We’re honored to work with so many individuals, families, and businesses to make a difference in the causes you care about. Philanthropy isn’t just about wealth—it’s about values, habits, and improving the quality of life in our community. This philosophy guides our work with donors across generations. We hope you enjoy this month’s insights and tips.
We are Here for You: Four Reasons to Call the Community Foundation
In an economic and legislative environment full of unpredictability, we encourage you to tap into the knowledgeable team at the Community Foundation – perhaps even more than you have in the past.
If you’ve already established a fund at the Community Foundation, you’re familiar with many of the ways we make charitable giving easy, flexible, and effective. This allows you to achieve your goals for improving the quality of life in our community as well as fulfilling your own estate planning and financial objectives.
Not quite sure when to reach out to the Community Foundation? If any of these situations applies to you, drop us an email or give us a call!
1. You promised yourself at the end of 2024 that you’ll never again get caught in a year-end crunch.
The last few months of the year are always hectic with holiday activities. When you layer on the added stress of tax planning and completing the charitable giving plans you set back in January, you might tip the scales from hectic to chaotic! The foundation staff can help organize your year-end charitable giving early, so that it achieves both your financial and philanthropic goals.
2. You’re concerned about recent drops in funding to local charities, but you’re not quite sure about what you can do to help.
The Community Foundation is Berks County’s home for charitable giving. That means that we have a finger on the pulse of our community’s needs and the nonprofits that are addressing those needs. Our team can provide recommendations for how you can help fill the gaps in funding that have affected local organizations.
3. Your tax advisor has suggested that 2025 is an important year to increase your charitable donations, but you don’t want your gifts to favorite charities to suddenly spike and then drop again.
For the small percentage of people who itemize deductions on their individual income tax returns, 2025 may indeed present opportunities. Our team is happy to work with you and your tax advisors to structure gifts to a fund at the Community Foundation. This will ensure that you’re leveraging tax advantages while also maintaining consistent support year after year for the causes that are important to you.
4. You’re updating your estate plan and want to leave money to charity, but you’re not exactly sure what charity you want to support.
Please reach out to Berks County Community Foundation anytime you are updating your estate plan or related financial documents, such as beneficiary designations on IRAs, life insurance policies, or retirement accounts. Our team is happy to work with your advisors to make sure you’re exploring the tax benefits of using various types of assets to fund your charitable intentions.
Whatever your charitable giving situation, we are here for you! Whether you’ve already started a fund at the Community Foundation or you’re considering getting involved, we look forward to our conversation.
Reading, PA (August 25, 2025) – Health and Human Services Program Officer of Berks County Community Foundation, Cindy Milian, gave the keynote speech at the Community Wellness Department of Reading Hospital Tower Health’s “Voices for Health” event. This event launched the Community Wellness Department’s week-long celebration of community health workers. Tanieka Mason, MPH, Director of Health Equity at Tower Health, asked Cindy to address the health needs of Berks County residents, impart her expert knowledge, and provide a testimonial to the vital services our community health workers provide.
Event attendees and speakers included Helping Harvest Fresh Food Bank’s President, Jay Worrall; Reading Hospital President and CEO, Dr. Charles F. Barbera, MD, MBA, MPH, FACEP; Secretary of Human Service of the PA Department of Health, Dr. Valeria Arkoosh, MD, MPH; Executive Deputy Secretary of the PA Department of Health, Kristen Rodack; Senator Judy Schwank; various local health service and pharmaceutical providers, and of course, a cohort of dedicated community health workers who serve Berks County.
According to the Tower Health website, “Reading Hospital’s Community Wellness Department works to identify and address key health issues in the community by leading a variety of programs and initiatives, collaborating with community partners, and investing in the overall health of our community.”
Cindy Milian’s keynote speech for the Community Wellness Department of Reading Hospital Tower Health’s “Voices for Health” event can be found below. Please note that certain photographs and last names of individuals have been omitted to maintain anonymity.
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“Thank you to the Community Wellness Department of Reading Hospital Tower Health for having me as a speaker for this event.
It is an honor to address esteemed hospital leadership, the stewards and officials of our local community, and of course, the cohort of community health workers present today.
My name is Cindy Milian, and I am the Health and Human Services Program Officer at Berks County Community Foundation. After 25 years of working as an Early Intervention Specialist, Therapeutic Staff Support, Home Health Aide Supervisor, Caseworker, and Casework Supervisor in Pennsylvania, I decided to take a well-deserved break by joining the foundation and overseeing hundreds of grants for individuals, public health initiatives, and human services initiatives.
Before I talk to you about community health, patient advocacy, or social determinants of health, I want to talk about my grandson.
This is Alexander (image omitted). He loves Baby Shark, Reggaeton, and being carried on my husband’s shoulders. If anyone here has a one-year-old child in their lives, then you know that they assert themselves and their needs loudly and with conviction. Alexander is no exception to this—we always know when he’s hungry, or wants Papa, or isn’t feeling well. Being a grandmother to Alexander means witnessing community health initiatives in action; it means fielding a lot of requests for help and hugs; it requires the inspection of the tangible and intangible world around him, and evaluating how it will affect his mental, physical, and spiritual health.
But the real inspection I want to conduct today is on the health of Berks County. My current work with the Community Foundation places me in a position of power and privilege: the power—or burden—of saying no to grant applicants, and the privilege of witnessing the life-changing impacts our donors have on their fellow Berks residents.
With the foundation, I’ve met with Hamburg community leaders who are struggling to identify mental health clinics for their at-risk populations; in Reading, I’ve guided a monolingual, Spanish speaking resident through the process of applying for a grant that could save her child’s life; and all over Berks County,
I’ve talked with countless individuals who are one paycheck away from homelessness. They are our neighbors, our coworkers, our friends. They are the patients we see in our offices, clinics, at-home visits and hospital beds every day.
Before we can talk about community health, we must talk about the community. In 2023, the United Way’s ALICE Report, which stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed, showed that over 40% of Berks County households earned less than the county’s basic cost of living. This means that more than 47,000 Berks County working households are one paycheck away from a severe financial crisis, and more than 18,000 households are living in poverty.
For those 18,000+ households, the cost of a survival budget is unattainable. Meaning 12% of Berks Countians cannot afford the following:
- Housing
- Childcare
- Food
- Transportation
- Health care
- Technology
- Taxes and
- Unanticipated, one-time costs within the other categories.
So, what budget item would you cut to make ends meet? Would you call out from work and miss a paycheck because you couldn’t afford the bus fare? Would you skip a mammogram appointment to pay your rent this month? These aren’t hyperbolic questions designed to scare you – these are questions that tens of thousands of our community members ask themselves every day.
Some people in Berks County might hear these numbers and think, “well, that’s just a City of Reading issue.” This belief is false.
In 2023, the local government released the Study of the Delivery of Health and Public Health Services in Berks County, a comprehensive report that identified four health priorities that are specific to Berks and affect every school district in the county:
- The need to improve access to equitable care, particularly for marginalized populations
- The need to provide behavioral/mental healthcare to both adults and youth
- The need to focus on health education and health literacy, especially resources and information tied to wellness and disease prevention
- The need to address health disparities and increase the focus on health equity
Based on the information provided in this report, I’d like to share with you a story that highlights the need for these improvements. Last names have been omitted to maintain anonymity.
Ms. Susan is a grandmother, just like me. She lives in Boyertown, and, like so many families in our county, has been tasked with the guardianship of her grandson, who was diagnosed with Joubert Syndrome at birth. This genetic disorder affects part of the brain that controls balance and coordination. The disorder requires extensive therapy and services to manage daily living. Missing these appointments can have severe impacts on health – so why would Susan skip them? Ms. Lauren, a community health worker assigned to Susan’s family, noticed a trend of skipped appointments and decided to check in with the family.
Lauren found that Susan’s husband is wheelchair bound and in need of constant care, just like their grandson. Between providing 24/7 care for both her husband and grandson, Susan struggled to manage the paperwork and scheduling necessary for her grandson to attend school and therapy. Lauren discovered that the family didn’t have readily available access to a computer, where most of this paperwork could be found. That’s when Lauren reached out to the foundation.
For less than $200, Jess’s Sunshine Fund provided a laptop for Susan to manage her grandson’s care. The no more missed appointments led to no more unnecessary declines in her grandson’s health. Susan’s grant is one of the smallest distributions made by Jess’s Sunshine Fund, but it was profoundly impactful.
This technological barrier reveals a much larger truth: when we have a dedicated community health worker committed to the recognition, investigation, and improvement of the conditions that people are born, raised, and grow in, we can work together to create a healthier future.
Stories like Susan’s are just one of hundreds that I’ve been a part of at Berks County Community Foundation. Our relationships with community health workers in the county allow us to allocate donor dollars to essential health initiatives.
I’d like to give you another example of how collaboration with a community health worker made a positive impact on a family.
In 2024, a Berks County community health worker, Ms. Bobbi, noticed that Ms. Carmen, whose son has sickle cell anemia and Lowe syndrome, often rescheduled or missed her son’s necessary, recurring appointments in Philadelphia. After talking with Carmen, Bobbi discovered two things: first, Carmen’s car was in constant need of repair and wholly unreliable. Second, Carmen is a single mom, tasked with providing constant care for her son. As a young boy who is blind, non-verbal, and non-ambulatory, Carmen’s son has total dependence on his mother.
With Bobbi’s help and a written letter of recommendation, Carmen applied for our Arthur O. and Clara M. Schlegel Memorial Fund and was awarded the grant money needed to purchase a reliable vehicle. In Carmen’s case, and too often in Berks, non-medical factors impede our community’s health. We’ve all heard the cliché statement of, “I can’t afford to get sick right now.” Right now, it is our job to make a healthy life attainable and affordable for all.
Addressing the social determinants of health in Berks decreases health issues and lessens the burden on our community. Having a community health worker on your care team to identify both non-medical and medical needs is vital to ensuring positive health outcomes.
Berks County is a beautiful, diverse, and complicated region. We speak different languages, experience different life stressors, and hold vastly different beliefs. But our personal health is fundamentally interconnected with our community’s health. We need community health workers in our offices, clinics, hospital rooms, and mobile health services. Now more than ever, for ourselves and for future generations.
In closing, I want to leave you with one final thought. At Berks County Community Foundation, we have a quote on the wall of our boardroom from local philanthropist and industrialist Louis R. Thun; that reads,
“We remind ourselves constantly that we are heirs of an exceptional past, custodians of a challenging present, and architects of a limitless future.”
I believe that together, we can rise to the challenges presented to us today. I believe that we can build a more equitable, healthy, and vivacious Berks County. And to the community health workers of Berks County – thank you. Your work is invaluable and necessary. True change can start with a single spark, and we need yours.
Thank you.”
Ed Lombardo has a connection to Berks County Community Foundation that goes back many years. A lifelong Berks resident, high school football coach, community volunteer and investment advisor, Ed recognizes the importance of philanthropy.
Earlier this year, Ed reflected on his history of giving, which includes the Lombardo Family Scholarship Fund and the Lombardo Family Memorial Fund. To learn more about Ed’s connections to Muhlenburg, read his feature in this year’s edition of our annual magazine, 237 Court. Click here to view the magazine; Ed’s story begins on page 3.
To learn more about establishing a fund at Berks County Community Foundation, click here or email mollyr@bccf.org.
The third issue of 237 Court Magazine is now available! This annual magazine returned to publication in 2024 and will be released each June. This year’s issue features articles about the ways in which the Community Foundation “connects the dots” in Berks County. From connecting donors to options for giving – to connecting students to engaging experiences and learning opportunities – to connecting leaders to each other in an effort to share resources, this magazine issue shines a light on the grantmaking and initiative work of Berks County Community Foundation. Click here to read the 2025 issue of 237 Court Magazine!
Visit our News and Events page to stay up to date on Berks County Community Foundation.
The Community Foundation may be best known for our grantmaking, but a considerable portion of our time is spent on community initiative work. One such project is focused on attracting and retaining college students to Berks County.
Albright College, Alvernia University, Kutztown University, Penn State Berks, and Reading Area Community College have long been cornerstones of our community. The addition of Drexel University’s medical school campus in West Reading has created even more opportunities for higher education in Berks County.
Data from Albright, Alvernia, and Penn State Berks shows that they enroll about 35% of their students from Berks County. That means that 65% of their students have chosen to relocate to Berks County for four years of their lives.
The Community Foundation began to investigate this topic by gathering a group of Berks County residents – college and university leaders, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, business owners, and civic groups to discuss ways to attract and retain students to Berks County. Student engagement with the local community supports better retention.
One focus area emerged: it is essential to make it easier for students to find local employment through internships, mentorships, and better connections between employers and campuses.
As a result of these conversations, a first-of-its-kind event is happening soon! On July 10th, 2025, Alvernia University is hosting a collaborative Internship Summit.
This event is designed for businesses and employers to help create meaningful and effective internship opportunities. For more information and to register, click on the link. To stay up to date on the Foundation, visit our News and Events page.
READING, PA (April 9, 2025) – Berks County Community Foundation is pleased to announce the conclusion of its 1st quarter grant cycle for calendar year 2025, which has successfully distributed vital funding to local nonprofits and initiatives dedicated to improving our community.
In this quarter, the Foundation awarded grants to a diverse range of projects focusing in areas of environment and energy, education, health and human services, arts and culture, and neighborhoods and economic development; supporting the impactful work of local organizations that improve the lives of Berks County residents.
These numbers are a testament to the Foundation’s commitment to its mission to promote philanthropy and improve the quality of life for the residents of Berks County.
- Q1 total grants awarded: 190
- Q1 total dollar amount awarded: $1,152,270
- Q1 number of organizations impacted: 142
“Grants awarded are made possible by generous donors who give back to the community they love,” stated Molly McCullough Robbins, Vice President for Philanthropic Services.
Moving forward, community members are invited to join the Community Foundation in sparking change. Here are two ways to get involved:
- Give to an Existing Fund: Your contributions can help sustain the important work of established funds addressing specific needs within Berks County.
- Create Your Own Fund: Whether you want to honor a loved one or support a particular cause or organization, the Foundation can help you to create a fund that reflects your passions and philanthropic goals.
For more information on how to give or create a fund, please visit www.bccf.org, email Molly McCullough Robbins at mollyr@bccf.org, or call (610) 685-2223.
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Berks County Community Foundation is a nonprofit corporation serving as a civic leader for our region by developing, managing, and distributing charitable funds to improve the quality of life in Berks County, PA. More information is available at www.bccf.org.
One of the most pressing issues facing Berks County – and many communities across the country – is poverty. Poverty is not just an individual struggle–it is a community-wide concern. While poverty is often viewed as a stand-alone issue, the reality is that it’s deeply interconnected with many aspects of our lives, including physical and mental health, family relationships, cognitive development in children, and the risk of homelessness and violence.
To address these complex issues and spark meaningful conversation, we invite you to a Poverty Simulation. This unique, interactive workshop is designed to provide participants with a deeper understanding of the challenges faced by families living in poverty, and more importantly, to inspire action toward solutions.
What is a Poverty Simulation?
The Poverty Simulation is a role-playing exercise where participants are assigned a new persona and family profile that reflects the realities of low-income families. Over the course of the simulation, participants navigate through daily tasks—tasks that many of us take for granted, such as paying bills, buying groceries, and finding transportation.
However, the experience isn’t just about completing these tasks—it’s about realizing how hard it can be to meet even the most basic needs when financial resources are limited. The outcomes of the simulation are unpredictable, and participants are often surprised by how difficult it is to make ends meet.
The Poverty Simulation offers participants a rare opportunity to walk in the shoes of someone facing these challenges. It helps participants see firsthand how factors like limited access to resources, transportation, and support networks can impact the ability to thrive. The hope is that by experiencing this, individuals will gain empathy and a deeper understanding of the barriers that many in our community face.
After the simulation, participants engage in meaningful discussions about how our community can address these challenges. They are prompted to think critically about the systems in place and explore how we can all work together to create solutions that lift people out of poverty and support families in need. Participating in the Poverty Simulation is an opportunity to not only gain insight into the realities of living in poverty, but also to be part of a larger movement toward change.
Whether you’re a business leader, educator, healthcare professional, or simply a concerned citizen, your involvement in these discussions can help make Berks County a more equitable place for everyone. After participating in the poverty simulation, community leaders will be equipped to make decisions in their work while keeping the barriers faced by the people they serve in mind. Join us in this vital effort to make a difference. You can stay up to date on all the foundation’s events by clicking here.
Individuals hold the power to spark real change in their communities.
Thanks to the generosity of our community, Berks County Community Foundation now manages nearly 400 funds totaling over $140 million. Since we were founded in 1994, donors have worked with us to establish these funds to support the causes and organizations that are most important to them. Are you interested in giving back to your community? Sparking change in Berks County starts with defining your charitable goals to create a fund. We can help you achieve those goals, no matter the cause or motivation. Let us help make a difference to what matters most to you.
One way to spark change is to determine how you want to support the community. What causes interest you most? We have created a short questionnaire to set your journey of generosity in motion. The questionnaire starts by asking, “What do you hope to achieve with your fund?”
Different funds fulfill different charitable goals. When you create a fund with Berks County Community Foundation, do you want grants from your fund to support:
- A variety of community needs as determined by the Community Foundation
- A specific organization (or multiple organizations)
- A cause I care about, not a specific organization
- Different nonprofits that I select each year
- Individuals seeking an education
- Individuals who excel at something
Once you’ve narrowed down your goals, it’s time to talk to us. We will work with you to draft a fund agreement which details your wishes and eligibility parameters for future grant recipients from your fund.
In this three-part series, we will explore endowment funds, sparking change, and grantmaking. At Berks County Community Foundation, we do all three. Whether you’re a nonprofit leader, philanthropist, or community advocate, this series will provide insight into how strategic funding can shape a better future.
If you have questions, please email me at mollyr@bccf.org or call 610-685-2223. I look forward to hearing more about you and how you would like to spark change in our community.
READING (January 14, 2025) — Berks County Community Foundation is pleased to announce the conclusion of its 4th quarter grant cycle for calendar year 2024, which has successfully distributed vital funding to local nonprofits and initiatives dedicated to improving our community. In this quarter, the Foundation awarded grants to a diverse range of projects focusing in areas of environment and energy, education, health and human services, arts and culture, and neighborhoods and economic development; supporting the impactful work of local organizations that improve the lives of Berks County residents.
These numbers are a testament to the Foundation’s commitment to its mission to promote philanthropy and improve the quality of life for the residents of Berks County.
- Q4 total grants awarded: 225
- Q4 total dollar amount awarded: $2,120,983
- Q4 number of organizations impacted: 156
“Grants awarded are made possible by generous donors who give back to the community they love,” stated Molly McCullough Robbins, Vice President for Philanthropic Services.
Moving forward, community members are invited to join the Community Foundation in sparking change. Here are two ways to get involved:
- Give to an Existing Fund: Your contributions can help sustain the important work of established funds addressing specific needs within Berks County.
- Create Your Own Fund: Whether you want to honor a loved one or support a particular cause or organization, the Foundation can help you to create a fund that reflects your passions and philanthropic goals.
For more information on how to give or create a fund, please visit www.bccf.org, email Molly McCullough Robbins at mollyr@bccf.org, or call (610) 685-2223.
As 2024 headed to a close, Berks County lost two of its giants: David Thun and Al Weber.
Like any other community, Berks County has benefited from leaders who stood up, did the hard work of bringing a community together around its challenges and opportunities, and guided efforts to improve the quality of life. Without David Thun and Al Weber, that work will be harder.
David Thun died in a swimming accident on October 31. You would never have known he was 87 years old, given the vitality and energy that he displayed every day. The Thun family has a long and storied history in Berks County, but no one contributed more to that than David. While he was successful in business, I will most remember his contributions to the growth of our community. David was one of the founding members of the board of Berks County Community Foundation. Wading through a list of his community involvements is a dangerous task, as it feels infinite. I remember well his involvement with Berks Nature, the Schuylkill River Greenway, Reading Hospital, Penn State Berks, the Reading Symphony Orchestra, the Reading Public Museum and so many other organizations.
David and his wife Barbara were likely the first people my wife, Kim and I met when we moved to Berks County. They welcomed us and, more than anyone, David helped me learn the lay of the land here. We will miss the way David embodied the essence of a Berks Countian.
While David was the quintessential Berks Countian, Al Weber was not.
Born and raised in Boston, Al, who passed away in late November at the age of 72, never learned that there was an “R” in the word “park.” That Boston accent only added to his credibility as he led almost every nonprofit in Berks County, either as a board member or as a consultant guiding strategic planning.
Al served as Chair of the Community Foundation board from 2020-2023. There was no one’s counsel I valued more. Again, the list of community involvements would go on forever, and our debt to him can never be repaid.
Al’s biggest contribution to the Community Foundation, and perhaps our community, occurred during a staff retreat that he led as a consultant. About half-way through that meeting, Al said, “We need to toss this agenda. Your problem is that you’re trying to lead the community, but you’re charging fees like you’re a bank.”
We tossed the agenda, spent the afternoon figuring out how to create a sustainable business model, and as a result, built what is probably America’s best community foundation. Al’s ability to cut to the chase was unparalleled.
It’s the nature of communities that leaders emerge and, ultimately, leave the scene. Berks County will soldier on. Still, we benefitted greatly from the commitment that David and Al made to this community, and it will be hard to replace them. Our challenge moving forward is to build a community worthy of their trust.
