served as a radio operator in the U.S. Army Air Force. After the war ended, he became an instructor at the University of Texas and, in 1949, an assistant professor in the school of public administration…
…-commissioned recreation survey, completed in 1919, recommended improvements in the variety of wholesome leisure-time activities available to Clevelanders. Goff had already hired a survey director, Allen T. Burns, whom he recruited from Pittsburgh, where in 1907 the Russell Sage Foundation, a newly formed national philanthropy dedicated to supporting social science research, had commissioned an influential study of living and working conditions…