An anonymous donor has made a gift of historic proportions to the Erie community. The Erie Community Foundation has received a $100M gift that the donor designated to benefit 46 local and 5 out of town nonprofit organizations. This is the largest anonymous contribution to a community foundation in the nation.

Michael Batchelor, President of The Erie Community Foundation, estimates the grants will be between $1M and $2M apiece and will be distributed over a three-year period that will probably begin in 2009. The Foundation had no input as to what agencies would benefit. For most of the agencies this is and will be the largest gift they will ever receive. Though the grants will be unrestricted, the donor expressed a strong preference that charities use the money to create endowments within The Foundation that would give them a long-term financial base.

The Erie Community Foundation Receives $100M Gift to Benefit Local Charities | Erie Community Foundation.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 28th, 2008 at 3:50 pm and is filed under Capacity Building, Community Foundations, Grants Awarded. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.