History

The birth of the future entity that became known as the Legacy Fund resulted from brainstorming and long term discussions in the late 1990s between a number of people in the LGBT community.   These discussions focused on the need for developing a “financial support system” for the GLBT community in central Ohio.   The goal was to create and build an endowment fund to provide a “financial support system” through the awarding of annual financial grants to deserving charitable entities that provided needed programming in the GLBT community.   There was an immediate recognition that the pooling of our individual financial assets into a common general endowment fund could create the potential for future empowerment that would not be possible by individual efforts.

It was specifically determined that our role was not to be one of “policy making”, but it was to be one of financial support for the activities of other organizations’ activities.   It was always the expectation that the establishment and growth of this endowment fund would be a long term effort of many decades.   It was also a firm principle that we did not want to compete with the fund raising efforts of existing LGBT organizations.    As a result, there was to be no emphasis on having regular fund raising activities, but to keep our focus on planned gifts, will bequests and other methods of giving that may be a part of a person’s long term estate planning.   This did not mean that we would not welcome regular contributions of any amount, but it was a recognition that the endowment of The Legacy Fund would only substantially increase based on the inclusion of The Legacy Fund in individual estate planning.

A paramount goal was the creation of a credible entity that people would trust to endow with their money and one that would ensure that the true goals of the fund would continue to be followed for decades to come.  The Columbus Foundation was selected due to the fact that it was a pre-existing foundation with a high level of stability and respect.
As a guiding principle of this fund we wanted to develop a separate Advisory Board of GLBT members and friends who would control the distribution of future grants.  This was one of the specific focuses of our discussions; we wanted to provide for the future of the GLBT community by having an understanding and informed Board who would continue to exist for decades to come.

A great deal of effort went into the selection of a name.     After much consideration the word “Legacy” seemed to constantly arise as a word that seemed to define our purpose.   We were trying to raise an endowment – to create a legacy – that would allow use to pool our money so that future organizations and future generations would be able to receive financial support for their GLBT activities and interests.   “Legacy” seemed to be the perfect word.

On December 12, 2000 after years of planning, The Legacy Fund, a Field of Interest Fund of The Columbus Foundation, was created and funded with initial start up contributions from the OK Foundation and Greer Foundation.

Many people in the LGBT community were actively involved in these developmental years of The Legacy Fund in a variety of roles as principles, advisers, interim board members, ex-officio members and initial donors.  Without “years” of meetings and planning, The Legacy Fund would have never seen the light of day.

The founding members of The Legacy Fund included:
Bill Brownson, Randy Carr, Lynn Carter, Marco Capalino, Michael Caven, Sheila Clark, Karen Cookston, Stamp Corbin, Michael Council, Scot Dewhirst, Elliot Fishman, Bobbe Fulton, Lynn Greer, Jeff Jones, Kevin Kowalski, Joe Kurzer, Mollie Levin,   LeeAnn Massucci, Sue Mayer, Scott Owens, Steve Shellabarger and Ric Wanetik.