Charles E. Culpeper Foundation Merger

On July 1, 1999, after a year of planning, the RBF completed a formal merger with the Charles E. Culpeper Foundation, a Connecticut-based foundation. The merger, in which the RBF became the “surviving corporation,” brought to the Fund new trustees, program staff, and financial resources. Like the RBF, the Culpeper Foundation had been established in 1940, the philanthropic expression of a 19^th century business fortune. Charles Emory Culpeper (1874-1940), owner of Coca-Cola bottling companies in the northeast, bequeathed $8 million to establish the Foundation upon his death. Over the next 60 years, Culpeper trustees made more than $125 million in grants in health service delivery, higher education, biomedical research and physician training, and arts and culture. The two foundations shared many core values, including commitments to the environment and to fostering the well-being of people in an interdependent world. In 2015, the legacy of the Culpeper Foundation is most clearly evidenced by the Fund’s Charles E. Culpeper Arts & Culture program, which supports artists and arts organizations in New York City.