Family Philanthropy: Creating a Legacy of Giving
At the Lehigh Valley Community Foundation (LVCF), we understand that philanthropy is more than just giving—it’s about creating a legacy. Family philanthropy allows families to transfer their core values and beliefs across generations while making a meaningful impact in their community.
Philanthropy serves as a powerful conduit for families to impart their foundational values and beliefs across generations. It also provides unique opportunities for family members to engage in quality time, collaborate on common objectives, and gain deeper insights into one another’s perspectives on charitable giving.
Benefits of Family Philanthropy
Instill shared beliefs and values in younger generations through charitable activities
Collaborate on shared goals and spend quality time together creating a legacy
Foster financial responsibility and make a lasting difference in the community
Partnering with the Community Foundation
Partnering with the Community Foundation for your family philanthropy offers numerous benefits that enhance your charitable giving while simplifying the process. LVCF provides expert philanthropic advising to help define and achieve your family’s values and goals. With comprehensive grantmaking support, administrative services, and local knowledge, your family can focus on making a meaningful impact without the burden of day-to-day management. Additionally, the Community Foundation offers valuable networking opportunities, connecting you with other philanthropists and nonprofit leaders to maximize your contributions. Through these services, your family can create a lasting legacy of giving that adapts to changing community needs and continues to make a difference for generations to come. You can create an EverGreen Fund at the Community Foundation or utilize our Impact Services.
EverGreen Fund
Start a new fund or move all or part of your family foundation to an EverGreen Fund at LVCF
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The EverGreen Fund at the Lehigh Valley Community Foundation (LVCF) offers a seamless solution for maximizing your family’s philanthropic impact. By starting a new fund or transitioning your existing foundation to an EverGreen Fund, you gain access to comprehensive support services including fiduciary oversight, IRS filings, financial audits, check writing, bookkeeping, and investment management.
Our dedicated philanthropic advisors work with you to define your values and mission, streamline your grant application process, and leverage LVCF’s extensive nonprofit insights. With the EverGreen Fund, your family legacy is preserved, enhanced, and protected, allowing you to focus on what truly matters: making a lasting impact through your charitable contributions. Learn more…
Impact Services
Contract with LVCF for grantmaking resources to support your existing fund or foundation
![LVCF Impact Services](https://www.lehighvalleyfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Impact-Service-Graphic.png)
LVCF’s Impact Services provide the support you need to focus on your mission. By partnering with LVCF, private foundations and philanthropic families can streamline their grantmaking processes, access local expertise, and enhance their charitable impact without the administrative burden.
We manage grant cycles, offer philanthropic advising, and handle asset management, ensuring your legacy thrives while you concentrate on making a difference. Let LVCF’s comprehensive suite of services guide your philanthropic journey, maximize your impact, and grow your legacy. Learn more…
CASE STUDY | LVCF and Laros Foundation Forge Philanthropic Partnership to Increase Impact
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During FY23, The Helen & R.K. Laros Foundation established a philanthropic partnership with the Community Foundation to increase the impact of its grantmaking to nonprofits in the region. The Laros Foundation has transferred a portion of its grantmaking processes to the Community Foundation while maintaining its assets, staff, board of trustees, mission and grantmaking focus. The Community Foundation provides the needed operational support that enables the Laros Foundation’s board and staff to focus on their mission and maximize their impact.
The aim of the Laros Foundation Board was to reduce the operational burdens experienced by private foundations. Gathering information on nonprofit organizations, processing applications for grants, and evaluating grant applications took an enormous amount of time and effort. In addition, the Laros board was rightfully concerned about the ongoing demands on staff to manage the grants process. Knowing that the Community Foundation has growing capacity as a grantmaking organization with web-based technology that simplifies the receiving, processing and evaluating applications for grants, the Laros Foundation reached out to the Community Foundation for assistance.
In the fall of 2022, the Laros Foundation Trustees approved an agreement to transition its grantmaking process to LVCF. “The Community Foundation provided us with the perfect way to focus our attention on the important grantmaking work of the Laros Foundation,” said Sharon Zondag, Executive Director of the Laros Foundation (below). “We took advantage of the exquisite capacity of the Community Foundation and immediately increased our ability to improve our service to the community. Because the Community Foundation works closely with the nonprofit community of the Lehigh Valley, our grant applicants were already familiar with the application portal at the Community Foundation.”
The partnership has proven very successful for both parties. “We knew we can expand our footprint of service to the Lehigh Valley community, and we felt strongly that we could provide exactly what the Laros Foundation needed,” said Erika Riddle Petrozelli, CPA, CAP®, President and CEO of the Community Foundation. “When a private foundation engages our Impact Services, it not only frees itself from many time-consuming critical functions, it also provides insurance against staff turnover.”
About the Helen & R.K. Laros Foundation
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The Laros Foundation has been committed to supporting the community of Bethlehem since its founding in 1952. Helen & R.K. Laros believed in engaging and connecting with the people and organizations of Bethlehem to be a part of building a stronger, more resilient society. Fundamental to this commitment is the value the Foundation places on inclusion, diversity, equity, and access for all in the organizations and communities it serves.
Grants have supported the Community Action (Committee) of the LV since 1985 and were part of the initiative to build SteelStacks and the Banana Factory, the ongoing maintenance of the Salvation Army & the expansion of New Bethany Ministries mission with housing and a food-bank, Touchstone Theatre since its earliest days in 1979 for construction costs, and Northampton Community College to build the Fowler Campus, and of course so much more. Since its inception in 1952, the R.K. Laros Foundation has granted nearly $9 million to nonprofits in the community.
ASK Maureen| Ask me how the Community Foundation can help you and your clients create a lasting legacy and make a difference in the community….
![Maureen Wendling LVCF](https://www.lehighvalleyfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Maureen-Wendling-150x150.jpg)
Maureen Connolley Wendling
Director of Donor Initiatives
Lehigh Valley Community Foundation
810 W. Hamilton Street, 310, Allentown, PA 18108
610 351-5353 or email: Maureen@lvcfoundation.org