Some years ago the Community Betterment Committee of the Chamber of Commerce recommended that a community drive be held to create a permanent endowment for the Lebanon Area Foundation.

 
There were many needs in this community that took resources to fund. This required those with the means to be approached on several occasions to step up and make sure the needs were met. This made it difficult to also tap these same providers for the large sums of money it would take to establish this permanent endowment.

 
So before the endowment fundraising could be pursued LAF developed a community-wide funding system named Community Cares. This fund has earned its name over the years and through 2007 almost $600,000 has been given to community causes to help needy children, adults and animals.

With Community Cares in place and functioning well, LAF has embarked on a $2 million fund raising goal for the permanent endowment. Leadership donations of larger sums of money to establish the base are now sought as well as donations of any size.

This is a lofty goal. However, LAF has the ability and desire to mange these funds so that those in need in the Lebanon area are well served. We take our motto seriously; “Charity reflects the character and conscience of the community.”

This endowment will be global in the Lebanon area; reaching those who serve the indigent and those in crisis on a daily basis. The endowment will use only the income generated in two manners. In good years that we achieve the goal of Community Cares, the income will be used to help start the projects needed in the community through the permanent endowment. These projects will be the bricks and mortar type projects that take many dollars to establish a program or building. Or in lean years that the target of the Community Cares is not reached, the income will be used wholly or in part to supplement the Community Cares grants.

The Legacy Endowment Fund was started with the Community Endowment Fund combined with the Louise Coleman Memorial Fund. Mrs. Louise Coleman gifted over $232,000 upon her death to the Foundation.