The smaller family foundations: McMillen, Freimann, Auer, Cole, and a wind-down

1961 forward — the long tail of Fort Wayne's named foundations

McMillen and Freimann: The feed-and-soya fortune of Dale McMillen took permanent form in the Harold and Rachel McMillen Foundation, created in 1961 for Allen County purposes, and the McMillen Foundation that donated and helped construct McMillen Park (both in the Wealth section). The Frank Freimann Charitable Trust, arranged by Magnavox's president before his 1968 death, paid in large part for Freimann Square (dedicated 27 September 1973) and backed the Foellinger-Freimann Botanical Conservatory — posthumous giving by trust rather than by staffed foundation, the older Fort Wayne pattern.

The Auer Foundation: Ione Breeden Auer created the Edward D. and Ione Auer Foundation in 1984, funded by the couple's lifetime gifts and their estates. It grants for charitable purposes across the community, and its name is on two of the city's arts addresses: the Auer Center for Arts & Culture on the Arts Campus, named in honor of a major Auer gift when Arts United renovated the building in 2010 (the campus is in the Arts section), and Purdue Fort Wayne's Auer Performance Hall — Purdue's trustees in 2015 recorded the Edward D. and Ione B. Auer Foundation among donors of $1 million or more to the Fort Wayne campus. In 2023 the foundation gave a $3 million lead gift, alongside the Suracks' gifts and a $15 million state appropriation, toward Purdue Fort Wayne's $22 million music industry building, which opened in September 2026.

The Olive B. Cole Foundation: A private foundation based in Fort Wayne whose grantmaking points mostly north: its stated priority is job creation and economic development for residents of DeKalb, LaGrange, Noble and Steuben counties, with education and scholarship giving that reaches back into Fort Wayne — its 2024 filing itemizes $100,000 to Purdue Fort Wayne for the Parker Cole Crossing bridge and substantial scholarship support through the Questa Foundation and Ivy Tech. Its filings report grants and assistance of $1,246,795 for the year ended 31 March 2024 and $1,468,312 for the year ended 31 March 2026 — the scale of a durable second-tier Fort Wayne foundation.

A wind-down, for the record: The Fort Wayne Health & Education Foundation, tax-exempt from May 1979, spent four decades as one of the city's smallest grantmakers: its 2021 Form 990-PF reports assets of $779,638 and five grants totaling $26,800, the largest $10,800 to Ivy Tech, with Matthew 25 and Easterseals Arc among its recipients in those years. The foundation has since filed a final return (its 990 record is marked final as of 2025) — a reminder that the sector's foundation layer churns at the bottom even as the big names compound at the top.

Sources:

1. Wells Fargo foundation directory — the Harold and Rachel McMillen Foundation, created 1961, Allen County purposes; City of Fort Wayne — Freimann Square and the Freimann Charitable Trust (both as compiled in Great Fortunes).
2. Indiana Tech news releases, 2017 — "The Edward D. and Ione Auer Foundation is a private charitable foundation based in Fort Wayne… Ione Breeden Auer created the foundation in 1984," funded by lifetime gifts and estate proceeds; Purdue University trustees' resolution of appreciation, 9 October 2015 — the Auer Foundation among donors of $1 million or more to the Fort Wayne campus.
3. Arts Campus Fort Wayne, "A Soaring Vision" campaign booklet (2023) — the Auer Center named in honor of a major gift from the Edward D. and Ione Auer Foundation; Purdue Fort Wayne news, 2023 and 2026 — the Auer Foundation's $3 million lead gift, the $15 million state appropriation, the building's September 2026 opening.
4. Olive B. Cole Foundation Inc, Forms 990-PF (EIN 35-6040491) — grants and assistance, years ended 31 March 2024 and 2026 (via Intellispect); tax year 2024 itemized grants incl. Purdue Fort Wayne and Questa (via Grantmakers.io profile); the foundation's stated northern-tier priorities (via its funder profiles).
5. Fort Wayne Health & Education Foundation Inc, Form 990-PF 2021 (EIN 35-1446452) — assets $779,638, five grants totaling $26,800, Ivy Tech the largest; exempt status date May 1979 (IRS records via nonprofit directories); final return noted in its Instrumentl 990 report, 2025.