The community foundation, whole

ROW 83-9 · DUG, WITH THE FOUNDING GIFT AS A NAMED GAP · 1992–2026

The Community Foundation of St. Joseph County is this county's philanthropic bank, and its whole course, at the strength its own record supports, is this: the foundation dates itself, in the boilerplate of its own releases, "Since 1992" — "connecting people who care with causes that matter," a nonprofit philanthropic endowment serving St. Joseph County through initiatives and grantmaking in arts and culture, health and human services, youth and education, community development, and parks, recreation and environment, from its seat at 305 South Michigan Street, South Bend. One aggregator profile dates the founding to 1991; the foundation's own consistent 1992 stands against it, and the variance prints here rather than being smoothed (Inside Philanthropy's profile likewise gives "Established in 1992"). Its present size, dated: the same profile, updated July 18, 2024, puts the foundation at more than $255 million in assets, administering over 80 funds (its own current count of funds runs higher in later tellings; the dated figure is the one printed), and awarding approximately $10 million in grants a year — competitive grants typically of $2,000 to $20,000, and as high as $900,000.

Its Granger course is a county course with Granger inside it, and it prints at that honesty: the foundation's named initiatives that touch this ground are Early Years Count (seeded by the Lilly $5 million of article 3, and carrying Dolly Parton's Imagination Library — a free book a month to every county child under five — since May 2018) and the Lilly Endowment Community Scholarships of article 3, four county scholars a year. No grants list addressed to Granger recipients by name was published in the record reached; the foundation's grants database, read for Granger-addressed grantees, is the settler for the itemized course, and it is named rather than simulated.

The founding-gift test. The checklist pattern asks for a founding gift of five thousand dollars, tested on the foundation's own record read entire. Tested, it does not confirm for this foundation: no founding gift, of $5,000 or any other amount, appears in the Community Foundation of St. Joseph County's published record reached — not in its own site's history material, not in its profile literature. (The small founding gifts that do circulate in search results belong to other counties' foundations — a $500 first gift of 1962 belongs to the Sturgis Area Community Foundation of St. Joseph County, Michigan, a different county sharing a name across a state line; it is printed here only to be excluded.) NAMED GAP: the CFSJC founding gift — its amount, donor and instrument. Settlers: the foundation's own archive and its first Form 990 filings (ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, EIN record for the foundation, filings from the 1990s); the Tribune's 1991–92 file. Until that pull is made, this section prints the foundation from 1992 with its founding gift unnamed, and invents nothing.

Sources:

1. Community Foundation of St. Joseph County, its own releases and initiative pages (cfsjc.org, read November 2026) — the "Since 1992" boilerplate; the service fields; Early Years Count and the Imagination Library (May 2018); the Lilly scholarship administration.
2. Inside Philanthropy, "Community Foundation of St. Joseph County" (updated July 18, 2024) — established 1992; over 80 funds; ~$10 million a year in grants; grants $2,000–$20,000, to $900,000; more than $255 million in assets; headquarters 305 S. Michigan St., South Bend.
3. Prospeo company profile (founded 1991) — the variance, printed as variance. Sturgis Area Community Foundation, 2026 annual-meeting record — the Michigan namesake's $500 first gift of 1962, read only to exclude it.