About

Our History

Historic photo of Union Station.
Photo courtesy of the Rhode Island Collection, Providence Public Library.

In 1915, a group of prominent Rhode Island citizens asked Rhode Island Hospital Trust Bank to help them start the Rhode Island Foundation. They were concerned about issues in the state including poverty, child labor, education, and illiteracy. Nearly a year later, on June 13, 1916, the Foundation was established, modeled after The Cleveland Foundation, established in 1914. This makes the Rhode Island Foundation one of the oldest of the now over 900 community foundations in the country. 

The founders wished to distribute money in a systematic way to address Rhode Island’s most pressing needs. The Foundation was to be overseen by a group of publicly spirited volunteers who would see to it that when a donor established an endowment, it would still be relevant and useful years later. “There is a growing belief that the charitable problems of each generation can better be, and should be, solved by the best minds of each generation,” they wrote.

Read on for more about the history and evolution of the Rhode Island Foundation.