President's corner

November 28, 2023 (Volume 47, Number 7)

Lesley Slavitt, executive director of the Johnson Center, said the fully funded chair will play a critical role in helping to navigate a time of immense dynamism and complexity.

Photo Credit: Amanda Pitts

A $1.2 million grant from the Frey Foundation and a $1 million matching gift from a generous donor will create Grand Valley’s first fully endowed chair at the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy.

The Frey Foundation Chair for Family Philanthropy – the first of its kind in the nation – was created at the Johnson Center as a result of a $1.5 million grant from the Frey Foundation in 2008. The additional $2.2 million creates a permanent funding stream for the position.

President Philomena V. Mantella said the gifts will enhance the internationally recognized work being done at the Johnson Center and ensure it continues as a global resource in advancing meaningful, effective philanthropy.

“These gifts from the Frey Foundation and another generous donor will fully endow a chair position that will benefit the philanthropic community for generations to come and further elevate the important work being done at the Johnson Center,” Mantella said.

Lesley D. Slavitt, executive director of the Johnson Center, said the chair will play a critical role in helping to navigate a time of immense dynamism and complexity.

Giving by families in the U.S. is at an inflection point today, one that combines a historic process of wealth transfer (Generation X and Millennials stand to inherit as much as $84 trillion by 2045) and a worrying decline in the number of U.S. households that say they give to charity (that number has dropped below 50% for the first time).