National Estate Planning Awareness Week is October 19 through 25.
This comes on the heels of August’s Make-A-Will Month. A reminder to “make a will” is good advice, of course, but a thoughtful estate plan usually involves much more than a single document. And if charitable giving is important to you, making sure all the pieces work together can be especially important.
Think about the different ways assets can pass at death. Some assets may be distributed under a will or according to the terms of a revocable trust. Other assets—including IRAs, retirement plan accounts, life insurance policies, and certain financial accounts—may pass according to beneficiary designations or “transfer on death” designations.
All of this means creating the legacy you envision requires thinking not only about who and what you want to support, but also about how particular assets will get there. For example, suppose you would like part of your estate eventually to support charitable causes through the Community Foundation. Depending on your circumstances and goals, you and your estate planning advisors might consider approaches such as:
- —Naming a fund at the Community Foundation as a beneficiary of an IRA or other retirement account. You can generally designate a charitable beneficiary to receive all or a percentage of your IRA or retirement account, while leaving other assets to family members or other beneficiaries. Traditional retirement accounts can be particularly worth discussing with your advisors because distributions that may be taxable to individual beneficiaries generally can be received by a qualified charitable organization—including the Community Foundation—without the same income tax burden.
- —Leaving a specific dollar amount through your will or trust. Perhaps you want $25,000, $100,000, or another amount to establish or add to a fund at the Community Foundation. Your attorney can incorporate the appropriate language into your estate planning documents.
- —Leaving a percentage of your estate through your will or trust. Instead of specifying a dollar amount, you might direct that a percentage of your estate passes to a charitable fund. A percentage gift can adjust along with the value of your estate over time.
- —Creating a fund to support favorite organizations or causes. Your estate gift could establish or add to a designated fund benefiting an organization you care about, or a field-of-interest fund supporting an issue or area of interest that has been meaningful to you.
- —Leaving a gift to meet changing community needs. You might instead leave all or a percentage of your estate as an unrestricted gift to the Community Foundation. This approach entrusts the Community Foundation to put charitable dollars to work where they can make an important difference as community needs and opportunities change over time.
These approaches do not necessarily have to stand alone! Charitable components of your estate plan might incorporate more than one document, beneficiary designation, asset, or type of fund to accomplish your goals. What’s more, setting up a charitable giving structure is especially important if you are anticipating a business exit at some point in the future.
National Estate Planning Awareness Week is an opportunity to look at your entire estate plan and ask whether your documents and beneficiary designations work together to reflect the people, organizations, and community you want to support.
Berks County Community Foundation team would be honored to help you think about how it can become part of your legacy, too. We can work alongside your attorney, CPA, and financial advisor to help you explore charitable options and determine what type of fund may best carry out your intentions for years—and perhaps generations—to come.
Listen to the latest episode of Sparking Change: The Official Podcast of Berks County Community Foundation, titled “Berks Youth are Raising their VOiCEs”.
This episode of “Sparking Change” features Casey Trexler, Director of Operations at VOiCEup Berks, an organization whose mission is to mobilize and empower young changemakers to shape more equitable communities through service learning.
Throughout the episode, listeners will learn about VOiCEup’s beginnings, international recognition for their impactful programming, as well as what is in store for the organization’s future. Monica Reyes, Vice President for Programs and Initiatives, hosts the conversation.
Connect with Casey Trexler by emailing her at casey@voiceupberks.org
Connect with Monica Reyes by calling the foundation at 610-685-2223.
The mission of Berks County Community Foundation is to promote philanthropy and improve the quality of life for Berks County residents.
Other ways to listen to “Solar in Berks County Schools”:
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Not everyone gets to see their parents turn 100 years old, but Berks County Community Foundation does.
This year, Berks County celebrates a remarkable milestone: the 100th anniversary of The Wyomissing Foundation, an institution whose influence reaches far beyond its grantmaking.
Founded in 1926 by Wyomissing Industries visionary leaders, Ferdinand Thun, Henry Janssen and Gustav Oberlaender, the Foundation has spent a century investing not only in organizations, but also in ideas, partnerships, and community assets that continue to enrich the lives of Berks County residents today. While Janssen and Oberlaender ultimately left to start their own foundations (the Gustav Oberlaender Foundation became a fund of the Community Foundation), descendants of Ferdinand Thun continue to serve on the board today.
Perhaps one of the Foundation’s most enduring legacies is its role in creating and nurturing institutions that have become essential parts of Berks County’s civic infrastructure.
The Foundation also helped spark the creation and growth of organizations that have shaped our region’s environmental future. Berks Nature has become a leading advocate for environmental stewardship, conservation, and outdoor education across the county. Likewise, the Schuylkill River Greenways National Heritage Area has transformed how residents and visitors experience one of Pennsylvania’s most important natural resources, preserving history while expanding recreational access and protecting the environment for future generations. They were a founding partner in the effort to establish the Berks Community Health Center, a central part of our effort to approve local health outcomes.
In fact, a list of local organizations who haven’t been strengthened by the Wyomissing Foundation’s efforts would be easier to develop than a list of those who have. There might not be any, and of course, we wouldn’t be on that list.
In 1994, a working group of The Wyomissing Foundation established Berks County Community Foundation. They built the first Board of Directors, provided the seed funding (and credibility) and gave us everything we needed to get started (my first few paychecks even came from the Wyomissing Foundation). It’s an example of an ethos that has marked their work: They put in more than just money; they make investments of intellectual capital and elbow grease.
As we celebrate this extraordinary anniversary, we also celebrate the countless trustees, volunteers, staff members, community partners, and donors who have carried forward the Foundation’s mission across generations. Their collective leadership has helped create a community where philanthropy, civic engagement, and collaboration continue to flourish.
Congratulations to The Wyomissing Foundation on 100 years of service, leadership, and impact. Berks County is stronger because of the vision of your founders and those who helped realize that vision.
Here’s to the next century of catalyzing change.
Berks County Community Foundation is not the only grantmaking organization in the community and certainly not the oldest. This year, we’re noting the centennial anniversaries of two of our great colleague organizations whose service to, and impact on, Berks County’s quality of life predates ours by 68 years.
In 1926, a financial crisis threatened the future of some local music groups, including the fledgling Reading Symphony Orchestra. A group of fifteen local people gathered to create the Reading Musical Foundation (RMF) to generate funding to ensure the sustainability of music offerings in the community. For a century, the organization has been a key funder for music organizations like the Symphony, the Reading Choral Society, and many more.
What began as a mission to sustain a handful of cultural institutions evolved into something much larger. In 1971, RMF began awarding scholarships, which is a central function of the organization today. They work to make sure that Berks County students with talent have an opportunity to develop their skills, regardless of their ability to pay.
Their “Operation Replay” accepts gifts of used musical instruments and pairs them with children who can’t afford to purchase them. This gives kids a head start in music education that would otherwise not be available to them.
RMF’s uniquely talented president, Keri Shultz, is also a fierce advocate for music education in the public schools. You don’t need to be around Shultz for very long before she’ll remind you that children who take music lessons perform better academically by almost any measure. And if you’re a school board that’s even thinking about cutting the marching band budget, you’ll hear from her and a cadre of volunteers.
At the Community Foundation, we feel fortunate to have RMF as a colleague organization. Their depth of knowledge and breadth of connections have often been a great asset to our donors. And, we’re aware that they’re unique. In thirty-two years, I’ve not found another community with an organization that operates as RMF does. Berks County is lucky to have such an advocate.
Congratulations to Reading Musical Foundation on 100 years of leadership and unwavering commitment to the musical life of Berks County. It’s a legacy that can be heard in every performance, every lesson, every scholarship recipient, and every young musician whose life has been changed by the gift of music.
Here’s to the next century of making music possible.
Next week: We celebrate a century of The Wyomissing Foundation.
Listen to the latest episode of Sparking Change: The Official Podcast of Berks County Community Foundation, titled “Solar in Berks County Schools”.
Generation 180 is a national nonprofit helping individuals find clean energy solutions, which believes that schools are a good fit for implementing community-based solar projects.
Shannon Crooker, PA Director at Generation 180, sits down with Emily Smedley, Environment and Energy Program Officer of Berks County Community Foundation, to discuss emerging solar projects in Berks County schools. Crooker explains the health, financial, and ecological benefit of schools going solar–and how school leadership can utilize grant opportunities to get started on their solar journey.
Learn more about Generation 180’s Solar for All Schools program by clicking here.
Connect with Shannon Crooker by emailing her at shannon.crooker@generation180.org.
Connect with Emily Smedley by calling the foundation at 610-685-2223.
The mission of Berks County Community Foundation is to promote philanthropy and improve the quality of life for Berks County residents.
Other ways to listen to “Solar in Berks County Schools”:
Spotify
Apple Podcasts
Amazon Music
Don’t see your preferred podcast streaming platform? Reach out.
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.
Cindy Milian, Health and Human Services Program Officer, 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.
Nonprofit organizations and educational institutions occasionally change their mission or cease operations. Establishing an endowed fund with a community foundation is one strategy donors can implement to ensure their charitable dollars support the causes they love in perpetuity.
Headlines about college closures, budget deficits, and declining enrollment have become increasingly common. For donors who care deeply about supporting higher education, these stories raise an important question: How can you ensure your charitable gift continues to achieve its intended purpose if the institution you support faces financial challenges or even closes its doors?
In some cases, institutions facing serious financial pressure have sought access to restricted endowment funds to address immediate operational needs. Some have done so with donor consent. Others have pursued legal avenues to modify donor restrictions after the donor’s death. Saint Michael’s College in Vermont, for example, sought court approval to access restricted funds during a financial crisis.
This raises the question: What does it mean for donors when an organization they support raids their endowment?
In a recent Wall Street Journal article, Joanne Florino, Philanthropy Roundtable’s Adam Meyerson Distinguished Fellow in Philanthropic Excellence, discussed the risks that arise when financially distressed colleges turn to restricted endowment funds to meet immediate financial obligations. Although doing so may seem like a short-term solution, it violates donor intent, undermines trust, and can be an early warning sign of deeper institutional decline. Florino points to a scholarship fund that was used to cover expenses at a college that ultimately closed. When the donor later attempted to have the remaining funds transferred to another school so the scholarship could continue serving students, the request was denied.
So, what can a donor do to support the nonprofit, college or university that is important to them without worrying about possible closure, reallocation of funds, or placing the burden of financial management on those organizations?
These challenges highlight the importance of careful charitable planning. Donors who wish to support a specific college, university, or nonprofit organization may want to consider structures that provide long-term protection for their charitable goals. Using a third party to invest and manage an endowment is a way to provide perpetual support for nonprofits. Funds can be managed by commercial financial institutions or a community foundation.
Community foundations across the country provide donors with ways to create endowed funds that support the organizations and causes most meaningful to them. One option is to establish an endowed fund at a community foundation and designate a college, university, or nonprofit as the annual beneficiary. This allows donors to support the organizations they love while ensuring that an independent, charitable steward manages the assets. If circumstances change, such as a merger, closure, or significant change in mission, the fund agreement provides guidance for how the donor’s charitable intent should be honored.
Donors make charitable gifts in the hope that their generosity will make a lasting impact. By working with a community foundation, donors can support the organizations and causes they care about today while creating safeguards that help ensure their charitable intent is honored for generations to come.
At Berks County Community Foundation, our mission is to promote philanthropy and improve the quality of life for the residents of Berks County. We currently steward nearly 400 charitable funds, 290 of which are endowed. Like the endowed funds we manage, the Community Foundation is built to serve the community in perpetuity. As a permanent presence in Berks County, we will continue to honor donors’ charitable wishes, adapt to the community’s evolving needs, and work every day to make Berks County a better place to live, work, and thrive.
Molly McCullough Robbins, Vice President for Philanthropic Services at Berks County Community Foundation, earned the Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy® (CAP®) designation from The American College of Financial Services.
The CAP® designation is a distinguished mark of excellence recognizing expertise in philanthropic and legacy planning, tax strategies, and financial planning related to charitable giving. To earn the CAP® designation, Robbins completed a three-course graduate-level curriculum and accompanying exams to complete each course.
“I’m grateful for the opportunity to continue growing in this field and confident that this knowledge will enhance my work with donors at the Community Foundation—supporting thoughtful, strategic giving that makes a difference in our community now and for generations to come,” says Robbins.
While the CAP® designation from The American College of Financial Services signifies expert knowledge of charitable planning, the course also offers skill development in interpersonal and donor relationships.
“There is no one-size-fits-all in charitable giving: how people choose to give and to whom they give are deeply personal choices. I love participating in that process,” says Robbins. “This experience has deepened my understanding of charitable planning and strengthened my ability to help individuals and families align their philanthropic goals with meaningful impact.”
Prior to her role at the Community Foundation, Robbins spent five years as Executive Director of Wyomissing Area Education Foundation and 10 years as Director of Communications and Assistant to the Director of Advancement for an independent school in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Robbins completed Berks County Community Foundation’s Nonprofit Management Certificate program in 2020, prior to joining the Community Foundation in her current role. As a Wyomissing Area High School graduate, Robbins’ dedication to the vitality of Berks County is evident.
Interested in working with Molly McCullough Robbins to achieve your philanthropic goals? Email her at mollyr@bccf.org or call the foundation at 610-685-2223.
Welcome to the Great Wealth Transfer!
This much cited era, happening right now, is reportedly the time when trillions of dollars will pass from one generation to the next over the coming decades in various forms, ranging from cash and stock to real estate and business interests.
Understandably, most conversations and commentary about this transfer focus on the assets themselves. Who will inherit the family business? What will happen to the investment portfolio? How should the estate plan be structured? Naturally, those are important questions! But many families are beginning to ask something deeper: “What values do we want to pass along, too?”
A recent Kiplinger article exploring the Great Wealth Transfer makes the point that the strongest family legacies are built not simply by transferring assets, but by intentionally passing along values of generosity through shared charitable experiences and conversations. It encourages families to involve younger generations in philanthropy early, making giving a collaborative, multigenerational experience rather than a one-time financial transaction.
For many people, philanthropy is one of those values. If you’re among them, here’s food for thought:
- A charitable legacy isn’t simply about the gifts that are made after you’re gone. It’s also about helping your children and grandchildren understand why giving has been important throughout your life. In many ways, the conversations, traditions, and shared decisions surrounding philanthropy can become just as meaningful as the inheritance itself.
- Now is a great time to begin mapping out your legacy if you’ve not done so already. For starters, August is widely recognized as Make-A-Will Month, in large part because the downtime of late summer offers a perfect window to address open estate planning issues.
- According to the latest Giving USA report, charitable bequests totaled more than $62 billion in 2025, increasing nearly 20% over the previous year. Bequests were the fastest-growing source of charitable giving, underscoring how important estate gifts have become to nonprofit organizations and the communities they serve.
- A charitable bequest can be surprisingly simple. You might leave a specific dollar amount or a percentage of your estate to your donor-advised fund or designate another type of charitable fund at the Community Foundation, to continue supporting the organizations and community priorities that matter most to you. For example, by naming your children or other loved ones as successor advisors of your donor-advised fund at the Community Foundation, you’re inviting them to continue the family’s tradition of generosity by recommending grants to the organizations and causes they believe will make a difference.
- For individuals and couples with especially large estates, charitable planning also may reduce the federal estate tax ultimately borne by the estate, helping preserve more of the remaining assets for heirs. This consideration applies to relatively few families because the federal estate tax exemption is $15 million per individual in 2026, but when it does apply, it really matters because gifts and bequests to qualified charities generally are deductible in determining the taxable estate. Your attorney, CPA, and financial advisor can help determine whether estate tax planning is relevant to your circumstances.
- Even when estate taxes are not a concern, a charitable bequest can still become one of the most meaningful gifts you make. You may, of course, provide for family members while also supporting the causes and organizations that have mattered throughout your life.
Estate plans are designed to transfer wealth. A charitable legacy has the power to transfer something even more lasting. The Community Foundation would be honored to work with you and your estate planning advisors to arrange charitable bequests, establish a donor-advised or other charitable fund, and build a legacy your family can continue long into the future.
Create your charitable legacy with Berks County Community Foundation today.
Listen to the latest episode of Sparking Change: The Official Podcast of Berks County Community Foundation, titled “Making a Healthier Berks”.
Making a healthier community starts with understanding its residents’ needs and why they may struggle to meet them. Listen to our latest episode of Sparking Change, featuring Jennifer Kolker, Clinical Professor of Health Management and Policy at Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health.
Jennifer sits down with Cindy Milian, Health & Human Services Program Officer, to discuss the importance of public health infrastructure and how Berks can learn from its neighboring counties.
Learn more about Want to take a deeper dive into the effects of single-use plastic?
Read the 2023 Study of the Delivery of Health and Public Health Services in Berks County to supplement the conversation on the needs assessment and opportunities for public health in Berks County.
To connect with Jennifer Kolker, email her at jak682@drexel.edu.
To connect with Cindy Milian, call the foundation at 610-685-2223.
The mission of Berks County Community Foundation is to promote philanthropy and improve the quality of life for Berks County residents.
Other ways to listen to “Making a Healthier Berks County”:
Spotify
Apple Podcasts
Amazon Music
Don’t see your preferred podcast streaming platform? Reach out.
