Donor Profiles
Click below to read profiles of Cleveland Foundation donors:
Stanley and Hope Adelstein
Given the chance, Stanley and Hope Adelstein would gladly talk all day about the wide variety of trees in the backyard of their Pepper Pike home, most of which they have planted themselves.
Coincidentally, “all day” is also about how long it would take to enumerate the many charitable causes the Adelsteins have supported during their half century of marriage. The two are best known for their tireless philanthropic support of the environment, but they also have worked for children and education, among other passions.
For those reasons and many others, the Adelsteins have been awarded the 2007 Frederick Harris Goff Philanthropic Service Award.
“I suppose people would call us tree-huggers,” laughs Stanley Adelstein, a retired attorney from the firm of McDonald Hopkins (formerly Burke, Haber and Berick). “We’re just two people who have done what we could to save and preserve the natural beauty of the areas in which we’ve lived and visited.”
Stanley traces his love of nature back to his days in the Coast Guard during World War II. While stationed in Neah Bay, Wash., he would often hike through the woods of a nearby national park.
“On the periphery of the park, I saw a number of areas where trees had been absolutely decimated, plowed down by a logging company,” he recalls. “I thought it was awful.”
He soon became involved with the Sierra Club. Later in life, as a Pepper Pike city councilman from 1972 to 1985, he took the lead in sponsoring various legislation to plant trees, control pollution, and ensure safe routes for cyclists and runners in the city. He also helped to protect forested areas from developers.
The Adelsteins have played key roles in sustaining the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, the Nature Center at Shaker Lakes, and the Earth Day Coalition. They established the Stanley I. and Hope S. Adelstein Environmental Fund at The Cleveland Foundation to support environmental activities, programs and studies in Greater Cleveland.
More recently, they made one of the first matching grants to the Foundation’s new Advanced Energy Fund.
Hope Adelstein, a retired nurse, was a founding trustee of the Cleveland Children’s Museum and has served on the boards of the Cuyahoga County Public Library, the Cleveland Council of World Affairs, and the Jewish Community Center. When asked about the origins of her philanthropy, she is quick to answer.
“My mother instilled in me that it was better to give than to receive,” says Hope, the youngest of five children. “She was a loving, giving human being and a role model for me. That’s just how I was raised.
“I’ve always been privileged to go along with Stanley’s charitable ideas and activities. I’m proud of him and I’m rather proud of myself, because from humble beginnings you can learn to share. Material things never meant a great deal to us.”
Arthur and Arlene Holden
(NOTE: This article was written in 2007. Mr. Holden passed away in 2008.)
Arthur S. Holden, Jr. is a man of few words these days. At 94½ years old, “Mr. Lake County,” as he is known, has difficulty hearing visitors when they come to see him and his wife, Arlene.
But then, words never were Holden’s stock in trade. For decades, he relied more on action to become one of Northeast Ohio’s most prolific philanthropists. The Holdens’ touch can be felt in a wide variety of educational and charitable organizations around the area.
It’s no wonder, then, that the Lake County Commissioners declared April 20, 2001, to be “Arthur S. Holden Day.” Virtually every city and town in the county drafted resolutions of congratulation, while notes poured in from around the country testifying to Holden’s longstanding generosity and dedication to the community.
Holden and his wife, Arlene, have been selected as winners of the 2007 Frederick Harris Goff Philanthropic Leadership Award.
Among the organizations that have benefited from the Holdens’ philanthropy are Case Western Reserve University, Fine Arts Association, Grand River Partners, Lakeland Community College, Lake Erie College, Holden Arboretum, Cleveland Botanical Garden, Lake County YMCA, and United Way of Lake County.
“Arthur always said that if he could leave things a little better than he found them, he would be doing the right thing,” says Arlene, his wife of almost 17 years. “He’s very selfless. Since I’ve been around him, he has always thought about how he could help others.”
Though she is quick to point out her husband’s charitable accomplishments, Mrs. Holden has plenty of her own. She was involved with The Cleveland Foundation’s Lake-Geauga Fund from its inception in the 1980s, while she and her husband funded the Arlene and Arthur Holden Butterfly Garden at the Arboretum (the Arboretum itself was established by Albert Fairchild Holden, a relative of Arthur). She has also been involved with many other nonprofits throughout her life, including the Cleveland Play House and the Cleveland Botanical Garden, among others.
Arthur Holden spent more than 60 years working for Coe Manufacturing Company in Painesville. He traveled widely as a vice president for the company, but still found time for civic involvement.
One of his crowning achievements was the establishment of Lakeland Community College in 1967. He was the first president of the Lakeland trustees and is widely considered to be the college’s founder. Today, a bust of Holden can be found in the Lakeland atrium. A road running through the campus is named Arthur Holden Circle.
The Holdens also helped fund construction of the student center at Lake Erie College (it’s known as the Arthur Holden Center) and provide support for scholarships at Lakeland, Case Western Reserve, and the Chautauqua Institution.
Arthur’s first large-scale involvements with the world of philanthropy came in the early 1960’s through his aunt, Martha Holden Jennings. She left many millions to charity
that Arthur guided for distribution to the Case School of Engineering, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Cleveland Clinic. The Clinic used the money (the largest gift it had ever received at that point) to construct its Education Building, the site of lectures, seminars and medical education programs.
Arthur soon founded the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation, which continues to make grants to support public education in Ohio even today. He also served as a trustee for the Clinic, the YMCA’s Center for International Management Studies, Kiwanis International, and the Chautauqua Institution.
When asked about his charitable legacy, Arthur Holden waves a dismissive hand.
“Forget it,” he says. “I’ve had the opportunity to do some good. Let the good live on after me and let the bad be forgotten.”
When Michael Clegg attended Hawken School in the late 1940’s, he and his classmates took vocational tests to give them an idea of the career for which they might be best suited.
“My results came back and told me I ought to be a social worker,” Clegg recalls. “I couldn’t even have told you what a social worker was back in the fifth or sixth grade, but I do know I had always thought people should help each other when they can.”
Clegg may not have pursued social work as a career, but the former president (and still current employee) of commercial and industrial real estate firm Colliers Ostendorf-Morris has made helping others a cornerstone of his life for decades.
Clegg and his wife of 43 years, Sue, have been Cleveland Foundation donors for more than a decade. They have established both a charitable remainder trust (see related article) and a donor-advised fund with the foundation, and they use those philanthropic vehicles to support the issues most near and dear to them.
For Michael Clegg, that means children with mental and physical illnesses who come from economically disadvantaged families. His passion for helping that population stems directly from his 34-year-old son, Scott, who has Down’s Syndrome.
“Just before Scotty’s fourth birthday, he developed leukemia,” Clegg recalls. “We spent six months at Rainbow Babies and Childrens Hospital trying to keep him alive. He got all the way down to 17 pounds, but he made it through.”
During Scott’s cancer treatments, Clegg got to know other parents whose children were fighting serious illnesses at Rainbow. They had heard of a facility in Philadelphia where families in similar situations could find accommodations close to the local children’s hospital. Within a year, Clegg and others had raised sufficient funds and worked hard to establish the Ronald McDonald House, now located at the corner of Euclid Avenue and East 105th Street in Cleveland.
Clegg remains a trustee of the Cleveland Ronald McDonald House and also formerly chaired the Cuyahoga County Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities.
“I’ve never been big on culture. When the curtain goes up, my head goes down,” Clegg laughs. “But when you talk to me about kids with illness or mental retardation, you have my attention.”
Virtually all of the grants the Cleggs make from their donor-advised fund go to organizations working with sick and mentally handicapped children. Their charitable remainder trust, which provides a regular stream of income, will also help the Cleveland Foundation support such organizations when it matures.
Over the years, the Cleggs have come to rely on the expertise of foundation staff in helping them determine how best to direct their philanthropic dollars.
“When you have a donor relations officer from the Cleveland Foundation who can help you search out local organizations that match what you want to accomplish, that’s an invaluable help,” said Clegg, a Cleveland native. “It’s a lot better than dealing with a national firm.
“I also enjoy being invited, as a Cleveland Foundation donor, to events where I can hear what’s going on in Cleveland. In my business, that kind of knowledge is important.”
Michael and Sue Clegg have begun to involve their older children, Tracy (39) and Chris (41), in making decisions around the family’s charitable funds. It’s a process Michael sees as vitally important.
“I don’t want to shove my (giving) style down their throats, but I would hope they would become philanthropic,” he says. “Nothing is worse than someone with money who’s a cheapskate.”
For all of the charitable dollars granted each year to nonprofit organizations in Greater Cleveland, there are still inevitable gaps – deserving programs and services that simply fall through the cracks and miss out on their share of philanthropic funds.
Art Treuhaft will tell you that’s where the Treu-Mart Fund comes in.
“One of the most satisfying things for us is trying to find areas that are really underserved and lack support, and that probably wouldn’t receive funding if it weren’t for Treu-Mart,” said Treuhaft, part of the fund’s seven-member governing board of directors. “We’re looking for the missing pieces that are difficult to fund, and we believe we can make a difference that way.”
The Treu-Mart Fund is a supporting organization of both the Cleveland Foundation and the Jewish Community Federation. As a supporting organization, it has its own grantmaking strategy, investment objectives, and board of directors. It is believed to be the first supporting organization to be jointly held by two public charities.
The fund was created in the early 1980’s by Treuhaft’s aunt and uncle, Elizabeth M. and William C. Treuhaft, whose aim it was to align the fund’s mission with the work of both the Cleveland Foundation and Jewish Community Federation.
“My aunt and uncle wanted to foster more cooperation between those two organizations,” said Art Treuhaft. “They greatly respected both foundations and thought it made sense to identify grantmaking opportunities that would support the mission of each one.”
In recent years, the Treu-Mart Fund’s main focus has been on early childhood development. That includes delivering operational and tactical support to local youth service agencies in partnership with the Mandel Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Case Western Reserve University.
Treu-Mart and the Mandel Center also established the Treu-Mart Youth Development Fellowship, which has placed 104 fellows in more than 63 Cuyahoga County youth service agencies since 2004. The fellows work to improve the lives of the county’s youth, giving them hope, empowering them, and helping them become contributing members of the community.
More recently, Treu-Mart and Mandel have given support to key aspects of the Cleveland Foundation’s evolving Youth Development Initiative in Cuyahoga County.
“We might make a grant to, let’s say, upgrade management information services at a certain agency,” Treuhaft said. “But it’s always done in the context of how it will help improve the delivery of services to kids. It always comes back to that.”
The Treu-Mart Fund annually awards about $1 million in both responsive and proactive grants. Those grants are directed by its governing board, consisting of three donor-appointed directors (including Art Treuhaft himself), two directors from the Jewish Community Federation, and two directors from the Cleveland Foundation.
The name of the fund is a combination of Treuhaft and Marting, which was Elizabeth Treuhaft’s maiden name.
Janelle Winslow likes to tell the story of how she and her husband of 2½ years, former Cleveland Browns tight end Kellen Winslow, met.
“We met at the age of 13, and as clichéd as it may sound, it truly was love at first sight,” she says. “We were both athletes growing up and we met on a basketball court. Kellen was too shy to approach me, so he sent his friend to ask my name and if I had a boyfriend. It’s funny to think back on it now, but I had to finally go up to him and ask him for his number.”
“Shy” isn’t a word most Browns fans would have used to describe Kellen Winslow. Nor would anyone use it to describe either of the Winslows when it comes to their charitable giving.
Janelle and Kellen Winslow established a donor-advised fund at the Cleveland Foundation as a vehicle to support the issues about which they’re most committed, notably childhood fitness and education. Ultimately, they want to give the youth of Greater Cleveland the best possible opportunity to thrive, both physically and mentally.
“We’re looking to give back to the great city of Cleveland and give children an opportunity to accomplish whatever their passions may be,” Janelle Winslow said. “Growing up, both Kellen and I had many activities in which we were involved through recreation centers and sports leagues, but many youth in our urban communities don’t have the same opportunities.”
Kellen Winslow was drafted by the Browns out of the University of Miami in 2004. In the ensuing five years before he was traded by the Browns, he and his wife donated much time and effort to such community organizations as the March of Dimes and others.
“Since my husband is a public sports figure, we do get approached by a number of charities,” Janelle Winslow said. “We try to help as many causes as we can, but mainly we focus on those that are related to children.
“We chose the Cleveland Foundation to establish our donor fund because Cleveland had become home for us. We wanted to make a difference where we were.”
In time, the Winslows are looking to establish centers around Greater Cleveland where children can participate in everything from sports and tutoring programs to community outreach, where they can in turn make a difference of their own.
Janelle Winslow cites the many opportunities she and her husband had as they both grew up in San Diego, including an extensive support network of parents, family, friends and other role models.
“We want to help others have the same chances we had,” she said. “We know that all some children need is a little motivation and they’ll run with it. We want to see kids succeed.”
Ken Cooley will gladly talk to you about many things – education, the state of African-American males, his passion for jazz and classical music, and even his philanthropy. But good luck if you want to find out more about Cooley himself. No matter what you ask, every one of his answers somehow comes back to his wife of 45 years, Blanche.
“She’s the driving force,” he says. “She’s my buddy, and we’ve shared many things together.”
That includes a desire to make Cleveland, Ken’s hometown, a better place. Cleveland Foundation donors since 2005, the Cooleys recently took advantage of federal legislation that allows individuals age 70½ and older to give up to $100,000 per year from their individual retirement accounts to certain charitable organizations. Both Cooleys gave the maximum amount to the foundation.
“I would like to see my money accomplish something, and the [charitable IRA rollover] is one way to do that,” said Ken, a retired U.S. federal government employee. “Early on, my wife suggested we sock some money away so that later in our lives we could give back. It turned out to be a great decision.”
Though they have no children, the Cooleys both have an interest in public education. Blanche spent many years as an administrator at Cleveland’s John Marshall High School, and she graduated from Cincinnati’s acclaimed Walnut Hills High School. The couple still regularly makes gifts to Walnut Hills, which last year was ranked as one of the top 100 high schools in the United States by U.S. News and World Report.
Ken, a graduate of East Technical High School in Cleveland, is also concerned about the plight of American youth and in particular young African-American boys who grow up without father figures in their lives. “There aren’t any mentors around,” he said. “Plus, so many families – and not just black families – are engaged in making a living and have both parents working. I wonder how much time they have to devote to their families. These are problems we need to address.”
As a lifelong resident of Greater Cleveland, Ken knows the area’s potential and was there during the city’s heyday. He feels strongly that Cleveland can bounce back.
“Cleveland has a lot of great things going for it,” he said. “We have a wonderful library, great parks, one of the best art museums, a world-famous symphony, and outstanding medical facilities. There’s so much to build on.”
The Cooleys first became involved with the Cleveland Foundation two years ago when they created a set of planned gifts through the Ken and Blanche Cooley Fund. Last year, they established the Ken and Blanche Cooley Donor-Advised Fund, then used the IRA rollover provision earlier this year to create their own endowment fund.
When Donald and Yolanda Games benefited from the sale of a company in which they owned stock, they decided it was the perfect opportunity to become more philanthropic. Though they’d been giving to nonprofit causes for years, they wanted to take their giving to the next level. Working with an attorney and an accountant, they planned to establish a private foundation.
But after some research into what it would require to start and run their own foundation, the Gameses decided they didn’t want to be burdened with the red tape involved in running a private foundation. So they began looking for a better alternative – something simpler that would enable them to focus on making grants, not on filing reports. For them, that alternative was a donor-advised fund at the Cleveland Foundation.
“Starting a private foundation involved quite a bit of red tape, and then there’s the required annual reporting to the IRS,” says Donald. “By working with the Cleveland Foundation, we save all that hassle and expense.”
Each year, the Gameses add to their fund using appreciated stock, which provides them with a tax benefit for their gift. Then, toward the end of the year, they ask the foundation to make grants from their fund to a dozen or so nonprofit organizations they want to support.
“There’s a convenience factor with a donor-advised fund,” says Donald. “We fill out a form, send it to the foundation, and then grants are made on our behalf to the charities we suggest.”
“We like that it’s easy to support a number of different charities and that we can choose where the grants go and what they support from year to year, depending on our interests,” says Yolanda. “And we like seeing the positive effects that our gifts have on the community.”
In a tradition of giving that extends back generations, Beverly and Albert Higley Jr. have made gifts supporting a wide variety of causes through their family foundation, the Higley Fund. Their gifts have benefited education, health, environment, social service, civic, arts, and faith-based organizations. And while the Higleys themselves have never sought the spotlight, their construction firm has been a major factor in Cleveland’s growth for years.
The classic art deco Greyhound Terminal and the 1939 Coast Guard Station are two of many Cleveland landmarks reflecting the strength and vision of the Albert M. Higley Co. The construction firm was founded in 1925 by Albert M. Higley Sr., and in 1967 son Albert M. Higley Jr. began leading the company into a new era. Today it ranks among Ohio's most experienced and respected construction firms.
Beverly and Al have always embraced local philanthropy. Beverly has long played an active role at the Cleveland Sight Center, and Al began his relationship with the Cleveland chapter of the American Red Cross as a volunteer in 1959 and later as board chairman and chairman emeritus.
Early on, the importance of charitable giving was instilled in them by their family, and for many years the Higleys had discussed that one day they would create a private foundation. “My mother was a social worker,” said Al. “We were raised to give back to the community, and now we try to pass that along to our own family.” Their three children are all involved in carrying on their philanthropic family tradition.
Beverly and Al felt that the right choice for them was to create a supporting organization with the Cleveland Foundation, and in 1994 they established the Higley Fund. “When we started the fund, we were extremely pleased with what the Cleveland Foundation had to offer,” Beverly said. “Now, with 12 more years of experience, we’re that much more pleased. Our experience working with the Cleveland Foundation has reinforced what a great community asset it is.”
As a separate nonprofit charitable organization, a supporting organization enjoys public charity status and the professional services of the Cleveland Foundation, including staff assistance and guidance with grantmaking and investment objectives. With its own board of directors and separate grantmaking identity, a supporting organization helps the family develop a tradition of giving through the generations.
The Higleys enjoy active participation in the grantmaking activity of their family fund. The Gift Planning and Donor Relations team at the Cleveland Foundation serves as a partner with the Higleys, helping them review grant proposals and providing insight into the organizations they might consider for grants.
The Higleys are especially passionate about helping those less fortunate and improving the Greater Cleveland community.
When Drs. Morris and Adrienne Jones wanted to give something back to the community, they decided that a charitable gift annuity would be the perfect vehicle for their giving. And, as a former board member of the Cleveland Foundation, Adrienne was intimately familiar with the foundation’s work and impact on Greater Cleveland.
“We wanted to make sure that we played a part in the Cleveland Foundation’s good work,” Adrienne says. “And the charitable gift annuity gave us an opportunity to do that without sacrificing income from our retirement assets.”
With a charitable gift annuity, which is a contract issued by the foundation in exchange for cash or stock, the foundation guarantees them regular annuity payments for their lifetimes. Ultimately, the remainder will create a fund at the foundation in honor of the Joneses.
When they established the charitable gift annuity in April 2004, the Joneses weren’t certain exactly what causes or organizations they wanted the fund to benefit. However, because of the flexibility of a fund at the Cleveland Foundation, now that they’ve had time to think about it, they can narrow the fund’s focus by naming areas of interest, such as arts and culture, social services or economic development, or even specific organizations, to support.
“I like that we can be more specific with our interests after having had time to think about it,” Adrienne says.
The Joneses also appreciate the knowledge the Foundation possesses on community needs.
“The foundation’s board and staff really go through a great process to identify the most important community needs. Having been a part of that process, I am very, very comfortable with knowing that the money will go for good causes,” she says.
As a native Clevelander and retired physician who practiced in Cleveland for more than 40 years, Morris wanted to follow in the footsteps of those who have given to their community. Adrienne, who taught at Oberlin College, also cares about the continued success of the Greater Cleveland area.
“I think we’ve all benefited, directly or indirectly, from the largess of those who have had fortunes and shared them with the community,” the Joneses say. "The Cleveland Foundation ensures that this community is taken care of.”
When asked about the origins of his philanthropic tendencies, Jack Schron Jr. doesn’t hesitate to answer.
“It comes from God,” he says. “Having a grandfather [the Rev. Julius Kish] who spent more than 50 years in the ministry, our family has always had a sense of giving. From the time we were small, we were taught by our parents to share with others.”
That feeling of obligation led to the formation of the Schron Family Foundation, which funds a variety of charitable entities in areas of the country in which Schron family members live, including Northeast Ohio, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Besides Jack Jr., the Schron Family Foundation is also directed by his parents Jack and Esther Schron, brother Terry Schron and sister Sue Evans.
One focus of the fund is education – and not just education for children.
“We have an interest in education that includes K-12, community colleges, four-year colleges, and lifelong learning,” Jack explains. “I spent 12 years as a board member and officer in the Chagrin Falls School District. Giving to education is a way in which we can give back some of the gifts we have received as a family.”
Among the Schrons’ most ambitious projects is Tooling University, an online service focusing on industrial manufacturing education. Jack founded “Tooling U” along with his son, Chad, to combat what he calls a “huge skills gap” in manufacturing today. As president of Jergens Inc., a tooling component manufacturer based in Cleveland, he would know.
“For years I heard my father say, ‘Who will train the next generation for manufacturing?’ We finally said, ‘We will!’” Jack laughs, who sees Tooling U as an especially useful service for bright young people who would like an alternative to attending college. He also believes educational initiatives like Tooling U can help bolster national defense as they foster American expertise in the manufacture of airplanes, military equipment, and such.
Tooling U is being used in a number of different industries and in more than 85 schools, including Max Hayes High School in Cleveland, Polaris Career Center in Middleburg Heights, Cuyahoga Valley Career Center in Brecksville, and Cuyahoga Community College. Tooling U courses provide foundational knowledge in areas such as blueprint reading, shop math, and computer numerical control machining, among others. The Schron Family Foundation will help to fund the purchase of laptop computers for students at Max Hayes to use Tooling U.
“I am glad our companies have been sufficiently successful these past few years that we could create the Schron Family Foundation,” Jack says.
The Tooling U concept is being piloted in a prison to help inmates learn marketable skills for their return to society. Another pilot program on Cleveland’s west side will use Tooling U to teach those same skills to homeless men.
Jack and his wife of 36 years, Mary Ellen, agree. “We are glad that a solution like the Cleveland Foundation exists to allow people like our family the chance to create a family foundation to help others without the related challenges of monitoring and investing and selecting charitable recipients.”