The Lyndhurst Foundation recently announced that it will be completing the final year of its present seven-year grantmaking cycle this coming December, and expects to undertake a detailed strategic planning process later this year. Additionally, the Foundation announced its first major organizational change since its founding more than 70 years ago, with the spin-off of five new smaller family foundations, and with the resulting legacy of a smaller but Chattanooga-focused foundation remaining for future funding initiatives.
Lyndhurst was originally founded as the Memorial Welfare Foundation in 1938 by Thomas Cartter Lupton, an early Coca-Cola magnate, and remained relatively small until Mr. Lupton’s death in 1977. The Foundation then grew dramatically in size with funding from his estate, changed its name to Lyndhurst, and came under the leadership of Mr. Lupton’s children, the late John T. “Jack” Lupton II and his sister Elizabeth Lupton Davenport, along with her husband Rody Davenport III. Early priorities for Lyndhurst included primary health care, elementary and secondary education, and arts and cultural activities.
In the mid-80s, the Foundation redirected its energies almost entirely toward Chattanooga’s efforts to revitalize its downtown and riverfront, to enhance its arts and cultural life, and to improve its schools and natural environment. Major initiatives included support for the Tennessee Riverpark, Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences, Tennessee Aquarium, RiverCity Company, Riverbend Festival, Downtown/Riverfront Planning and Design Studio, Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise, and the Tennessee River Gorge Trust.
In 1992, with the retirement of Jack Lupton from the board of the foundation and the election of his children and his nephews as trustees, Lyndhurst once again established new priorities, centered upon the enhancement and enrichment of the social, natural, and built environment of Chattanooga and the conservation of the region surrounding it.
The current board of Lyndhurst, which includes six of the founder’s descendants and several non-family members, is celebrating its 20th year of service to the Foundation. Looking forward to the next twenty years, this group recognized that changes in future board composition needed to be considered, simply because the number of Cartter Lupton’s descendants has grown quite large, and most have scattered to cities beyond Chattanooga. The present board decided that inclusion of the growing number of these descendants would likely prove to be unworkable as a practical matter, and would also dilute Lyndhurst’s traditional focus on Chattanooga and its surrounding region.
For these reasons, the trustees determined several years ago to embark on a new course when the present seven-year grantmaking cycle ends this year. Thus, at the beginning of 2012, Lyndhurst will spin off $50 million of its assets in order to leverage the creation of five new foundations, representing the five branches within the third generation of the descendants of Cartter Lupton who are active in the Foundation’s governance. The intention of the Lyndhurst trustees is to match $50 million of new philanthropic assets being gifted by family members, thereby creating five new foundations with combined assets of $100 million.
This spin-off will leave the remaining Lyndhurst Foundation centered in Chattanooga, but it will no longer be a family foundation governed by the descendants of Cartter Lupton, with that mantle being passed collectively to the five new entities. Additionally, all eight of the current trustees of Lyndhurst will step down in early 2012, enabling a new group to guide the next phase of the foundation’s work.
With the adoption of this plan several years ago, the Board also established a goal of leaving a corpus of at least $100 million with Lyndhurst in Chattanooga. “The volatility in the financial markets over the past four years has made it very challenging to attain this goal, but we are very pleased that we remain on track to accomplish it,” reported Lyndhurst Chairman Allen McCallie. “We, of course, cannot predict what will happen in the world’s financial markets between now and the beginning of 2012, but we feel that we are well positioned to accomplish the ambitious plan as laid out several years ago.”
“All of the present family board members are very excited about being able to pursue philanthropy in the future through the new and smaller spin-off foundations, while at the same time recognizing that Lyndhurst will remain as an important philanthropic resource in Chattanooga for the foreseeable future,” added Mr. McCallie. “We credit Jack Murrah, who led us wisely for so many years before retiring as President in 2008, in helping us devise this approach as a means both to continue the legacy of Cartter Lupton’s philanthropy as his descendants have spread throughout the country, while also continuing a meaningful Lyndhurst presence in Chattanooga as a non-family foundation with its strategic focus on our community.”
“We are excited about the opportunity to have new leadership and a fresh set of ideas on the new board for Lyndhurst, and we also are confident that we leave an extraordinarily capable staff in place to manage the transition from old to new, including President Bruz Clark, Program Officers Sarah Morgan and Karen Rudolph, and veteran staffers Catherine Cox and Margaret Stakely.”
Alice Smith, oldest daughter of Jack Lupton and former long-time Chairman of Lyndhurst, added that, “We are elated to continue our family philanthropy through the new, smaller foundations, both here and in other home cities of the family members, and to nourish new leadership at Lyndhurst and observe its next phase of involvement in the community. We have probably ‘broken the mold’ on many things we have done at Lyndhurst in the past, and we may be doing so again here, but it is a very invigorating process that we look forward to. We are proud of what we have undertaken at Lyndhurst over the past 20 years, and we expect to remain proud of what Lyndhurst’s new trustees will contribute in the future, especially since they will be able to retain focus on Chattanooga, and will not operate under the constraints of accommodating the expanding ranks of my grandfather’s descendants!”
The five new foundations will be incorporated before the end of 2011 and will be named the Footprint Foundation, the Pathfinder Foundation, the Promise Foundation, the Riverview Foundation, and the Sapphire Foundation.
The new Lyndhurst board will be comprised of ten trustees from the greater Chattanooga area, including: Monique Berke, Stephen Culp, Katherine Currin, Kathleen Hunt, Jim Kennedy, Alison Lebovitz, Jimmy McGinness, Kincaid Mills, Rob Taylor, and Peggy Townsend.
