Greater Toledo Community Foundation is celebrating its 50th Anniversary.
As the area’s largest philanthropic institution, GTCF is a welcoming and inclusive organization that has engrained itself in our community through five decades of dedicated service.
Through that dedication, we’ve been trusted to distribute more than $290 million in grants to Toledo-area nonprofits and beyond throughout our first 50 years.
Today, our Foundation holds more than 900 funds and $435 million in assets — and counting.
Fifty years ago, we could never have imagined how many lives we would touch and change for the better. Today, we are humbled by the immense difference we’ve made, and we’re celebrating with a yearlong calendar of events and programs across our community.
More information about these activities can be found at FiftyYearsForToledo.com.
Also, in celebration of the 50th Anniversary, we are awarding — each month throughout this year — a grant to a local nonprofit organization with amounts ranging from $50,000 to $400,000.
In addition to the many grants given by the Foundation to make the region a brighter place for all who these funds touch, the Foundation serves as a key community leader working with partners to address current and emerging challenges and issues.
As a provider of philanthropic services to individuals, families, businesses, private foundations, and other nonprofit organizations, we strive to help donors make gifts to meet vital community needs.
Thanks to the steady support of our long-standing partnerships, GTCF continues to be instrumental in the most iconic and essential projects, causes, and communitywide issues critical to our future success.
Our goal is to align community resources, eliminate redundancies in service delivery, and address the most critical needs of the community.
We focus on community needs in health and human services, education, arts & culture, religion, environment and conservation, economic development, and animal welfare.
Currently, some of the most iconic community projects that GTCF is involved in include the following initiatives:
The Overland Solar Array where 21,000 solar panels were donated and installed by area business partners and are now generating clean, renewable energy for Dana Incorporated’s axle assembly line.
The sale of energy to Dana from the solar panels will be reinvested in the neighborhood for work force development, job training, neighborhood improvements, and more.
The array is expected to produce electricity for over 25 years and generate a $5 million revenue stream for the community redevelopment projects.
Wood County Plays, a 501(c) (3) organization that designs, fund-raises and builds fully inclusive play spaces that allow children of all abilities to play side-by-side.
Shared Services Alliance, supported by a three-year $600,000 grant from Greater Toledo Community Foundation’s Community Funds Initiative Grants Program, will help early childhood education centers provide high-quality, sustainable programs for area children.
The Community Funds Initiative grant, which supports programs in education, health, access, and nonprofit capacity building, was awarded to HOPE Toledo Services. HOPE Toledo will serve as the host for the Shared Services Alliance, leading and organizing it, and the Toledo Early Learning Coalition and YWCA Child Care Resource and Referral will act as hubs to provide services to alliance members.
The alliance is designed to help early childhood education centers function more efficiently by decentralizing business operations that often impede them from their primary purpose — providing the best early childhood education programs possible.
The Minority Executive Leadership Certificate Program (has entered its ninth year and includes 59 graduates throughout the history of the program. The MEL Program is designed to support emerging minority nonprofit leaders, CEOs/executive directors, and staff interested in growing into these positions.
The Path to Equity and Access. The Foundation has a long history of encouraging equity and access in the northwest Ohio community.
In 2021, GTCF formalized its efforts by launching a multiyear Equity & Access Initiative Fund with a concentration on advocacy, employment, economic development, and nonprofit capacity.
The Initiative continues through 2024 with $100,000 in funding committed each of the next two years, bringing the Foundation’s investment in Equity & Access up to $600,000 over five years.
Since 1973, Greater Toledo Community Foundation has worked with individuals, families, and businesses, assisting them in making effective choices that match their philanthropic interests and needs while creating a better community for generations to come.
Our donors come from a wide spectrum of the community — they are farmers, teachers, firemen, and people from all walks of life. As we evolve with our community, we strive to create an environment that is accessible and accommodating to all, welcoming and fostering diverse perspectives and ideas.
We look forward to the next 50 years, confident that the legacy of visions and innovation we’ve pioneered over the past half century will only continue to grow.
Our community deserves it. Our community can count on it.
For more information, visit toledocf.org.
First Published April 22, 2023, 4:00 a.m.
