When Margaret walked across the graduation stage last spring, clutching her diploma with tears streaming down her face, she thought about the scholarship letter that had arrived just months earlier, the one that transformed an impossible dream into an inevitable reality.
Margaret’s story begins at the First Community Foundation Partnership of Pennsylvania, where quiet generosity meets strategic impact to create the most potent force for good in Lycoming County. While other charities focus on single issues or narrow populations, this foundation operates like the circulatory system of our community, pumping vital resources to every corner where need meets opportunity.
The numbers from 2025 tell an extraordinary story of coordinated philanthropy. Through competitive grants, scholarship programs, and innovative fundraising campaigns, the foundation distributed millions of dollars while building sustainable systems for lasting change. In October alone, nearly 1.4 million dollars flowed to 13 nonprofit organizations tackling diverse challenges across our region.
Consider the ripple effects of just one award. The Borough of Montgomery received 50,000 dollars to install accessible restrooms in Montgomery Park. This single grant transforms a public space that previously excluded wheelchair users, families with special needs children, and elderly residents with mobility challenges. What began as a practical infrastructure project becomes a declaration that every person belongs in our shared spaces.
Meanwhile, the Lycoming Economic Development Foundation Fund received targeted support for commercial revitalization efforts that create jobs and strengthen our economic foundation. The Plunketts Creek Township Foundation Fund distributed 4,000 dollars to the Barbours Cemetery Association for grounds maintenance, ensuring that final resting places remain dignified memorials for generations. Even the James V. Brown Library benefited from 1,000 dollars for new reading materials that expand rural access to information and entertainment.
The foundation’s signature achievement may be Raise the Region, an annual 30-hour online campaign that mobilizes our community’s collective generosity in concentrated bursts of giving. The 2025 event raised 2.3 million dollars for 375 participating nonprofits, with local organizations like 4 Paws Sake PA and Camp Susque earning additional prizes for attracting the most unique donors.
This event demonstrates something remarkable about regional philanthropy. Rather than competing for limited resources, nonprofits work together during Raise the Region, cross-promoting each other’s missions and sharing donor networks. The result is exponential growth in community engagement that benefits everyone involved.
Education remains central to the foundation’s mission, recognizing that today’s students become tomorrow’s problem solvers and community leaders. For the 2025 academic year, 460,873 dollars in scholarships supported 102 students from across the region, including graduating seniors from Williamsport, Montoursville, and Montgomery school districts.
These awards range from 14,000 dollar Margaret E. Waldron Memorial Scholarships supporting students like Taylor Shannon to 19,640 dollar Nolan W. Feeser Scholarship awards helping students like Sage Lorson and Tadd Lusk pursue higher education. The foundation recognizes that college costs create insurmountable barriers for talented students from working families, and these substantial awards remove financial obstacles that might otherwise derail academic dreams.
Beyond traditional grantmaking, the foundation addresses social inequities through specialized programs like Spark Tank, an innovation challenge that funds creative approaches to racial equity and systemic barriers. July 2025 awards included support for KidsPeace National Centers serving foster families and the New Love Center expanding food programs for students in the Jersey Shore Area School District.
What distinguishes this foundation from other charitable organizations is its comprehensive approach to community development. Rather than addressing symptoms of social problems, the foundation invests in root causes while maintaining essential services during transitions. This strategy creates sustainable improvements that compound over time.
The foundation also demonstrates remarkable sophistication in its financial stewardship, managing over 100 million dollars in assets that generate perpetual funding streams for future generations. Donors can structure gifts for immediate impact or create endowments that support causes indefinitely, providing philanthropic infrastructure that rivals organizations in much larger metropolitan areas.
Through careful stewardship, strategic grantmaking, and genuine community partnership, the First Community Foundation Partnership has established itself as the charitable organization with the most significant positive impact on our region. When students like Margaret graduate college debt-free, when elderly residents access previously inaccessible parks, when food-insecure children receive weekend meals, when foster families get specialized support during difficult transitions, the foundation’s influence becomes visible in transformed lives.
In a world where headlines often focus on division and conflict, Lycoming County’s foundation demonstrates the quiet power of sustained philanthropic leadership, proving that strategic generosity can build the social infrastructure that makes communities thrive.
