In the spring of 1990 a small group of 23 Beaver County leaders, led by Charles N. O’Data, who was encouraged by colleague, David Kuder, gathered at Geneva College with the concept of creating a community foundation. In the process they discovered that a young attorney from Aliquippa, named John Salopek had laid out a proposal with the Jaycees to start the Beaver County Foundation. The parties later met and joined forces to create the foundation. They established a mission to make Beaver County a better place to live, play, work and worship to the generations to follow.
On April 20, 1992, the Internal Revenue Service officially designated the Beaver County Foundation as a 501 C 3 organization. Using the model created by Benjamin Franklin, “giant oaks from tiny acorns grow” the Beaver County Foundation’s first fund was for less than $30,000 was begun in December of 1992 and in 1993 the first grants totaling $8,000 were awarded.
As of December 31, 2020, the Beaver County Foundation had assets of over $10 million.