MARIETTA, Ohio — Every dollar Washington County residents give to the Marietta Community Foundation this fall is worth two. The foundation’s Foundation First Matching Campaign, running from Oct. 12 through Dec. 31, 2026, matches qualifying unrestricted gifts dollar for dollar — up to $2 million — thanks to Ryan and Katarina Robinson, the foundation announced.
The campaign did not start from zero. As of launch day, it had already raised $522,862 — more than 25% of its $2 million goal before it was publicly announced — after the Robinsons brought together a select group of early supporters, known as “Friends,” who shared their belief in what the campaign could make possible, according to the Marietta Community Foundation.
“Having support from this early group truly strengthens the message that this campaign is far more than just our family’s match,” Ryan Robinson said in the foundation’s announcement. “It’s a unique opportunity for a community to collaborate for its own greater good.” Every member of the foundation’s board of directors, along with members of its staff, has also contributed to the campaign.
The foundation says the match targets the one kind of money it needs most. Since 2020, MCF’s assets have grown 86%, from $42.7 million to more than $79 million, and it now stewards more than 400 charitable funds — but unrestricted resources, the flexible funds that let the foundation respond to new opportunities, have fallen from 26.7% of total investments to 17.2% over the past five years, according to the foundation. Since its founding in 1974, MCF has awarded more than $37 million in grants across Washington County.
“I believe in the Foundation, and I believe in the people leading it,” Ryan Robinson said in the announcement. “There are going to be opportunities in the years ahead that we can’t see today. We want to give the Foundation the resources and the freedom to recognize those opportunities, bring people together and help make big things happen.”
Heather Allender, who has served at the foundation for 19 years, said in the announcement that the match “gives us the ability to dream bigger, to see an opportunity and have the capacity to pursue it.” Gifts go into the Robinson and Friends Foundation First Fund, an unrestricted fund stewarded by MCF leadership and the Robinson family. Donations can be made online through the foundation’s campaign page or by check payable to Marietta Community Foundation, at 100 Putnam Street in Marietta, with “Foundation First Matching Campaign” in the memo line — and any qualifying gift made before Dec. 31 is doubled.
Photo: pasa47, CC BY 2.0