While it’s easy to think of the Marietta Community Foundation in terms of our largest grants, sometimes our most important work requires only modest amounts of money. Here are just a few of the ways the Foundation has touched the lives of real people in the last year:

The sight of a young Marietta girl is threatened by a degenerative eye condition but her family lacks the insurance to pay for the necessary medical services. A simple gift of $60 provided one in a series of medical treatments to slow the degeneration. After helping the family with the cost of many months of treatment, the condition has stabilized and the girl’s eyesight has been preserved.

A little girl in Reno is taken in by her grandmother after her parents are nowhere to be found.The child has grown out of her clothing but grandma is on a fixed income and cannot afford to buy her anything new. A generous gift of $100 allowed her to buy a couple of new outfits for school and brought a smile to the face of this innocent child.

The wheelchair of a local man living with cerebral palsy is broken but the Medicaid bureaucracy refuses to provide for a new one in the foreseeable future. A wonderful gift of $250 toward the purchase of a new wheelchair restored this gentleman’s mobility.

A bright young man from Washington County dreams of going to college some day but lacks the financial resources to make it a reality. A remarkable gift of $1,000 is pooled with those of local businesses to offer him a $20,000 scholarship to Marietta College. This young man is now well on his way to a promising future that will do honor to our community.

Some of our donors create Unrestricted Funds, entrusting the Board of the Foundation to distribute the money in the donor's name literally forever. Unrestricted Funds are a remarkable way to strengthen our community and leave a permanent philanthropic legacy.

Other donors prefer to be actively involved by establishing Restricted Funds in which the donor helps direct which charities their money will support. Restricted Funds are powerful tax and estate planning tools that allow you to give something back while maximizing your tax advantage.

Working together, we can have an enormous impact on the lives of our fellow citizens.

Please browse through these pages to learn more about giving back to our community through the Marietta Community Foundation. When you're ready to establish a permanent charitable legacy in the Mid-Ohio Valley, email bill@mariettacommunityfoundation.org or give us a call at (740) 373-3286 and we would be honored to work with you.

The Marietta Community Foundation. For good. For ever.