| Creator | Boston Foundation |
| Title | Permanent Charity Fund records |
| Dates | 1915-1990 |
| Identification | CC 15 |
| Quantity | 1.0 linear feet (2 manuscript boxes) |
| Collection Abstract | The records of the Permanent Charity Fund contains year books and annual reports, the first and second editions of the Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Company, Trustee 1915 and 1921, which contains the "Agreement and Declaration of Trust," and a report on the 75th Anniversary of the Boston Foundation, formerly the Permanent Charity Fund |
| Historical Abstract | The Permanent Charity Fund (PCF) was established in 1915 by Charles E. Rogerson and Charles Rogerson, father and son, both of whom were officers of the Boston Safety Deposit and Trust Company (BSDT). The objective of the PCF - the third community foundation in the country - was to build up an endowment which would indeed be a permanent fund (spending income only) to improve the life of the community. Over the twentieth century, continuing donations allowed for various social projects in Boston. In the mid 1980s, the Permanent Charity Fund changed its name to the Boston Foundation. |
| Language | Material in English. |
| Location | Collection may be stored offsite. Please contact Archives staff for more information. |
Collection is open.
Copyright for materials resides with the creators of the items in question, unless otherwise designated.
Please contact the College Archivist with requests to publish any material from the collection.
[Identification of item: description and date], Permanent Charity Fund (The Boston Foundation) records, 1915-1990, CC 15, Simmons College Archives, Boston, MA, USA.
Transferred from the Simmons College School of Social Work Library, 1991
Accession number: 1996.057
Processed by Mary Anne Herring, November 1996
Supervised by Claire Goodwin
This collection guide was encoded as part of the LEADS project by Rebecca L. Meyer, October 2012.
Many persons desire to make gifts to charity or to leave money in trust for charitable purposes, but are in doubt as to the proper means of doing so effectively.(1) To meet this need, the Permanent Charity Fund (PCF) was established in 1915 by Charles E. Rogerson and Charles Rogerson, father and son, both of whom were officers of the Boston Safety Deposit and Trust Company (BSDT). The objective of the PCF - the third community foundation in the country - was to build up an endowment which would indeed be a permanent fund (spending income only) to improve the life of the community. A growing number of donors contributed, with the knowledge that their funds would be carefully preserved in perpetuity.
In 1916, an unrestricted bequest of $4,000,000 gave the new Fund a start. Early grants went to education, medicine, and social welfare, particularly to agencies strained financially by World War I. In its early years, the PCF was also deeply involved helping new immigrants mired in poverty.
Again, in the Depression, the Fund's main effort was to aid families needing direction and care. During the 1930's, its largest single grant went to the two principal relief agencies, the Boston Provident Society and the Family Welfare Society (formally the Associated Charities of Boston). Following World War II, the PCF's efforts were centered on problem youth: the "generation gap" between adolescents and their parents, the alienation of youth, and juvenile delinquency.(2)
In 1959, Alfred Stone Jr. left an extraordinary bequest of $20,000,000. It was by far the largest ever made to a community fund in this country, doubling the PCF's total assets.
In the 1960's, the PCF's principal grants were made to agencies associated with social changes, including neighborhood health care centers and day care centers. Meanwhile, the Fund stopped making grants to hospitals for operating expenses or relief to individuals, and it announced that it would fund only "major capital needs, particularly projects affecting the community role of the hospital which may lead to improved ways of financing or providing health care".
By 1975, the PCF was distributing grants totaling $3,000,000 annually. Through, the 1970's and the 1980's, the PCF increasingly funded pilot, demonstration, and special projects to encourage "institutional change and greater responsiveness to changing needs."(3) In the mid-1980's, the PCF changed its name to the Boston Foundation (BF).
In 1985, the BF, supporting innovation, launched a five-year Poverty Impact Program, with an emphasis on women and children, supporting innovative community-based projects on maternal and health care, teenage pregnancy, employment and training, and urban parks and public spaces.
Compiled by Dick Carroll, July 1995.
Permanent Charity Fund: Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Company, Trustee Boston: September 7, 1915, p. 5. The Forty-Sixth Year Book of the Committee of the Permanent Charity Fund, Inc. 1963, p. 12. The History of the Boston Foundation 1915-1990, p. 18.
The records of the Permanent Charity Fund contains year books and annual reports, the first and second editions of the Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Company, Trustee 1915 and 1921, which contains the "Agreement and Declaration of Trust," and a report on the 75th Anniversary of the Boston Foundation, formerly the Permanent Charity Fund
These and related materials may be found under the following headings in online catalogs.
Collection is arranged into 3 series:
Part of the School of Social Work Library Charities Collection.
This series contains the Permanent Charity Fund's Year Books/Annual Reports. The contents of the Year Books/Annual Reports may include the scope and purposes of the PCF, list of members, listings of the donations given to the PCF throughout the year, the Treasurer's report, reports on the activities of the PCF throughout the year, graphs, tables, listings of the charitable organizations which were given money by the PCF, and pictures.
Box 1
Box 2
This series contains the first and second editions of the booklet entitled, Permanent Charity Fund: Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Company, Trustee. Both editions are the same except the listings of the members and directors are different and the second edition contains a copy of the "Form Of General Bequest And Devise To The Permanent Charity Fund". The booklets contain an introduction, general scope and purposes of the PCF, and the Agreement and Declaration of Trust.
Box 2
This series contains The History of the Boston Foundation 1915-1990 honoring the 75th Anniversary of the Boston Foundation formerly the Permanent Charity Fund. This report contains the history of the Foundation and photos relating to the Foundation.
Box 2
