Gift of 1.2 Million Shares of Major Publicly-owned Corporation Made by the Mandel Family of Clevelan

A gift of 1.2 million shares of a major publicly-owned corporation, the Premier Industrial Corp., valued at $42 million when the gift was arranged in March, has been made by the Mandel family of Cleveland to the Mandel Associated Foundations.

This contribution was described by a former Cleveland Jewish Federation official, Henry Zucker, as “the largest lifetime philanthropic gift in the history of Cleveland.” The Premier Industrial Corp. was founded and developed by the Mandels. Its stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

The donors to the Foundations are Morton and Barbara Mandel, Joseph and Florence Mandel, and Jack and Lilyan Mandel. Each couple set up a Supporting Foundation to which the stock was given. Each Supporting Foundation is chartered by the State of Ohio. Zucker said such Foundations are a relatively new type of philanthropic agency.

Zucker, executive vice president emeritus of the Cleveland Jewish Federation and vice president of the Endowment Development Committee of the Council of Jewish Federations, said in telephone interviews with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, that the Mandels chose to set up the Supporting Foundations because, through such Foundations, the donors have a “considerable degree of input” into the beneficiary agencies getting grants from the Foundations.

He said another reason was that the three Mandel families hoped that their special philanthropic interests and concerns would be taken into consideration in distributions after they passed away.

Zucker said the three Foundations are housed in an office in the Federation and that he acted as consultant for all three Foundations which he said function as a single entity.

GIFT MADE WITHOUT CONDITIONS

He said all decisions on distributions of funds from the Foundations are made by a seven-member board of trustees, four named by the Federation and three by the Mandels. The secretary of the Foundations is Howard Berger, associate director of the Federation.

Zucker said such Foundations are considered by the United States government, for tax purposes, as public charities because they are accountable to a public charity, in this case, the Cleveland Federation.

Zucker said the Mandel family had made the gift without conditions and that the trustees can sell the stock, or use the dividends, or both. He said the Mandels had traditionally “supported a great variety of local, national and international needs. These will be continued in the future but they are also developing some ideas of their own and will probably be emphasizing that aspect more.”

Morton Mandel has been president of the Cleveland Federation, the Jewish Welfare Board and the CJF. Barbara Mandel is president of the National Council of Jewish Women. Jack Mandel and Joseph Mandel have also been active in philanthropic activities in Cleveland and in Hollywood, Fla. and Palm Beach, Fla.

Already underway is a program at Case Western Reserve University, the Mandel Center for Non-Profit Management, the result of collaboration between the Cleveland Foundation, the George Gund Foundation, Standard Oil of Ohio and the Mandel Associated Foundations to provide funds to cover the five-year starting costs of the new center.

The Mandel Associated Foundations will provide $650,000 for endowment of a professional chair for the new center. Gifts from the Mandels and the Premier Corp. will total about $1,250,000 for the Case Western Reserve University center.