The primary mission of The
Independence Community Foundation is to help renew
neighborhoods by promoting economic growth, educational
attainment and housing development. We are committed to
advancing a program of comprehensive and sustainable
community development that builds upon and enhances
local charitable giving—from the Foundation itself,
other foundations, the private sector and individual
donors.
We are focused on promoting
collaboration among community nonprofits and cultural and
educational institutions in order to produce measurable and
lasting results, to provide replicable models for the
neighborhoods
we serve, and to promote the efficient use of
philanthropic and public sector dollars.
The former Independence Community
Bank — a Brooklyn-based financial institution founded in
1850 — had a long and rich tradition of charitable
giving in the communities it served. In the spring of
1998, the Bank established and generously endowed a new
charitable institution, the Independence Community
Foundation.
In creating the Foundation the
leadership and board of Independence Community Bank —
particularly its Chairman and CEO at the time, Charles J.
Hamm — gave expression to their long held philosophy that
the Bank’s success was tied to the well being of the
communities where it did business and where its employees
lived and worked. Since its founding, the Foundation’s
grants have
given life to that vision and respond to a broad range of
needs and issues identified locally.
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