Waiting 200 years

Benjamin Franklin was certainly a major factor in the creation of this country. He is a part of our history and made his mark in the world of science. And, he did some unusual things. One of which was to bequeath $2,000 each to the cities of Boston and Philadelphia to be invested in community philanthropic initiatives 200 years later.

In 1990, the Pennsylvania Legislature used some of the then-$2 million total to create the Ben Franklin Funds and have allocated monetary gifts to several foundations and institutions. According to a now-archived article published by The New York Times at the time of the 1990 disbursement, the $2,000 fund in the Boston trust, meanwhile, was worth about $4.5 million.