The Elizabeth “Beth” Brown Calleton Endowment provides unrestricted support for Pasadena Community Foundation’s local grantmaking. This is a Fund for Pasadena, which benefits Pasadena-area nonprofit organizations working to sustain and uplift our community.
Dedicated to Women Rights – and many other causes
Beth Calleton’s life work was ensuring that every child was a wanted child. As a student at Smith College and Columbia University in the 1950s, Beth was at the forefront of the growing women’s movement, and her dedication to women’s rights informed many of the causes and organizations she worked for over the course of her life and career. She strove to ensure that all people had access to health care, education, and a network of support, and her extensive community work was centered on those goals. She served as Executive Director for 22 years at Planned Parenthood of Pasadena, where she is remembered as a steady, fearless leader. She was especially passionate about health education and culturally fluent outreach, and during her tenure, Planned Parenthood expanded its services exponentially and established peer education programs, anonymous hotlines for teens to ask questions, and Spanish- and Mandarin-bilingual outreach.
Beth also extended her time and energy to countless additional organizations in the area. She volunteered for The League of Women Voters, Young and Healthy, Zonta, the Altadena Children’s Center, the United Nations Association, the Women’s City Club, the Pasadena Senior Center, the Pasadena AIDS Community Coordinating Committee, and the Pasadena Unified School District Community Health Advisory Committee.
In her rare moments of free time, she enjoyed traveling to Russia, China, India, Ethiopia, and Vietnam. She also enjoyed spending time with her children, Chris and wife Jennifer; Pam; and Susan and husband Curt, as well as five adored grandchildren; Eric, Rachel, Kylie, Cade and Keira.
A Legacy to Honor Her Commitment to Community
Beth’s dedication to the health and well-being of her community was the foundation of her professional life, her volunteer work, and her philanthropy. Beth established a Donor Advised Fund (DAF) with PCF in 2004 and made gifts to many organizations over the next 14 years. When she passed away in October, 2018, Beth’s children wished to honor her unique legacy and help continue her work on behalf of the people of Pasadena. They made the decision to gift the balance of Beth’s DAF to PCF to establish the Elizabeth Brown Calleton Endowment. The endowment will support PCF’s local grantmaking, including many of the organizations that Beth loved, and ensure that her legacy continues to enrich the community to which she was so dedicated.
The Power of Endowment
Endowments are the cornerstone of PCF’s mission to build hometown legacies. The corpus of each endowed fund is invested with PCF’s portfolio for long-term growth. Each year, the endowments generate the funds that support PCF’s local grantmaking, which enriches the arts community, protects our environment, provides health care and critical social services, and bolsters public education in Pasadena. Endowments are permanent legacies for our community; these funds will continue to grow and provide philanthropic support forever. Learn more about creating an endowment at PCF.
Created 2019