The New Hampshire Charitable Foundation is here for good.
New Hampshire’s statewide community foundation was launched in 1962. The era was one of both challenge and peril — but also of audacious optimism, and belief in what was possible.
Belief in the possible nurtured a great idea for New Hampshire: The creation of a permanent source of philanthropic capital designed to do good immediately — and to endure to do good for generations.
Eugene Struckhoff, John McLane, Jr. and Dudley Orr, all New Hampshire attorneys, had been trustees of trusts created by Gov. Huntley Spaulding, his wife, Harriet, and sister, Marion Potter. The trustees had been directed to distribute nearly $17 million to charity. They gave some $14 million to organizations serving children and the elderly, to hospitals and mental health centers, to organizations working on equality of opportunity for Black people, to arts organizations, those protecting environmental resources — and more.
But with $2.7 million of that trust, they did something entirely different: They invested it to create the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, and encouraged generous people to contribute to the effort.
That seed investment in a community foundation for New Hampshire has borne fruit in ways that the founders could not have imagined: $932 million has been distributed in grants and scholarships since 1962, including $65 million in 2023 alone.
Their belief in the possible launched an institution that has been a constant through 12 U.S. presidents and 13 New Hampshire governors, multiple economic recessions, a statewide banking crisis, an opioid epidemic, a global pandemic, housing crises and more.
This Foundation was built for both endurance and adaptability. As critical issues facing our community shift, as new complexities and perils arise, resources are available to invest in promising solutions.
Our purpose is to make New Hampshire a community where everyone can thrive. The Foundation supports efforts to advance health and well-being, environmental protection, education, housing and other basic needs, arts and culture, civic health and economic security.
Because people face unfair barriers to thriving based on factors including race, ability, income, gender identity and more, we are focused on advancing equity, racial justice and economic security in all areas of our work. The Foundation makes grants and awards scholarships, and engages in policy and advocacy work, collaboration with nonprofits, impact investing and donor engagement to address critical issues facing the New Hampshire community.
The stories in our 2023 annual report illustrate how the Foundation is helping our communities address some of today’s critical issues — from climate change to voting access, from health care to child care.
More than six decades on, we find ourselves again in an era of complex challenges. Challenges in decades to come may be more complex yet. The Charitable Foundation will be here. For good.
This letter appears in the Charitable Foundation’s 2023 annual report. Read the full report here.
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