|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Jacob G. Schmidlapp
|
The history of organized philanthropy in Ohio dates back to the early 20th century. One of the first independent foundations established in Ohio was the Charlotte R. Schmidlapp Fund, begun in 1908 in Cincinnati by Jacob G. Schmidlapp after the death of his daughter in a car accident in France.
Schmidlapp founded Union Savings and Trust, which later merged into what is now Fifth Third Bancorp. He instructed the fund's trustees to make grants that would aid women to establish themselves in life.
Today, the Charlotte R. Schmidlapp Fund in Cincinnati is the largest fund in the country dedicated exclusively to the needs of women and girls. |
|
Six years later, in 1914, Frederick P. Goff, President, the Cleveland Trust Company, started the first community foundation in the country and in the world in an effort to make philanthropic funds more responsive to the changing needs of the community.
Today, The Cleveland Foundation ranks as the largest community foundation in the state with assets of over $1.7 billion.
Over the next 10 years in Ohio, three additional community foundations were established:
- The Youngstown Foundation (1918)
- The Dayton Foundation (1921)
- The Troy Foundation (1924)
|
Frederick P. Goff
|
| Many of Ohio’s industrial pioneers or their families established foundations as a result of their financial success. In 1927, Charles F. Kettering, best known for inventing the electric automobile starter, created the operating foundation that bears his name. |
|
Charles F. Kettering
|
Today, the Charles F. Kettering Foundation in Dayton has assets of more than $297 million. He later established the Kettering Fund, a family foundation in Dayton, with assets of $86 million.
Another early private foundation established in the state was the Timken Foundation of Canton, founded in 1934 by Henry H. Timken of the Timken Company, a company that began manufacturing roller bearings over 100 years ago.
The Stranahan Foundation in Toledo was created in 1944 by two brothers, Frank D. and Robert A. Stranahan, founders of the Champion Spark Plug Company. Today, this family foundation’s assets exceed $91 million. |
Foundations and giving programs were also created within the companies that sustain them. Some of the earliest corporate foundations in Ohio include:
- the Lubrizol Foundation (1952)
- Procter & Gamble Fund (1952)
- Eaton Charitable Fund (1953)
- Nationwide Foundation (1959).
In 2005, 153 corporate foundations were counted in Ohio. Over the years, several of the co-founders of the Lubrizol Corporation, which was formed in the late twenties in Cleveland, established their own family foundations:
- Kelvin Smith and The Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation in 1955
- Kent Smith and The 1525 Foundation in 1971
- David Ford and The Abington Foundation in 1984.
Currently, there are 68 community foundations in Ohio with total assets of more than $4.55 billion. |
| |
|
|
|
Organized philanthropy has increased steadily over the past century in Ohio, following the pattern of growth nationally. The foundation movement experienced significant growth after World War II, attributable to a variety of factors including an increase in societal needs after the war and the appearance of new corporate foundations and family foundations with living donors. Following the passage of the 1969 Tax Reform Act, the number of newly-created foundations fell. The Act brought stringent regulations governing foundations and new limits on financial incentives for donors. While there was a mild upsurge in the mid-eighties, a time of relative economic stability and new wealth creation, the Tax Reform Act of 1986, along with a faltering economy, held the growth of new foundations back until the mid-1990s. During the 1990s, a time of a strong economy and stock market, low inflation, more and better tax incentives and greater wealth the number of foundations in Ohio more than doubled.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
