Community Chests, commonly referred to as community trusts, community foundations and united way organizations, are endowment funds pooled from a community for the purpose of charitable giving. The first Community Chest, "Community Fund", was founded in 1913 in

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, by the Federation for Charity and Philanthropy. Between 1919 and 1929, the number of Community Chest organizations increased from 39 to 353, surpassing 1,000 by 1948. After several name changes, in 1963 the term " United Way" was adopted in the United States, whereas the United Way/Centraide name was not adopted in Canada until 1973–1974. The Community Chest was promoted on several old-time radio shows, including the H. J. Heinz Company–sponsored '' The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet'' show, the S. C. Johnson & Son–sponsored '' Fibber McGee and Molly'' show, and the Chevron–sponsored '' Let George Do It'' show. Some local organizations continue to use the Community Chest name, such as Concord-Carlisle Community ChestConcord-Carlisle Community Chest
/ref> in Concord,

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

. It also continues to be used as the name for a gameplay feature in the board game ''Monopoly''.

References

United Way Central Coast Community Chest - Australia
1913 establishments in Ohio Charities based in Canada Charities based in the United States Organizations established in 1913

Community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...

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See also

References