A Foundation for Our Future
This year marks 30 years of The Findlay-Hancock County Community Foundation. In honor of our anniversary, I want to share the story of our beginning.
In 1976, Findlay resident L. Dale Dorney left the Cleveland Foundation a $5 million bequest dedicated to two interests: strengthening collegiate business education in Ohio and improving the quality of life in Findlay and Hancock County. He hoped the Findlay portion of his gift might one day form the nucleus of a community foundation.
On Aug 18, 1992, Dorney’s dream became reality. The Findlay-Hancock County Community Foundation became a supporting organization of the Cleveland Foundation. For our first seven years, we were under the tutelage of The Cleveland Foundation as they helped us learn and navigate becoming a community foundation. We became an independent community foundation in 1999.
We are here because of the dream of one man, made possible by each of you. The legacy Mr. Dorney left is the impact he made on philanthropy in Hancock County. By giving his gift, he set the stage for future philanthropy.
Our founding story is unique. What isn’t unique is the generosity Hancock County demonstrated in building on Dorney’s original gift. We’ve seen our community rise to the occasion with generosity time and time again. The Foundation we’ve built together will impact the community for many more generations.
Your investment made all this possible. Because of your generosity, we’ve been able to award more than $70 million in grants in our 30-year history. Again, this was made possible by you: more than 6,500 donors and 2,000 volunteers. We cannot thank you enough.
What a difference we have made together. You’ve heard the numbers, but behind those numbers are countless lives changed. Together, we’ve helped construct a state-of-the-art performing arts center. Together, we’ve made preschool accessible to hundreds more children. We provided resources to nonprofits within The Family Center; awarded thousands of scholarships; developed rural communities through Heart & Soul; expanded park space and beautified our county. We’ve only been able to do all of this because we’ve given, collaborated and worked to build a lasting community impact together.
The past 30 years have been an amazing success and we’re just getting started. Click here to learn more about the Foundation and our history.
This editorial was originally printed in The Courier Monday, August 29, 2022.
