Friends' Charity Fuel Association records

According to the records of the Friends Charity Fuel Association, in the First month, 1831, male Friends made collections for supplying people in poverty with fuel, which was distributed by the members of “The Female Association for the Relief of the Sick and Infirm Poor with Clothing, &c.” Due to the severe winter of 1834-35, Friends and other like-minded people, met at the Meeting House on Cherry Street for the purpose of extending further aid to poor people. They organized First Mo. 8th, 1835 “The Association of Friends for the Relief of the Suffering Poor” for the supplying of fuel, to co-operate with the “Female Association” before mentioned. Its purpose was to partially or completely pay winter fuel costs for low-income families in the Philadelphia area. A charter was drawn up in 1868 under the name of “Friends’ Charitable Fuel Association”, but upon discovering that it was defective, a new one was composed, and the organization was incorporated 6th Mo. 11th, 1869 as “Friends Charity Fuel Association” (FCFA). The charter was further amended in 1941. For 150 years the FCFA provided coal, oil, sometimes wood, and later gas, to families in the city of Philadelphia. According to its records, and the Handbook of Friends’ Agencies published in 1946 (BX 7607 P6 H2), it has been financed through the years by donations, partial payments by beneficiaries, and a continually growing endowment. In later years it began to invest its monies, and in 1982 it merged with the Fiduciary Corporation of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. As with other Friends’ charitable organizations which have merged with the Fiduciary Corporation, the FCFA is treated as a trust fund. “In each of these consolidations it was determined that income (and sometimes principal) would be used in ways consistent with the basic purposes of the former organizations” [Fiduciary Corporation of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of Friends, 1988 (BX 7698 T2 F45)]. The Perot family of Philadelphia was instrumental in the founding of the charity and continued to be key players in its workings until the merger in 1982. Financial contributions over the years came from the Hecht Foundation, the Iris Club, and the estates of Letitia E. Thomas, James Watson, and Anna Jenkins Ferris Hallowell. Group beneficiaries in the 1960s and 1970s were the Friends Neighborhood Guild, the Florence Crittenton Service, the Philadelphia Center for Older People, and the Center for the Blind.