As the Goldseker Foundation marks 50 years of grantmaking, the organization is reflecting on its work with grantees and partners throughout the Baltimore metropolitan area. The foundation released its 2025 Annual Report to celebrate its accomplishments and the ongoing work by the communities it supports to uplift Baltimore. “This milestone is a moment to reflect with gratitude, recommit with urgency, and look forward,” said Sharna Goldseker, Board Chair of the Goldseker Foundation, in a statement. “Morris Goldseker arrived in Baltimore with little more than his determination. The Foundation he made possible has honored that spirit for 50 years. As we enter our next half century, we do so as engaged and deeply rooted partners in Baltimore’s progress.” When Polish immigrant Morris Goldseker immigrated to the United States at just 15 years old, he arrived alone at the Port of Baltimore in 1914. Working initially as a tailor and later as a grocery store clerk, Morris would go on to build his career in real estate management and development. Morris’s six decades in the U.S., until his death in 1973, laid the foundation for what the Goldseker Foundation is today.  In 1975, the foundation was established with an original bequest of Morris’s entire $11 million estate. In his guidance for the bequest, Morris wrote ““No institution which in its activities imposes restrictions based on race, creed, or color shall be selected [for funding].” Since its inception 50 years ago, the foundation has granted more than $140 million – over 12 times that original bequest – to more than 700 organizations and projects across the Baltimore metropolitan area. Today, the foundation’s endowment is valued at about $150 million. “As we bear witness today to the detention and deportation of immigrants in Baltimore, the refusal of refugees, and the rollbacks of freedoms and federal funding, we are mindful of our responsibility to infuse our efforts with an even greater sense of urgency,” Sharna wrote in her “Chair’s Message” as part of the report. Among the Goldseker Foundation’s contributions to the region was the startup and early operating support it provided for the Baltimore Community Foundation in 1978. The Baltimore Community Foundation has now grown to more than 950 philanthropic funds with assets exceeding $350 million, and it has granted more than $800 million since its founding. Goldseker also led the 2025 development of a $1.7 million fund, supported by 11 local and national funders, to support organizations participating in the Baltimore Vacants Reinvestment Initiative. Coordinated by the state of Maryland and city of Baltimore, the initiative aims to rehabilitate more than 12,000 vacant properties in reinvest in Baltimore neighborhoods. Last year, the foundation increased its support for organizations serving immigrants and refugees; continued its investment in The Baltimore Banner; provided seed money for new schools; helped expand food access through farms and markets; and gave support to the Abortion Fund of Maryland. “The Goldseker Foundation always hopes to serve as a role model in private philanthropy,” said Ana and Deborah Goldseker, the Foundation’s Co-Vice Chairs, in a statement. “We will continue supporting Baltimore’s most promising leaders and ideas through the Foundation’s grantmaking.” The foundation’s leaders noted that their organization’s support is not solely financial, rather it is a total commitment to directly helping the Baltimore region thrive. A 2024 executive order by Gov. Wes Moore established the Baltimore Vacants Reinvestment Council, of which Matthew D. Gallagher, president and CEO of the Goldseker Foundation, and Beth Blauer, an Advisory Selection Committee member, serve as the two public members. “Fifty years of grantmaking has taught us that lasting change in Baltimore requires patience, partnership, and an unwavering belief in the capacity of this city’s people and institutions to lead their own transformation,” Gallagher said in a statement. “That conviction has never wavered—not through civic unrest, a global pandemic, or a federal landscape increasingly hostile to American cities. We remain committed to the work, not as an outside observer, but as a partner with genuine stakes in Baltimore’s future.” To read the Goldseker Foundation’s full 2025 Annual Report, click here. ...read more read less