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What it is: The Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne is not one fortune but the pooled afterlife of hundreds of them, and its history — told in its own centennial account, "A Century of Giving" — is the best single map of Fort Wayne wealth turning into Fort Wayne philanthropy. The Fort Wayne Foundation was established on June 2, 1922, governed by five trustees including Arthur Hall, head of the Lincoln Life Insurance Company; its founding banks read like a directory of the city's money: Bowser Loan and Trust, Dime Savings and Trust Company, Lincoln National Bank, and Peoples Trust and Savings Company. Its first gift was William Mossman's $5,000.
Death and rebirth: The Depression starved it; its largest gift of the 1930s was $7,500 from the estate of Robert M. Feustel, and on December 2, 1941, the trustees voted to terminate it as improbable of further gifts. It was reborn on August 1, 1956, as the United Charitable Foundation of Allen County, with $85 received in gifts on its first day, and took its present name in June 2005.
Its scale: Under Paul Clarke — who had come to Fort Wayne with his wife Helen in 1954 — asset growth began in earnest: past $1 million in 1980, $2 million in 1983, and $30 million by 1995, helped by a series of gifts from Paul and Helen Clarke in the early 1990s totaling more than $20 million. The foundation held charitable assets of approximately $222 million at December 31, 2021, administers more than 400 donor funds, and has awarded more than $175 million in grants since 1922.
Sources:
- Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne, "A Century of Giving" (centennial history, 2022) — founding, first gift, termination, rebirth, the Clarke gifts, asset milestones.
- Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne, 2022 announcements — $222 million in assets at December 31, 2021; more than $175 million granted since 1922.
- Inside Philanthropy foundation profile — more than 400 funds; grants of more than $9 million in a recent year.