The board of the J Warren & Lois McClure Foundation, a supporting organization of the Vermont Community Foundation, announced that it has elected Lois McClure as president emerita, Barbara Benedict as president, and Rebecca Henry as vice president. The transition brings together three generations of the McClure family to lead the foundation and its work to make career and college education accessible to all Vermonters.
“We three generations of McClure women are honored to serve as directors of the foundation, along with David Rahr, Janet McLaughlin, Anne Mook, Tim Donovan, and Dan Smith,” said Benedict. “Together, we work to honor my parents’ belief that philanthropy should make a lasting difference and that we all succeed most by helping others succeed.”
The transition comes shortly after the McClure Foundation announced $381,395 in grants for the 2017-18 school year to programs promoting career training and college education for Vermonters with a focus on low-income students, first-generation college students, adult learners, and veterans. The McClure Foundation is guided by a vision of a vibrant Vermont economy in which no promising job goes unfilled for lack of a qualified applicant.
The McClure Foundation promotes college and career education for all Vermonters and has granted out more than $3 million since 2008 in support of that goal. Through grants and convenings, the foundation continues the family tradition of project-oriented, collaborative philanthropy practiced by its founders, J Warren and Lois McClure. To learn more about the foundation, which is a supporting organization of the Vermont Community Foundation, visit www.mcclurevt.org.
The Vermont Community Foundation is a family of hundreds of funds and foundations, including the J Warren and Lois McClure Foundation, established by Vermonters to serve their charitable goals. It provides the advice, investment vehicles, and back-office expertise to make giving easy and inspiring. The Foundation also provides leadership in giving by responding to community needs, mobilizing and connecting philanthropists to multiply their impact, and by keeping Vermont’s nonprofit sector vital with grants and other investments in the community.