February 10, 2013 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Amount donated in 2012: $43.9-million
Beneficiary: Community Foundation of Broward
Background: Ms. Porter inherited money from her family. Her father, Elmer Porter, was a physician and businessman known in her hometown of Pottstown, Pa., for helping the needy.
Ms. Porter, who was 98 when she died in 2009, bequeathed her entire estate, worth $43.9-million, to the Community Foundation of Broward. Ms. Porter lived in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in Broward County, in her later years. She directed half of the bequest to establish a fund to support 20 charities in perpetuity. Thirty percent of the bequest will create a fund to support arts programs and local education projects, such as School Is Cool, which seeks to raise the graduation rate of high-school students. The rest was earmarked to start a general fund to support other projects at the foundation.
Ms. Porter built a relationship with the foundation over a period of years. As part of a Kresge Foundation challenge in 2001, she gave $205,000 to help raise the operating endowments of about 18 local charities. That gift helped the foundation bring in $12-million in other gifts for the arts, children’s programs, hospitals, hunger groups, and others. In 2003 she established a fund at the foundation to feed people in need during the holidays, and in 2007 she set up a donor-advised fund to continue her philanthropy with the help of the foundation.
“Mary gave to many organizations,” said Thor Barraclough, a foundation official. “It was our longstanding partnership with her that gave her the assurance that her philanthropy would continue to impact Broward for good, forever.”
An ardent jazz fan, she also set up during her lifetime the Mary Porter Fund for the Gold Coast Jazz Society to support the nonprofit’s programs for youths.
“You could not have a conversation with Mary when she did not mention her love of jazz,” said Mr. Barraclough.
