History, Vision, Values and Beliefs

Page history last edited by Kelly Behrend 1 yr ago

Background of the Bonner Foundation

About The Foundation

History | Creation of the Foundation | Foundation Values & Beliefs | Resource Documents
 

History

The story of the Foundation is the story of Bertram and Corella Bonner and their desire to “give back to the Lord what the Lord has given [them].” Both Bertram and Corella Bonner's personal journeys played a significant role in the development and direction of the Foundation.

 

In the words of Bertram Bonner, he was born “without a dime” in 1899 in Brooklyn, New York. At the early age of 22, after putting himself through college at night, Mr. Bonner was named Head Treasurer for Heda Green Banks. He had been working with Ms. Green since the beginning of his teenage years and had learned much from the eccentric and well-known woman. As Head Treasurer he made many loans to New York builders, which inspired him to become involved in the real estate business. He was successful from the beginning but in the stock market crash of '29, like so many others, he lost everything.
 
But, unlike others, with hard-work and a tremendous acumen for business, Mr. Bonner quickly made back his fortune. His career spanned six decades and he built more than 30,000 homes and apartments.
 
Corella Bonner, like her husband, was born into poverty. However, she began her journey in the rural south - more specifically the town of Eagan, TN. At fourteen, after living in coal-mining towns in West Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky, Corella Allen, along with her mother, sought opportunity in the northern city of Detroit. Arriving penniless, the young Allen soon found work as a cashier at a cafeteria, attended Wayne State University at night and made sure that her younger siblings went to school.
 
She worked her way up from cashier to manager and was eventually transferred to the Statler chain's New York hotel. It was there that she met Bertram Bonner who she married, four years later, in 1942.
 
The Bonners' involvement in community service emanated from their early work providing food for destitute families in Fort Lauderdale, Florida where the Bonner family lived. When the Bonners moved in 1956 to Princeton, NJ they began a broad-based ecumenical crisis ministry program housed in the Nassau Presbyterian Church.
Mr. Bonner passed away in May of 1993. Mrs. Bonner carried on their legacy of hope, service and gratitude until her passing in July of 2002.
 

The Creation of the Foundation

Since activated in 1989, the Foundation has become one of the nation's largest privately-funded service scholarship programs and a philanthropic leader in the anti-hunger movement. Through sustained partnerships with colleges and congregations, the Corella and Bertram F. Bonner Foundation seeks to improve the lives of individuals and communities by helping meet the basic needs of nutrition and educational opportunity.
 
The Foundation addresses its mission with two major programs, Bonner Scholars and Crisis Ministry. The Bonner Scholar Program provides scholarships to students at 27 colleges and universities who need financial assistance and who have a commitment to strengthening their communities through service. The Crisis Ministry Program funds the purchase of food for congregation-supported, anti-hunger initiatives. The Crisis Ministry Program grew out of the Bonner’s early work providing food for poor families in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Currently, the Foundation awards $625,000 in grants annually to congregationally-affiliated, community-based hunger relief programs across the country.
 
In the last 11 years, the Foundation has provided $9.5 million in grants to thousands of religious, community-based hunger relief programs across the country and has awarded more than $12 million in scholarship support to more than 2,500 students at 27 colleges. In addition, the Foundation has created a $5 million endowment at 7 of the Bonner colleges to carry out the Bonner Scholars Program, which has become a nationally recognized service scholarship model.
 

Foundation Values & Beliefs

The Bonner Foundation is committed to the following values and beliefs:
  • The Bonner Foundation is committed to working with all people and institutions regardless of age, race, belief, or nationality.
  • The Bonner Foundation believes that colleges and congregations have vital societal roles to play by nurturing and mobilizing thoughtful, caring, and diverse leadership dedicated to community service.
  • The Bonner Foundation recognizes that often the best way to help someone is to give them the opportunity to help themselves, and that the people best able to address a problem are the people whom it most directly affects.
  • The Bonner Foundation recognizes that effective community service programs involve all stakeholders in their leadership.
  • The Bonner Foundation recognizes that long-lasting partnerships are based on mutual respect and common commitments.
  • The Bonner Foundation supports innovative programs which have the potential to serve as models for other congregations and higher education institutions.
 

Resource Documents

 

 

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