I was working as a reporter at the Corry Journal some 35 years ago when I was handed an assignment to write a story about a new private charitable foundation that had been established to benefit Corry.
In my 30s at the time, I knew nothing about foundations when the opportunity arose to write about the Arlene H. Smith Charitable Foundation. Arlene was a Corry teacher, and the wife of Bruce Smith, who owned McInnes Steel in Corry for many years before preceding her in death.
I learned the couple had already established a fund within The Erie Community Foundation, but Arlene for whatever reason opted in her estate plan to create a separate private foundation. I also learned the basics of how foundations work … the principle funds get invested, four percent or so of the principle gets doled out in annual grants to nonprofit organizations, and any investment earnings above that four percent get plowed back into the principle.
That means the principle continues to grow over time, which means the annual four percent distribution to nonprofits continues to grow along with it.
And the capper … it’s “forever!” Some 35 years or so later, Arlene Smith’s foundation keeps pumping out money to aid Corry-area nonprofits. That’s quite a legacy for Arlene and Bruce, who regrettably I never met.
While there are some differences between private foundations, and public foundations like The Erie Community Foundation and its affiliate foundations in Union City, Corry, and North East, those basic principles are the same.
Take a chunk of money, invest it, and put a portion of the earnings to use for the public good … forever.
My initial reaction to learning how the foundation model worked was something like: “This is brilliant!”
Little did I know my career path would include running an important Corry nonprofit, the Corry Higher Education Council, for which I would have the opportunity to apply to the Arlene Smith Foundation on several occasions for important needs at the Hi-Ed.
Nor did I know I would then get to watch some forward-thinking Corryites put in the necessary seed money to start The Corry Community Foundation, or that the same would occur in my hometown of Union City. And I certainly had no reason to think I would one day have the opportunity to work with The Union City and Findley Lake Community Foundations (note: The Findley Lake Community Foundation is a component fund of The Erie Community Foundation, and not a standalone foundation).
Here are some amazing, and heartening, numbers. As of December 2025, The Union City Community Foundation has some $7.65 million in assets; The North East Community Foundation more than $18.8 million; and The Corry Community Foundation more than $30.7 million. The granddaddy Erie Community Foundation, under whose legal and fiduciary umbrella the others operate, has nearly $420 million!
I say “heartening,” because those numbers represent a lot of people who love their communities, and were willing to give their money to make them even better, in perpetuity. It’s hard for most of us to part with our money, even in death, so a lot of bright, successful, generous people clearly believe in the magic of foundations.
And at four percent of those amounts being driven back into those foundations and communities each year, that’s (where’s my calculator?) roughly $306,000 in Union City; $752,000 in North East; $1,228,000 in Corry; and $16,800,000 by The Erie Community Foundation. That’s … every … year!
When my father and mother passed in 2010 and 2012 respectively, and left a modest estate to my three siblings and me, I explained the Foundation model and suggested we create a fund within The Union City Community Foundation in our parents’ names. You can start a named fund with just $10,000, which in our case amounted to $2,500 each.
They readily agreed, and the Stanley C. and Helen L. Bishop Family Donor Advised Fund was born. We take turns deciding which local organizations to contribute to, it helps keep my non-local siblings connected to their home town, and we’ve given $6,176 to 13 nonprofits to date.
Even after those distributions, the fund has more money in it than when we started, and I’ve included the family fund and The Union City Community Foundation in my estate plan to make even more of an impact.
Assuming I’m not going to live forever, the opportunity to make a difference forever is powerful and compelling. And if I do end up living forever, well, it’ll just give me more time to watch the foundations do their thing.
– Steve Bishop