What we do

Charitable Planning

Charitable Planning – At the Scranton Area Community Foundation, we help the people of Northeastern Pennsylvania meet their personal finance goals while making a difference for the future through Charitable Planning services, including bequests, charitable gift annuities, estate/legacy planning, and more! With charitable planning, one gift can become a lifetime investment.

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Foundation Management

At the Scranton Area Community Foundation, we provide foundation management services to other private and public foundations serving the people of the Lackawanna County region and beyond. 


By partnering with us, foundations can substantially reduce the expenses related to operations, grant-making, accounting, and reporting because we perform this work on behalf of the partnering foundations. In addition to reducing overhead costs, the trustees or Boards of these foundations can focus their efforts on accomplishing their missions, knowing the back-office work will be completed in a thorough and professional manner by a competent team. In many cases, this also means that foundations using the Scranton Area Community Foundation’s management services have the ability to distribute more funds to the causes they care about!

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Robert Spitz foundation

nepa healthcare foundation

Sheldon Family Foundation

Legacy Planning

Our Community Initiatives

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We help plant the seeds of community by assisting donors to carry out their charitable giving through organized philanthropy. By providing a convenient, flexible vehicle for our donors, we are able to help you make a permanent contribution to the community.

We gather information, track local agencies, and monitor the community to determine the unique needs of our community.   Our grant-making facility allow us to pool the charitable donations of many donors into a coordinated investment.   It is through these generous donor contributions that we are able to provide many services and resources that offer long-term benefits for the residents of Lackawanna County.

Scranton Area Community Foundation has three special features:

We Offer Personalized Services:

  • Educate people on charitable giving vehicles
  • Customize giving approaches to match personal interests and tax planning needs
  • Facilitate complex forms of giving
  • Share knowledge on community needs
  • Offer grant-making expertise and administrative services
  • Help people create personal legacies via named funds
  • Offer involvement in recommending uses of a gift
  • Provide the option to give anonymously

We Have Local Expertise:

  • We are a Local organization with local staff and board members
  • We have Knowledge of Lackawanna County community issues, opportunities and resources
  • We Monitor our unique community needs…
     – Arts and culture
     – Economic development
     – Education
     – Environment
     – Health
     – Human services
     – Recreation
     – Neighborhoods
  • We Gather information and track local agencies and programs
  • We Direct grants and resources to appropriate areas
  • Making a difference where it is needed most

We Provide Community Leadership:

  • Act as a community catalyst
  • Build endowments to ensure grants are always available to support the community
  • Support high impact opportunities
  • Are governed by leaders with strong ties to our community
  • Foster development of new organizations and programs
  • Re-direct funds as community needs change
  • Our business is building community