The Dayton Foundation has received $3.3 million from the combined estates of Dorothea “Dottie” and Donald Spindler for the Donald M. and Dorothea Hunt Spindler Endowment Fund of The Dayton Foundation. The gift represents one of the largest gifts in the Foundation’s 88-year history.

The Donald M. and Dorothea Hunt Spindler Endowment Fund will benefit 15 local charitable organizations and support The Dayton Foundation’s community leadership initiatives and its competitive grantmaking program. Through this program, the Foundation can help address needs and opportunities in the community.

“The Dayton Foundation is honored to be entrusted with this generous gift. It not only represents the Spindlers’ trust in The Dayton Foundation to carry out their hopes and dreams for the community, but also their belief in the future of the Greater Dayton Region,” said Michael M. Parks, president of The Dayton Foundation. “By creating an unrestricted portion to their fund, the Spindlers will help the Foundation to continue to make strategic grants to strengthen local nonprofits and undertake leadership initiatives to proactively, collaboratively and effectively address pressing community needs and opportunities. The Spindlers’ generous and kind spirit will be felt by many for generations to come.”

Dottie Spindler worked as the secretary to the president of Third National Bank, now KeyBank NA, for 38 years. She passed away in May 2002 at the age of 89. Donald Spindler, a lifelong Dayton resident, World War II Army Air Corps veteran and longtime Dayton Power and Light Company employee, passed away in February 2007 at the age of 95. They resided in Kettering.

Since 1921 The Dayton Foundation has been helping people help others in the Dayton community and beyond. The Dayton Foundation helps donors find the best and most tax-wise ways to achieve their charitable objectives, invests and manages donors’ charitable funds, and provides grants and leadership to grow philanthropy and help meet present and future community needs.