Glendale Community Foundation History

In August 1956, as part of Glendale's 50th anniversary celebration, a number of women from the Glendale Tuesday Afternoon Club decided to create a local organization that would allow any citizen to become a philanthropist according to his or her individual means.

This group of far-sighted community leaders formed the Glendale Community Foundation to offer a legacy of decades-long stability to the city's nonprofit organizations. A fund was established that would forever grow through an indefinite number of donations and bequests from a wide variety of donors, given during the donor's lifetime or provided for in his or her will.

These funds were invested in extremely safe investment instruments to always keep the principal intact. The interest was drawn off and granted to the various charities in town in perpetuity.

One of those far-sighted people was Alice Moore, a Glendale attorney. She believe that if a person had no immediate family, or if provisions had been made in the will for the family, a tax-free legacy could be offered to the Community Foundation from which charitable, educational and civic betterment allocations could be made-to indefinitely help the Glendale community. From the start, the Community Foundation only offered grants for capital improvements so the benefits could easily be quantified.

The growth was slow at first. Combined with John Bruecker's initial $3,000, a few minor contributions were made to get the organization off the ground. In 1960, the asset base was only about $5,000.

Continuous Growth

The Community Foundation had a very attractive calling card -- donations constantly grew, and continue to grow. By 1978, the Community Foundation administered nearly $100,000. By the foundation's 25th anniversary, in 1981, the fund had grown to more than a quarter of a million dollars. Then, in mid-1986 the fund reached a crucial milestone -- $1 million in assets.

Much of this growth can be attributed to Don Packer, one of the most influential and hardest working members of the Community Foundation.

Packer, now deceased, was a local Studebaker dealer, who upon his car-dealing retirement took up the reins of the Community Foundation. Due to Packer's efforts the organization increased its size from $25,000 to over $1 million by 1989. Later, in 1992, Packer's estate left over $600,000 to the Community Foundation pushing our assets above $2 million.

Donors are able to set forth in their wills the charitable organization to benefit from their contributions or it may be left to the discretion of the Board of Trustees based on the current needs of the community.
The Community Foundation has always been a volunteer organization with the goal of maintaining and improving the quality of life in Glendale and the Foothill area. It exists to provide local donors with the easiest and most efficient way to implement their present and future charitable intentions with maximum tax advantages.

Benefitting Organizations

Over the past five decades, the Community Foundation has benefited hundreds of charitable organizations ranging from the local YMCA, YWCA and the Glendale Red Cross Chapter to the Verdugo Hills Council of the Boy Scouts, Verdugo Mental Health Center, and Association for the Retarded. Other areas of assistance include blind people, abused children, the arts, the environment and seniors.

The Community Foundation also offers scholarship and interest-free loans to local students who are preparing to attend college.

Our Book of Memory was created in 1970 and now contains the names of more than 750 former residents who have been memorialized by friends and relatives with tax-deductible gifts to the Community Foundation. The Book circulates among the city's library branches.