In 1897, Frank Church, editor of The New York Sun, responded to eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon, who wrote to the newspaper to ask “is there a Santa Claus?” More than a century later it remains the most reprinted editorial ever to run in any newspaper in the United States.
“Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus!”
For 27 years, the Yes, Virginia Fund has supported children in need in the Pasadena community at the holidays with the Yes, Virginia Grant Program. The fund provides grants to local nonprofit agencies to provide toys, books, gifts, and special experiences for the holidays, in an effort to help all children feel valued and supported in their lives.
Since 1994, the Yes, Virginia Fund has granted more than $355,000 to local nonprofit agencies to help address the needs of our community’s children. In 2019, the Yes, Virginia Fund reached its endowment goal, and now, as the Yes, Virginia Endowment, it will make its holiday grants to local nonprofit agencies every year, for decades to come.
“Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus,” means that no child is meant to go without. We are committed to our credo: “Some things have to be believed to be seen.”
2022 Grantees
Fund description updated December, 2022.