The Needmor Fund is a family foundation established in 1956 in Toledo, Ohio, by Duane and Virginia Secor Stranahan.  In creating The Fund, the Stranahans carried forward their parents' legacy of community stewardship: in the late 19th century, as a landmark family in a bustling new city, the Secors were pivotal to Toledo's economic, intellectual, and cultural formation; in 1910, Frank Stranahan and his brother Robert founded The Champion Spark Plug Company, which was to become a leader in corporate accountability and philanthropy.  The Needmor Fund is informed by the energy, vision, and generosity of these forebears.

Needmor Fund grantmaking responded primarily to the philanthropic concerns of individual family members until the mid-70s, when Duane Stranahan and his six children agreed to pool their charitable resources in order to maximize the impact of their grantmaking.  A director was hired and the family began the painstaking and deeply gratifying process of discerning which giving opportunities best responded to the very diverse interests and passions of family members.

As the family honed its giving skills, they learned that grassroots organizing for social justice was a growing national and international phenomenon, an area that rarely received foundation funding, and a struggle that could deeply engage each family member.  Organizing can respond to many different issues - yet it is always a story of tenacity, intelligence, and courage, a moving witness to human potential.  Thus, our grantmaking has become focused on community organizing: a unique and powerful process in which people must work together to create a more equitable and just society.

Work with Needmor has been the coalescing force for a family which grows ever more geographically widespread.  Responsibility is handed from one generation to another and then another.  We have lost our first generation; yet the grandchildren who once played under the long meeting table now lead the board. Leadership and strategies change; yet The Needmor Fund remains faithful to its goal: to empower those individuals whose basic rights to justice and opportunity are systematically ignored or denied.

The Needmor Fund's Fiftieth Anniversary publication: Fifty Years, Fifty Stories
If you would like copies of this booklet, please contact our office.