Category Archives: Ted Donley

Oct 19 2012
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Ted Donley, Uncategorized

Impressions from the ASF National Conference

NationalAIDSMemorial-volunteers

ASF 2012 National Conference participants volunteer at The National AIDS Memorial Grove Service Project, San Francisco, CA, October 8, 2012

By Ted Donley, The Donley Foundation

At the recent ASF 2012 National Conference in San Francisco, I was captivated and inspired by several speakers and sessions in particular. I would like to share with you my favorites and what I learned from them.

Favorite Session: Funding Advocacy, Mobilizing Partners, Catalyzing Change

The amazing ASF member Doug Bauer of The Clark Foundation moderated this session where I learned that small foundations can be a force for change with advocacy and collaboration, in addition to their grantmaking. Nayantara Mehta from Alliance for Justice opened my eyes to the legalities of a foundation granting money for use in lobbying. Then, ASF member Billie Hall from the Sunflower Foundation told her foundation’s story of supporting a grassroots campaign to promote smoke-free public places. Continue reading →

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Mar 08 2012
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Family, Next Generation, Ted Donley

Getting Involved Isn’t Easy

By Ted Donley, Donley Foundation

It took me 24 years to get involved in my family’s foundation.

Growing up, I didn’t really know what it was, nevertheless what a foundation was or what it meant. Luckily for my sisters and me, my dad and mom did instill philanthropy in us while we were young. They gave us $100 each. Sadly for us at the time, we didn’t get to keep the money. Instead, we were told to research a worthy cause in the small community of York, PA, to which we would donate it.

And you know what? In the end, giving the money away felt even better than keeping it.

In 1987, the year I was born, my grandparents started the Donley Foundation. For two decades, the board of directors included my grandparents, father, aunt, and uncle. I never understood what happened behind closed doors, other than my parents and grandparents gave money to libraries and stuff.

I also wasn’t in tune with what was going on when the third generation, my two siblings and seven cousins, reached an age to attend to the “meetings.” As a younger kid, I just remember it being an awesome time to hang out with my family from Chicago and New Hampshire.

Continue reading →

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