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| Sapphire Fund Establishes
Endowment
with Philadelphia Foundation |
September 16, 2004 — Philadelphia, PA — The Sapphire Fund, a nonprofit charitable organization supporting Philadelphia's lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community, has established an endowment with Philadelphia Foundation and has inaugurated the fund with $10,000, it was announced today by R. Andrew Swinney, President of the $240 million community foundation.
"We are proud to align ourselves with The Philadelphia Foundation with their incomparable history of representing, developing, and managing charitable funds," said Mark Blecher, President of the Sapphire Fund. "This endowment with The Philadelphia Fund will provide us with a vehicle for investment in our organization and new opportunities for assets, ensuring Sapphire's community mission will continue to take root and flourish over the next several years."
With the creation of the endowment, the Sapphire Fund has taken the first step toward the goal of becoming a self-sustained entity. By expanding the agency's sources of income, which already include individual giving, corporate sponsorship, and event revenue, partnership with The Philadelphia Foundation ensures that the Sapphire Fund will always have assets to disperse, invest, and distribute. Additionally, by serving the dual functions of both grantee and grantor, Sapphire Fund will be able to continue adding events and services to diversify its community outreach. "We believe that our relationship with The Philadelphia Foundation will allow us to develop new strategic alliances and partnerships that will ultimately create additional avenues of income for our agency," stated Brad Richards, Sapphire Fund Vice President.
Sapphire Fund was established in 2002 to support the efforts of organizations contributing to the health and well being of Philadelphia's lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community and those who support them. Sapphire Fund is a volunteer organization, conceived and run by members and supporters of the Philadelphia LGBT community. The Fund is an outgrowth of the long-standing annual Blue Ball fundraising event, which was first held in 1991.
In the past two years, the Sapphire Fund has distributed more then $125,000 to the LGBT community through its beneficiaries, including The William Way Community Center, MANNA, The Attic Youth Center, and Safe Guards, as well as supporting and promoting other worthy organizations such as the 2004 Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. In 2005, the organization has plans to expand its reach by planning several new events that focus on volunteerism, health, and wellness.
"The Philadelphia Foundation has a long and proud history of promoting philanthropy within the LGBT community and of supporting LGBT organizations. We are very proud to welcome the Sapphire Fund to our growing family of charitable causes," said Swinney.
The Philadelphia Foundation is a pool of over 600 permanent, charitable trust funds that have been created since 1918 to connect people who care with the causes that matter to them. Endowments are established both by individuals and by nonprofit organizations to improve the quality of life in Southeastern Pennsylvania. |
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