In 1919, George F. Rand Sr. asked his attorney, Edward H. Letchworth, to visit the first community foundation in Cleveland, Ohio. After that trip, George Sr. recognized the unique role a community foundation could play to enable families, including his own, to give back for generations to come.
Upon the sudden passing of George Sr., George Rand Jr. carried on his father’s wishes by establishing the Buffalo Foundation, now the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo, and creating the first endowment to address the changing needs of Western New York. Edward H. Letchworth stayed involved with the Foundation by serving as Secretary, member of the Governing Committee, Chairman and finally, Honorary Chairman. Edward also established a changing needs endowment at the Community Foundation.
Changing needs funds are used to address the most pressing challenges in our community and in 2020, funds were deployed to address the COVID-19 health crisis in Western New York, something neither of the men could have likely envisioned 100 years ago. Their generosity – along with hundreds of others – allowed the Community Foundation to take a leadership role in the philanthropic response and work with dozens of other foundations to rapidly deploy resources in the immediate areas of health, human services, food, childcare and support for frontline responders through the WNY COVID-19 Community Response Fund.
Here are two other stories of clients who have worked with the Community Foundation through their professional advisors: