Since it was established in 2018, the Marian S. Snyder Fund of Berks County Community Foundation has made a seismic impact on local, state, and national organizations.
The fund, which names six organizations to which grants can be awarded, distributed $680,400.00 in fiscal year 2026. This most recent grant cycle brings the total amount granted to $4,564,206.50 since 2018.
But who are the beneficiaries of the Marian S. Snyder Fund, and who exactly was Marian Snyder? The first question is easier to answer than the latter.
Within the fund agreement signed on September 18, 2018, the Estate of Marian S. Snyder designated the following organizations as potential grant beneficiaries:
- Berks County Association for the Blind (now known as Vision Resource Center of Berks County.)
- Foundation for the Reading Public Museum
- Berks Visiting Nurse Association (now closed; Tower Health at Home acquired the association’s clients and contracts). Funding therefore goes to Tower Health at Home.
As a part of Mrs. Snyder’s estate planning, she expressed her wishes for Berks County Community Foundation to make distributions to one or more of the organizations identified, so long as they apply the funding toward creating a more sustainable and effective business model. Simply put, Marian Snyder wanted to help these organizations grow and thrive for a long, long time.
The organizations the Marian S. Snyder Fund supports tout impressive offerings and programming. $60,000 of the most recent grant cycle was awarded to American Cancer Society (ACS) for the Philadelphia Hope Lodge, which provides lodging, transportation, and an array of support services for Berks County cancer patients receiving care in the greater Philadelphia area.
Vision Resource Center of Berks County received $45,000 in that same grant cycle for marketing and the installation of a security system. The center provides free services, vision screenings, meaningful employment, and a Low Vision Store to enhance independent living. A security system that can adequately alert individuals across the visual impairment spectrum is necessary for the safety and comfort of all its visitors.
In 2024, Berks County Community Foundation distributed $250,000 from the Marian S. Snyder Fund to the Foundation for the Reading Public Museum in support of construction and renovations to the building, as well as the hiring of a full-time development team member.
Animal Rescue League (ARL) of Berks County offers medical and animal control services, animal surrender prevention support, and animal cruelty investigation services. In fiscal year 2026, $135,400 was awarded to ARL of Berks County for staff development, facility upgrades, expanded veterinary services, modern equipment, and targeted community outreach.
Humane Pennsylvania’s Healthy Pets Initiative (HPI) seeks to provide meaningful access to veterinary care that anyone can afford. From a full service, nationally accredited animal hospital, to walk-in wellness clinics and pay-what-you can neighborhood vaccination clinics, HPI has ways for everyone to get their pets critical health care. The expanded pet food pantry, which is open seven days a week at each Berks adoption center, features kiosks for improved accessibility. In fiscal year 2026, the Marian S. Snyder Fund supported HPI and the pet food pantry with a $100,000 grant.
The last grant made in fiscal year 2026 from the Marian S. Snyder Fund of Berks County Community Foundation was distributed to Tower Health at Home; this home healthcare program allows patients to recover from illness or manage chronic conditions in the comfort of their homes, surrounded by their loved ones. $90,000 was granted for the purchase of 5G-enabled iPads to implement Comfort, the Hospice component of Epic, an electronic health record (EHR) platform. The iPads and Comfort aim to enhance patient safety and efficiency.
Milian is not the only Community Foundation team member to know Marian S. Snyder through charitable legacy alone. In fact, very little is known about the Berks County philanthropist. What we do know was discovered through obituaries and other county records.
Marian S. (Schaffer) Snyder was a graduate of Kutztown State Teachers College, now Kutztown University, and was certified to teach English, geography, history and social studies. After college, she completed a course of study at McCann School of Business, now known as Berks Technical Institute (BTI).
She worked as a secretary for 15 years at American Casualty Company, later CNA, first for the company’s personnel director and later for the president. After her marriage to fellow Berks Countian and Attorney Fredrick R. Snyder, she assisted her husband in his law practice part time until his retirement, soon before his death.
Attorney Frederick Snyder was a 1935 graduate of Reading High School, a 1939 graduate of Princeton University, and a 1943 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He attended Harvard Law School and served in the Army Signal Corps, 111th Radio Intelligence Company in the South Pacific. In 1943, after graduating from law school in Philadelphia, Frederick was admitted to the Berks County Court of Common Pleas and the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. In 1956, Frederick was admitted to the United States District Court and then the Supreme Court of the United States of America in 1968. Fredrick remained an active member of the Berks community until his death in 2006; he was a member of Grace Lutheran Church in Reading and held leadership positions in organizations including the Exchange Club of Reading, Reading YMCA, the Masonic Center Foundation of Reading, and the Reading Fair.
For her part, Marian was a member of several civic and social organizations in Berks County before her death in 2018. She would have been honored as a 50-year member of the Order of the Eastern Star, Reading Chapter #251, had she not passed before the celebration could take place.
One could assume that Fredrick and Marian Snyder bonded over shared values of service and community. Marian Snyder’s bequest to the Community Foundation ensures her charitable legacy lasts forever.
“Leaving a bequest to the Community Foundation is one way for those who are philanthropic to support the community they love long after they are gone. Marian Snyder had the foresight to create a plan to support the organizations and causes that meant the most to her,” says Molly McCullough Robbins, Vice President for Philanthropic Services.
Berks County Community Foundation believes anyone can make a difference in our community. While the funds we manage range in size and scope, the meaningful support each fund provides cannot be compared to one another: support is felt, not weighed. In the case of Marian S. Snyder, her fund tells us she loved animals and cared about accessible and dignified healthcare; she valued the arts and culture; she knew philanthropy played a major role in the sustainability of the causes she loved, and she planned to give generously.
Are you interested in planning for future support of the causes you love? You can also create your own fund to benefit the causes and organizations you love by visiting Plan Your Giving.
Remember: change starts with a spark. Your spark.
