The Community Foundation - Rochester Area The Community Foundation

We Now Serve Yates, Seneca Counties

Rochester Area Community Foundation has expanded its service region to Yates and Seneca counties and also launched the Yates Community Endowment, which will provide “community capital” to meet changing needs, enrich cultural life and spur sustainable growth in that county now and in the future under the guidance of a newly named local advisory board. 

“By reaching out to Yates and Seneca counties, we hope to help residents, towns and nonprofit organizations meet local needs by expanding community philanthropy,” says Jennifer Leonard, president and executive director of the Community Foundation.

This is the first service-area expansion for the Community Foundation, which since 1972 has served a six-county region comprising Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Ontario, Orleans and Wayne counties. 

Extending the borders of its service region means that Yates and Seneca county residents will be able to create or add to funds at the Community Foundation that support their counties’ general needs, as well as to help specific causes or organizations. Nonprofit organizations also may apply for grants from the Community Foundation’s general funds and students from these two counties also will be eligible to apply for scholarships during the upcoming school year.

 “The economic and cultural connection between greater Rochester and these two counties in the heart of the Finger Lakes is strong, with the increasing popularity of the wineries and other vacation destinations, the investment in summer homes, and the links with Susan B. Anthony’s historical roots,” says Leonard.

The Community Foundation already holds several endowment funds that benefit the new counties and has made grants to regional initiatives like the Finger Lakes Museum and National Women’s Hall of Fame. Representatives of the two counties — Seneca County Planning Director Mitchell Rowe and Keuka College staff Carolanne Marquis and Rodney Terminello — participated in the Community Foundation’s “Transfer of Wealth” research, which was announced in June. That research showed that over the next few decades billions of dollars will transfer between generations in greater Rochester and the Finger Lakes, creating an opportunity to expand permanent charitable resources.

The Yates Community Endowment will raise funds specifically for Yates County under the guidance of a local advisory board co-chaired by Katie Nord Peterson of Penn Yan and Tom Argust of Rochester and the Town of Italy. Argust is a former Community Foundation board president who retired in 2003 as Rochester’s Commissioner of Community Development.

The new initiative already has attracted a $100,000 challenge grant for unrestricted endowment from the Ohio-based Nord Family Foundation, where Katie Peterson serves as vice chair. The first two major gifts were announced on August 26 — a $50,000 contribution from Carolyn and Tom Argust of Rochester and the Town of Italy and $20,000 from the Yunis family and two of their businesses. Those gifts will be matched dollar for dollar by the Nord Family Foundation, bringing the current endowment total to $170,000. The next $30,000 in gifts designated for broad support of Yates County also will be eligible for the match.

The new advisory board will identify changing community needs in Yates County and, beginning in 2012, will allocate income from the endowment in grants to meet those needs. In addition to Peterson and Argust, other members of the all-volunteer board are:

  • Rob Corcoran, a retired JP Morgan Chase executive who is president of the Keuka Lake Association, director of Cornell Cooperative Exchange of Yates County, and treasurer of both the Finger Lakes Economic Development Center and Lakeside Country Club. He lives in the Town of Milo;
  • H. Taylor Fitch, chair of the Yates County Legislature and a resident of the Town of Jerusalem;
  • Jeffrey S. Gifford, president of The Birkett Mills in Penn Yan, the world’s largest manufacturer of buckwheat products. He lives in Penn Yan;
  • Rita L. Gow, a CPA, Keuka College associate professor of accounting and Professor of the Year for 2010-11. She lives in Barrington;
  • Amy Hoffman, co-owner of Rooster Hill Vineyards in Penn Yan;
  • Ellen O’Neill, a retired director of development at Finger Lakes Community College who is a longtime resident of Penn Yan;
  • Frank P. Strong Jr., Keuka College trustee emeritus, former board chair and interim president, and co-chair of the recent Presidential Search Committee. Owner-operator of a commercial grape-growing farm in Yates County and a partner emeritus in the private equity firm Trillium Group, he lives in Perinton and the Town of Jerusalem;
  • Willie Taaffe, former executive director of the Yates County Industrial Development Agency and a former board member of Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hospital and Lakeside Country Club. A resident of the Town of Milo, he is president and owner of TAAFFE Management Group, Inc.; and
  • Bebette Yunis, an attorney for the family-owned Yunis Enterprises, and a resident of Syracuse and Barrington.

The Yates Community Endowment is similar to the Wayne County Community Endowment, which was created in1984 with charitable gifts from the estate of Wayne County native Nettie Bullis.  An unrestricted permanent fund and many other endowment funds that benefit Wayne County have been established at the Community Foundation, which has prudently and professionally managed those assets with help from an investment committee of financial experts.

An all-volunteer advisory board, comprised of Wayne County residents, oversees the endowment, approves grant recommendations and encourages donors to contribute to existing funds or establish new ones.

Click here to see photos on Facebook from the August 26th reception at Esperanza Mansion to celebrate the launch of the Yates Community Endowment and announce the Argust and Yunis gifts.

 


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