About Us

The Lancaster County Community Foundation was established in 1988 to increase the charitable giving resources in Lancaster County. From its first contribution of $50,000 from the Springs Close Foundation, the Lancaster County Community Foundation has grown into a philanthropic organization managing 16 funds with total charitable assets of $850,000 by the end of 2009. The Lancaster County Community Foundation is an affiliate of Foundation For The Carolinas.

The Foundation strives to educate the people of Lancaster County about the functionality of a community foundation and how the organization benefits the entire county through the charitable actions of donors and volunteers. The activities of the Lancaster County Community Foundation include building a general endowment (the earnings of which provide program grants for nonprofits within the county), helping nonprofit organizations build endowments and assisting individual donors in establishing their own charitable giving programs.

The Lancaster County Community Foundation currently advises two funds managed by Foundation For The Carolinas. One fund provides annual grantmaking dollars to support community needs as determined by the board. As a permanently endowed fund, the intent is to maintain and grow the principal balances and produce grantmaking dollars in perpetuity. Most recently the board focused its grantmaking to support the basic needs of Lancaster County residents.

The second fund advised by the Lancaster County Community Foundation is the Citizen Law Enforcement Fund, which was established in 1989 to help local law enforcement agencies perform their regular duties and to aid local government in carrying out its regular function in the apprehension and conviction of criminals.