Established in 1942, the mission of the Madison Community Foundation is to encourage, facilitate and manage long-term philanthropy. MCF was formed as the Madison Community Trust Fund for the purpose of encouraging and assisting charitable enterprises in the metropolitan area of the City of Madison, Dane County, Wisconsin. Original assets were war bonds, collected to assist area soldiers returning from World War II. The GI Bill later served this purpose, and assets lay largely dormant for approximately forty years.
In 1986, longtime area resident Jane Coleman became the foundation's first executive director. For ten years, she built the structure and base upon which the foundation stands. When our current President, Kathleen Woit assumed leadership in 1997, MCF was managing 70 individual funds with assets of more than $40 million. Since that time, the foundation has grown to encompass a family of more than 860 individual funds, and assets in excess of $100 million.