General Info:
Like the Valley it serves, the Lehigh Valley Community Foundation is both respectful of its past and excited about its future. Begun as the Bethlehem Area Foundation in 1967, the Foundation recognized the growing regional identity of the Lehigh Valley and expanded its mandate in 1992 to serve all the residents of both Lehigh and Northampton Counties. Specific programs also reach beyond these borders to work with the people of Monroe and Upper Bucks Counties. From Blue Mountain to South Mountain and from New Smithville to the Delaware River bridges, the Lehigh Valley Community Foundation is your partner in charitable giving. The Lehigh Valley Community Foundation is a non-profit, tax-exempt 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) organization with headquarters in Allentown, Pennsylvania. It is overseen by a Board of Governors who are responsible for defining the Foundation's policies, supervising its investment practices, and ensuring that Foundation grantmaking stays in tune with the evolving needs of our growing and changing community. The Foundation has a staff of five: an Executive Director, a Director of Finance, a Director of Philanthropic Services, an Administrative Assistant and Financial Manager. Together, the Foundation staff has over a half-century of experience in the non-profit sector and manages both the Foundation's services for donors and its discretionary and non-discretionary grantmaking efforts. Community Foundations are permanent legal entities dedicated to community betterment through private philanthropy. The Lehigh Valley Community Foundation is one of more than 600 community foundations in the United States, currently managing an aggregate of more than $50 billion in charitable funds. For many years the fastest growing form of philanthropy in the nation, community foundations have these primary characteristics: legal permanence, flexibility, service to a defined geographical area, governance by a volunteer board and trustworthy financial management. All members of the Foundation Board of Governors and staff are willing and able to work with you and your professional advisors to help formulate plans for charitable giving, to consider various philanthropic options in estate planning, to help devise giving plans for your corporate philanthropy efforts, or simply to act as a source of advice on the development of the non-profit sector in the Lehigh Valley.