Posted on September 8, 2003

Cleveland Foundation Receives Largest Gift in Ninety-Year History

The Cleveland Foundation has received an unrestricted bequest, estimated between $60 million and $70 million, from the estate of Frank and Nancy Porter of Geauga County, Ohio.

The bequest — the largest gift in the foundation's ninety-year history — represents over 90 percent of the total value of the Porters' trusts and estates and is in the form of marketable securities, privately held companies, an extensive modern art collection, and real estate in Northeast Ohio, Idaho, California, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The gift will be used to establish the Frank H. and Nancy L. Porter Fund, a discretionary fund to be administered by the foundation's board of directors for the good of Greater Cleveland region.

"This bequest is truly a gift from the entire Porter family to Greater Cleveland," said foundation president Ronald B. Richard. "Gifts such as this allow the Cleveland Foundation to enhance its support of the economic, social, and cultural life of this great community."

Frank Porter was the longtime owner of Central Cadillac in downtown Cleveland, which he helped build with and eventually bought from his father-in-law, as well as a successful real estate developer. Nancy Lyon Porter was well known as a community volunteer and served on the boards and committees of thirteen different organizations, including the Welfare Federation of Cleveland, the Center for Families and Children, and the Benjamin Rose Institute.