After awarding grants totaling about $100 million over 25 years, the First Niagara Foundation in Buffalo, New York, is completing the process of winding down, the Buffalo News reports.

The foundation is the legacy of Lockport Savings Bank, and the foundation was called the Lockport Savings Bank Foundation when it was established in 1998. When Cleveland-based KeyBank acquired First Niagara Bank in 2016, it was agreed that the First Niagara Foundation, which was focused on supporting education, workforce development, and mentoring, would spend down its resources over five to seven years. KeyBank, led by then-chair and CEO Beth Mooney, agreed to contribute $20 million, adding to the roughly $15 million the foundation had; with the windfall from a soaring stock market, the foundation disbursed a total of $45 million in grants.

First Niagara Foundation executive director Elizabeth Gurney, who also has served as executive director of KeyBank Foundation and director of corporate philanthropy for KeyBank since 2019, told the Buffalo News that the KeyBank Foundation would continue to strongly support western New York. “We increased Key’s investment in western New York very intentionally, knowing (the First Niagara Foundation) was going to wind down,” she said.

Gary Crosby, who was president and CEO of First Niagara Bank when it was acquired, said at the time that it was important to keep the foundation running independently. He told the Buffalo News that he was concerned about the philanthropic hole that will be created by the First Niagara Foundation’s sunsetting, even as he remained “hopeful that KeyBank will step up to the plate.”

“Will they be able to fill the hole completely and continue to do what we were doing in the aggregate?” said Crosby. “That could be tough for them, particularly in this environment, for some time to come.”

(Photo credit: iStock/Getty Images Plus/Joseph Hrycych)