It’s the dawn of a new era in Delaware County.

Last Thursday night at a Launch Celebration at The Inn of Villanova, the largest philanthropy serving the county officially retired its former name, the Crozer-Keystone Community Foundation, and announced its new one: The Foundation for Delaware County.

“We’re establishing ourselves as a community foundation serving the entire county, bringing donors together, creating public/private partnerships, running programs, and making grants to address changing needs,” said president Frances Sheehan.

The public charity was formed in July 2016 when Prospect Medical Holdings, a for-profit company based in California, completed its acquisition of the not-for-profit Crozer-Keystone Health System. The sale generated the funds for the Crozer-Keystone Community Foundation to begin operations, as the law requires that the nonprofit assets from such a sale be set aside in a new and separate charity.

Therefore, The Foundation for Delaware County is new, but its roots in the community run deep.

Headquartered in Media, the Foundation has inherited three highly successful programs – Healthy Start, the Nurse Family Partnership, and the Women, Infants, and Children’s Program (WIC) – from the health system. It has $60 million in assets, 55 employees, and additional offices in Chester, Upper Darby, and Springfield.

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At first glance, the residents of Delaware County appear to be doing relatively well. Both per capita income ($36,333) and median household income ($67,950) are 20 percent higher in Delco than in Pennsylvania and the U.S.

But Delco is very diverse and so are the needs of its residents. Consider the following:

• The median household income in Radnor, at the northern tip of the county, is a little more than $106,000; in Chester, at the southern edge, it’s just $27,400.
• More than 10 percent of Delco residents were born in another country.
• More than 12 percent of Delco residents speak a language other than English at home. In the Upper Darby School District alone, children speak at least 80 languages.

The Foundation is here to ensure that residents’ health is not determined by zip code.

“We’re very much about engaging the whole community,” Sheehan said, noting that elected officials, from a number of municipalities that contribute to the melting pot that is Delaware County, attended the Launch Celebration. “It’s not just about people in affluent communities giving charity to people in lower-income communities.

“You never know when you bring people together around an issue or concern what’s going to happen. Magic happens when people get to know each other and work together on particular projects or issues of concern.”

Sheehan, a resident of Swarthmore, speaks from experience. She was the founding president of the Brandywine Health Foundation in Coatesville, and spent 15 years in that role before returning to work in her home county.

“The goal is to get more people engaged in our community than were ever before,” she said.

At the Launch Celebration, The Foundation for Delaware County awarded $330,000 in grants to these organizations:

• Senior Community Services (Folsom)
• Surrey Senior Services (Devon)
• Mercy Life (Darby)
• Main Line Health HomeCare & Hospice (Radnor)
• Health Care Improvement Foundation (Philadelphia)
• Widener Community Nursing Clinic (Chester)
• Boys & Girls Club of Chester
• Taylor Community Foundation (Ridley)

Click here to learn more about The Foundation for Delaware County.

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