The Cleveland Foundation underscored the importance of securing the future of the Cleveland Orchestra—an international treasure recently ranked as the world’s favorite orchestra by Bachtrack, the international concert reviewer and online listing resource—with a 2013 grant of $10 million, the largest award to an arts organization in the foundation’s history. A leadership gift to the orchestra’s “Sound for the Centennial” campaign leading up to…
…ublicly supported community college in the state, the integration of Cleveland’s near eastern suburbs and the overhaul of the management structure of Cleveland City Hall. After Stokes’s historic election as the first African-American mayor of a major American city, GCAF (which had by then combined forces with the Cleveland Foundation) worked hand-in-glove with the new mayor to ensure the success of his programs. Setting a national philanthropic…
…n 1960 Minter 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….
…ternative energy. Ronn persuaded British Petroleum (formerly Ohio’s Standard Oil Company) to allow him to use designated funds at the foundation to hire a senior fellow for economic and environmental advancement. With the recruitment of energy industry veteran Richard Stuebi to the position of BP fellow in early 2006, Ronn’s aspiration to help Greater Cleveland become a North American hub of wind energy research, manufacturing and generation…
…research, experimental or new projects, demonstrations of services or extension of services which are new or relatively untried in this community and which give promise of beneficial results.” This statement of a community trust’s central mission holds true today, but at the time the reaffirmation of Goff’s vision did not substantially change the objectives of the Cleveland Foundation’s grantmaking. The community foundation field had yet to…
…. The political contest between Seth Taft, the grandson of a U.S. president, and Carl B. Stokes, the grandson of a slave, seemed destined to make international headlines. For the first time in history it looked as if a major American city might elect an African-American mayor. Realizing that the future of the city depended on inspired, perhaps even heroic, political leadership, the leaders of the Cleveland Foundation were not content merely to…
…orn in Pittsburgh in 1913, Wadsworth was at heart a hard-eyed realist whose world view had been shaped by tragedy. When Homer was eight, his father, a tugboat captain, died from the lingering effects of an accident that had crushed his leg. Homer and his sister grew up in a tough Pittsburgh neighborhood populated by low-income African Americans and whites. This experience contributed to his forward-looking social views, as did his awareness of…
…on. He served as chairman of the Cleveland Metropolitan Housing Authority, president of the Children’s Aid Society, president of University School and the Yale Scholarship Committee and vice chair of the Cleveland Council on World Affairs. He co-founded and chaired the Businessmen’s Interracial Committee, sat on the finance committee of the Cleveland Institute of Art, and served as chair of University Circle Inc., vice chair of University…
…ke care of its own.” On the last day of the drive, the fate of the campaign remained uncertain. That evening, 8,000 campaign solicitors gathered downtown in Public Hall to learn the final tally. The audience groaned over the news that an 11th-hour contribution of $150,000 from the estate of Samuel Mather, who had died a few months before, had not pushed the campaign over the top. Then Carl W. Brand took the podium. A Cleveland Foundation…
Frank C. Sullivan is chief executive officer of RPM International Inc., a multinational holding company with subsidiaries that manufacture and market high-performance coatings, sealants and specialty chemicals. His grandfather founded RPM’s forerunner, Republic Powdered Metals, in 1947. Sullivan began his career at RPM in 1987 as regional sales manager at RPM’s joint-venture AGR Company, then rose through the ranks as vice president…