Finlandia Foundation, Pasadena, California records

The Finlandia Foundation was founded in 1953 in California with the twin goals of nurturing the connection with Finland and preserving Finnish culture in America. Yrjo A. Paloheimo, the founder of the organization, got the inspiration for the Foundation from the unprecedented unity in which Finnish Americans supported their homeland during the Second World War years; Paloheimo was the Field Secretary for the Help Finland organization and traveled throughout Finnish American communities in 1945-1946 assisting with the relief efforts. After the war Paloheimo, then the Honorary Consul of Finland for Southern California, wrote the official version of how the Finlandia Foundation was conceived and brought to life. On January 21, 1953, nine founders met at the home of Yrjo and Leonora Paloheimo in Pasadena, California, and unanimously approved the Constitution and By-laws that Paloheimo had modeled after the American Scandinavian Foundation. Yrjo Paloheimo was also elected the first President of the Foundation. He remained in this position for nearly a decade, until Dr. Vaino Hoover replaced him in 1962. During the long term of these first two Presidents – Hoover resigned two decades later, in 1983 – local Finnish American chapters were formed throughout the country. In addition to local chapters, the national body was composed of two parts: The Finlandia Foundation National, a non-tax exempt administrative body, and the tax-exempt Finlandia Foundation Trust, which was later initiated by Dr. Vaino Hoover. Without Hoover, the longest serving President of the Foundation, there would have been little chance for the Foundation to succeed, as he endowed the tax-exempt Finlandia Foundation Trust with his own money. The income from the Trust was used exclusively to fund scholarships and grants. During Hoover’s administration, there were also two Boards of Trustees; however, after the death of Vaino Hoover in 1983, the Foundation went through a process of reorganization. In this process, a single Board of Trustees was created to coordinate both the Finlandia Foundation National and the Finlandia Foundation Trust. Finally in 2002 the Trust was discontinued completely and today, after defining a narrower mission of the Foundation’s function as a funding organization rather than a unifying force among all Finnish American organizations, the Finlandia Foundation operates as a private philanthropic foundation. Under the leadership of Gertrude Kujala (1984), Jorma Kaukonen (1989), Juha Makipaa (1991), Carl W. Jarvie (1993), Paul O. Halme (1995), Inger Pancoast-Edwards (1999), John Suomela (2001), and John Laine (2003) the Foundation has increased its grants and scholarships and become the major source of private funding for Finnish and Finnish-American cultural activities in the United States. The Foundation also publishes its own bi-annual newsletter. For more information about the history of the Foundation, please resort to Jon L. Saari: Black Ties and Miners’ Boots: Inventing Finnish American Philanthropy. A History of Finlandia Foundation National, 1953-2003 (Solvang, CA: Finlandia Foundation National, 2003).