Foundation History
The Pabst Steinmetz Foundation was established with the aim of fostering innovation and sustainability within our communities. Over the years, we have evolved, adapting to the changing needs of our society while remaining committed to our core values.
A Note from Chuck and Margie:
When we established The Pabst Steinmetz Foundation, the most obvious benefit was more resources for the mission; however our complementary approaches to giving back, to investing in our community emerged as key to our current and future success. Chuck, a scientist, is by nature a builder, a pragmatist who identifies the practical application with questions like, “What is the community need?” or “What do we want to achieve?”
As a counterpoint, Margie is more likely to view a proposal or idea through the filter of feelings and passions associated with the idea and the potential outcome being proposed, connecting it with other collaborators or institutions working with similar issues. She is often heard saying, “So who needs to be a part of this idea to improve our community?”
Our thinking merges at the intersection of inspiring and building sustainable models, models that can stand the test of time, albeit with modifications over time. Neither one of us derives any energy from “recreating wheels” so we would rather continue to support ideas that build rich and continued innovation.
The synergies of having both practicality and passion are, we believe, the key to realizing greater impact in our community. Through the worlds of arts and education, and beginning with listening to community issues and needs, then identifying practical outcomes, our mission is to support ideas that are “sticky”, becoming sustainable models replicated in ripple effect fashion.
Previous Family Foundations
Prior to the creation of the Pabst Steinmetz Foundation in 2018, Chuck and Margie maintained separate family foundations
Mark L. and Margery Pabst Charitable Foundation for the Arts
With heads for business but hearts for the arts, Mark and Margery Pabst formed the Pabst Charitable Foundation for The Arts in the early 2000’s. With successful careers in insurance and business leadership, Mark and Margery were always passionate about the arts and supporting them in each community they called home.
Once retired to Central Florida, the couple set out to build a foundation that would identify local arts organizations who were growing artists as well as broadening access to the arts for the community as a whole.
The first of many organizations to receive support from the Pabsts was Atlantic Center for The Arts. ACA’s model of supporting artists in the creative process resonated with the couple. In 2007 The Mark and Margery Pabst Visitors Center and Gallery at ACA was opened. The 5,000 sq foot Center is home to three interconnecting galleries, office and gathering spaces, and gives way to an outdoor nature trail. In addition to the Pabst Visitors Center, the Pabst Endowment for Master Writers at Atlantic Center for the Arts was created in 2007. The project’s completion came a year after Mark was lost to an aggressive form of leukemia. In her late-husband’s memory, Margie continued to grow the foundation and its impact on arts organizations.
From 2007, the Pabst Charitable Foundation grew into a leading funder for work connected to Arts & Wellness. The Pabst Foundation funded several ground-breaking symposia in the field, creating first of their kind models that identified how connection to various forms of art can positively impact those in the midst of health and wellness struggles. Models have been created and successfully implemented at organizations such as: Easterseals Florida, Winter Park Health Foundation, Central Florida Community Arts, and the University of Central Florida.
We invite you to visit the Pabst Charitable Foundation for the Arts website here and read about the work done from 2007-2018.
Charles P. and Lynn Steinmetz Foundation
From the 1990’s through 2017, the Charles P. and Lynn Steinmetz Foundation had a rich tradition of funding programs and institutions focused on Education and Science, as well as the Arts. With his late wife Lynn, Chuck endowed several scholarships, structures, and made statements of giving that show their love for and commitment to community.
Educational Giving
The University of Florida, Chuck’s alma mater, has been touched by several acts of giving from The Steinmetz Foundation.
In 2000, Chuck endowed a scholarship fund for graduate studies in Entomology.
The Steinmetz Assistantships are awarded to outstanding M.S. or Ph.D. students. Students awarded these assistantships are given a stipend, tuition waiver, and health insurance, and may be assigned teaching duties during part of their program.
In 2011, the University’s Entomology and Nematology Department found a home within Steinmetz Hall. It consists of two buildings: a 6,000 square foot administrative and support building, and an 82,000 square foot building for faculty offices and labs.
The naming rights came as the Foundation committed $5 million to create five new permanent endowments, including three professorships, an entrepreneurship fellowship fund, a research fund and additional support for an existing student scholarship fund. The support is directed to UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences’ Department of Entomology and Nematology.
Closer to home in Orlando, Chuck has supported the education of business management through the Crummer Graduate School of Business at Rollins College.
In 1999, The Steinmetz Chair of Management was created thanks to a gift from the Steinmetz Foundation. The school describes the chair as “enabling Crummer Graduate School of Business to have a nationally recognized scholar in the area of management and strategy.” The Foundation also underwrote the creation of the Steinmetz Lobby within Crummer Hall at Rollins College.
-
Supporting Science
A scientist by trade, Chuck has been committed to ensuring Science is accessible to the community at large.
There’s no better example of this than the Steinmetz Foundation’s dedication to the Orlando Science Center. In addition to serving Chairman and CEO, the Center’s first floor NatureWorks Hall is a gift of Chuck’s to the Orland Science Center and the Central Florida community.
Chuck continues to be an annual donor to the Science Center, supporting its mission to “inspire science learning for life”
Understanding our natural environment and being outdoors has been a Steinmetz family tradition. That’s why the Foundation has supported the Walking Mountains Science Center in Vail, Colorado where the Steinmetz family has spent many years on holiday.
Advancing The Arts
With a passion for art in many mediums, The Steinmetz Foundation has been decades promoting and providing this vital cultural community asset in both Florida and Colorado.
For more than two decades, The Steinmetz Foundation has financially supported the growth and artistic endeavors of:
Orlando Museum of Art
Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra
Opera Orlando
Orlando Ballet
This includes the endowment of the Orlando Philharmonic’s “Concertmaster Chair”, the first such gift in the Philharmonic’s history.
The Steinmetz Foundation’s most lasting contribution to the Central Florida Arts community will be the completion of the Dr. Phillips Center for Performing Arts. Through the Steinmetz Foundation and the newly formed Pabst Steinmetz Foundation, a 1,700 seat acoustical hall, Steinmetz Hall, will be a new home to the Ballet, Opera, and Philharmonic. Steinmetz Hall is set for completion in 2020.
Arts organizations in Vail, Colorado, where the Steinmetz’s have spent many summers and winters, are also the beneficiaries of their dedication to supporting the arts. The Steinmetz Foundation has supported: Bravo Vail, Vail Valley Foundation, and Vail Jazz.
Faith-Based Giving
Chuck and his late wife Lynn dedicated a portion of their philanthropy to their Jewish faith. In addition to support of the National Jewish Fund, in Central Florida the Foundation has supported The Congregation of Reformed Judaism as well as The Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Florida.
In 2005, The Steinmetz’s dedicated the religious school, the Steinmetz Family School of Chai, to the Congregation of Reform Judaism in October 2005, in the memory of Lynn’s parents.