The Paul Clarke Foundation
 
As of November 2, 2006, The Paul Clarke Foundation is no longer accepting applications.

Paul Clarke
Paul Clarke began his career as an attorney in private practice for 28 years in Cleveland. At the height of his success in Cleveland, a good friend offered him an opportunity to become corporate counsel and executive vice-president of a small but promising van-line company in Fort Wayne. He accepted and moved to Fort Wayne to receive a salary that was one-third of the pay he had made at his law practice in the previous year. Although his wife and friends felt the move was unwise, Paul and Helen Clarke moved to Fort Wayne in 1954 where he was key in the growth of North American Van Lines.

Mr. Clarke was a wealthy man by the time he retired in 1970 from North American. He was frugal and held a significant amount of stock with the company. When PepsiCo purchased North American Van Lines, his stock was converted to PepsiCo stock and increased in value. Upon his retirement, Mr. Clarke took on the task of becoming the executive director for the Fort Wayne Community Foundation, now the Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne. Having served on the Board of Directors of the Community Foundation for one year, he was interested in growing the foundation’s assets. He thought the foundation had the potential to do much good in the charitable affairs of the community.

1992 - 2006
During Paul Clarke’s term as executive director, he and Mrs. Clarke contributed millions of dollars through stock donations. These contributions accounted for the rapid growth of the Community Foundation since 1985. Those gifts eventually created two funds that provided charitable grants in the community: The Paul Clarke Foundation and the Advised Clarke Endowment Fund.

The major thrust of The Paul Clarke Foundation was to support proposals for helping disadvantaged youth and their families, with a primary focus on the inner city of Fort Wayne and with a clear intent to encourage grass-roots suggestions. Since its incorporation in 1992, The Paul Clarke Foundation has distributed more than $10.6 million to nonprofit organizations in our community.

The Advised Clarke Endowment Fund made grants on the recommendation of the donor advisor named by Paul Clarke. Community Foundation staff provided due diligence measures for each request and the Community Foundation Board of Directors was responsible for final funding decisions. The fund has granted more than $7.3 million in Allen County.

2007 and Beyond
Mr. Clarke set up both The Paul Clarke Foundation and the Advised Clarke Endowment Fund to operate for 15 years. After that time (at the end of 2006), the assets from both the foundation and the advised endowment fund will be combined into the Clarke Endowment Fund. As intended by Mr. Clarke, the Clarke Endowment Fund will cease being a donor advised fund and operate as a named unrestricted fund without a donor advisor.

The Community Foundation is made up of many different types of funds, including donor advised, restricted, field of interest, scholarship, and agency endowments. The majority of these funds do not accept unsolicited funding requests from not-for-profits. The Community Foundation’s Community Grantmaking Fund and the Clarke Endowment Fund do accept such requests through a single application process. Separate concept letters are not required for the Community Grantmaking Fund and the Clarke Endowment Fund as the two funds are considered a single funding pool.

In addition, applications submitted to the Community Grantmaking Fund and the Clarke Endowment Fund are screened to determine their funding eligibility through other funds of the Community Foundation. No additional application or information is required for this consideration.

Governance Structure from 1992 - 2006
The Paul Clarke Foundation was an affiliated supporting organization of the Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne. This organization was incorporated in 1992 to manage a major gift received from Paul Clarke, who served as executive director of the Community Foundation from 1973 to 1984.

The major thrust of The Paul Clarke Foundation was supporting proposals to help disadvantaged youth and their families, with a primary focus on the inner-city of Fort Wayne and with a clear intent to encourage grass-roots suggestions.

The Paul Clarke Foundation was governed by a three-person board, two of whom were appointed by the Community Foundation. The board met quarterly, normally in February, May, August, and November.

The Paul Clarke Foundation Board of Directors:

• Harriett Inskeep, President
• Greg Johnson
• Vince Robinson

Reverend Ternae Jordan served on the Board of the Paul Clarke Foundation from 1994 until his resignation in 2004, when he relocated to another community. We thank Reverend Jordan for his many years of service to The Paul Clarke Foundation.

In Loving Memory
Joyce Schlatter
August 7, 1923 - December 10, 2003
The Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne fondly remembers Joyce Schlatter for her devotion and service to our community since the early 1970's. Her grace and simplicity in her work with The Paul Clarke Foundation and the Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne will not be forgotten.