Our History
In 1998, David Tory, together with Lorraine Astle Jenks, founded Broadhow, the precursor to ECCF, to provide infrastructure support and training services to nonprofit organizations supporting children and families at risk throughout Essex County. Broadhow's mission was to provide these services for free or at minimal costs.
In the course of providing these services they quickly became aware of a number of issues that would be best addressed by a community foundation.
What they found:
- Many nonprofit organizations were losing funding because of their geographic location or because they were too small.
- There was a clear need for nonprofits to collaborate and share resources.
- Many successful individuals were searching for ways to donate to their communities, particularly through estate planning, but had no means of doing so within the county. Their only choice was to either create a private foundation or move their funds outside the county.
In response to these needs, Broadhow, after months of consideration and close consultation with nonprofit organizations, foundations, and community leaders, decided to change its legal status and name and became the Essex County Community Foundation.
Since incorporating as a community foundation, the mission of ECCF has remained connected to the community - to the philanthropists who live here and want to make a difference, and the nonprofit organizations working to improve the well-being of all who live here.
We regularly convene donors, nonprofits, and other community leaders in informal conversations, peer groups and in topic-specific meetings to present information and ask for advice about what is needed. We award grants, provide educational and support services to nonprofit leaders, and when needs arise where we feel we can make a difference we initiate regional programs.
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Notre Dame High School graduation and an upbeat student
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YMCA's Early Education Program
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A student working on her GED at Catholic Charities- North
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At-risk kids in the horse therapy program at Ironstone Farm
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