Robert E. Eckardt, DR PH

…conversations with some 250 charitable organizations to learn how grantees were faring and how the foundation could help them weather the crisis. Monies were subsequently redirected from the foundation’s major capital grants efforts to immediate needs. Eckardt then worked with grantees to streamline and shorten grant-processing times in order to distribute awards more quickly. A survey conducted in 2010 by the Center for Effective Philanthropy…

Linking City Teens to Life-Enriching Programs

…rness their potential. The foundation’s $2.5 million in grants to support the launch of MyCom in 2009 leveraged $4.1 million from other funders, including the initiative’s principal partner, Cuyahoga County. To make the most efficient and effective use of its funding, the partners decided not to create another program, but to connect youngsters to all the appropriate programs already in existence. MyCom’s evolving online and phone-accessible…

Frank C. Sullivan

…RPM in 1987 as regional sales manager at RPM’s joint-venture AGR Company, then rose through the ranks as vice president of corporate development, chief financial officer, executive vice president, and president and chief operating officer. Before joining RPM he held various positions in the areas of commercial lending and corporate finance at Harris Bank and First Union National Bank. He received his bachelor’s degree from the…

Community Foundation Movement

…g local resources and promoting local giving through the creation of a community foundation. He spoke with all who approached him for information, granted interviews, and addressed civic groups, bar association meetings and trust bankers’ conferences. The editor of Trust Companies became an overnight ally and regularly published articles on the formation and activities of community foundations. Because of the American banking industry’s high…

Everyone a Philanthropist

…simply… Read More in Timeline  Donald and Ruth Weber Goodman Perpetuating Life-Saving Medical Care In October 2000, Donald Goodman, a retired dentist, returned to his Pepper Pike home after his morning exercise and abruptly collapsed on the floor. After being rushed to University Hospitals of Cleveland, he was diagnosed with acute… Read More in Timeline  On January 3, 1914, the day after the board of the Cleveland Trust bank…

Kent H. Smith

…rd member of the Cleveland Institute of Art and Holden Arboretum. He remained closely tied to his alma mater, becoming a Case trustee in 1949 and serving as acting president from 1958 to 1961. He advocated for the consolidation of Case and Western Reserve University, and the two institutions merged in 1967 as Case Western Reserve University (CWRU). In 2010, the Kent H. Smith Charitable Trust donated $10.5 million to CWRU’s new university center,…

Federation of Case Institute of Technology and Western Reserve University

…, the Case School of Applied Science, concluded that the two institutions should be merged into a municipal university to rival those in New York, Boston and Chicago. Because of alumni pride in the independence of their alma maters, the two schools deferred federation until 1967. To signal its continuing strong support for the union, the Cleveland Foundation awarded its first-ever $1 million grant in 1971 to Case Western Reserve University…

Harvey B. Hobson

…ared a curriculum for introducing the teaching of hygiene that was later adopted for all junior high schools in Cleveland. She was a board member of the Child Health Association and the Eliza Jennings Home. Like his mother, Harvey Hobson also graduated from Western Reserve (B.A., 1934; LL.B., 1936). After earning his law degree, he joined the firm of Thompson, Hine & Flory. He was a member of the board of overseers for the WRU law school and…

George F. Karch Sr.

…cer. Karch had come up the hard way—selling newspapers, scrubbing pharmacy floors, laying pipeline and working as a laborer in a steel mill. After graduating from West High School, he enrolled in St. Lawrence University but dropped out less than two years later when his father lost his sight. He took night classes at Cleveland Law School while working in the bank during the day, and received his law degree in 1930. In 1940, he graduated from…

Malvin E. Bank

…k’s quiet backing of $5 million commitments to both neighborhood revitalization and public education improvement in the late 1980s was instrumental in winning board approval of these landmark “Special Initiatives.” Bank has shaped the field of philanthropy in countless ways. Most notably, as a representative for the Council on Foundations, he negotiated with the U.S. Treasury Department and Congress about proposed 1976 revisions to rules and…