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Created 2007 from the Anthony Wayne Services reorganization; renamed January 2026
Origin: When the board of Anthony Wayne Services — the disability-services organization founded in 1960 as the Allen County Council for Crippled Children and Adults, whose service story the Charities section tells in full — reorganized in 2007 into Benchmark Human Services, the board created a separate grantmaking foundation, the AWS Foundation, devoted to people with intellectual, developmental and physical disabilities across Northeast Indiana.
The record: Its grantmaking grew from $299,248 in its first year to $4,692,062 by its tenth year, nearly $20 million over its first decade — its largest vehicle the multi-year Vantage Grants, of which Turnstone's was $1 million. In 2018 it launched Indiana Disability Resource FINDER, a statewide online directory of disability services. On 20 January 2026, announcing more than $60 million awarded to more than 200 nonprofits serving people of different abilities around the region and giving running at nearly $6 million a year, the foundation renamed itself the WindSwell Foundation — the AWS initials having become, in its president Patti Hays's telling of the announcement, a standing confusion with Amazon Web Services.
Sources:
- AWS Foundation, "Grantmaking Report: Celebrating Ten Years" (awsfoundation.org) — first-year grants $299,248 growing to $4,692,062; the foundation's creation in the 2007 Anthony Wayne Services–Benchmark reorganization (see also Charities's Anthony Wayne entry).
- Access Northeast Indiana (accessnein.org) — AWS's Vantage Grants, incl. $1 million to Turnstone; Journal Gazette coverage, 2018 — the FINDER directory launch; Northeast Indiana news, 2017 — nearly $20 million in the first ten years.
- WindSwell Foundation / AWS Foundation, announcement, 20 January 2026 (windswell.org; also WBOI) — the renaming, more than $60 million awarded to more than 200 nonprofits, nearly $6 million in annual giving, and the Amazon-confusion rationale; Mayor Sharon Tucker's proclamation.