The Les and Virginia Albro Family Fund

Passing On the Values of Giving Back

The Les and Virginia Albro Family Fund

Southern Indiana is a caring and giving community that offers wonderful opportunities to those of us who call it home. Les Albro and his wife, Virginia, learned that when they moved here with their family in 1959 so that Les could start a new job at local car dealership Rambler City.

With his accounting background, Les was going to help on the business side of the dealership while Walt Bales would handle the sales side of things. By 1979 Les had become president of what was now Bales Auto Mall and he and Virginia were doing their part to give back to a community that had already given so much to them.

“This community has always been very good to our family,” Les said. “We always felt that because of how Southern Indiana embraced us it was our responsibility to give back and support the causes that were making a difference.”

Les and Virginia were actively involved at Oak Park Baptist Church, the Red Cross, Jeffersonville Rotary Club and a number of other organizations. As time moved on, and after Virginia’s passing in 2014, Les wanted to find a way to pass down the value of giving back to his grandchildren and established the Les and Virginia Albro Family Fund at the Community Foundation of Southern Indiana.

“I wanted to see my grandkids learn about giving back and I wanted to be a part of it,” he said. Today, the Albro family has an annual meeting – usually around the holidays – when the family sits down to talk about being philanthropic and the important role giving back plays in this community. Each grandchild puts together a presentation about a particular cause or nonprofit they’re passionate about and by the end of the day the family decides what to support with grants from their fund.

Les said, “the Community Foundation is helping my family give back in meaningful and impactful ways. But most importantly, we’re doing it together, as a family – learning about what each of us is passionate about and having fun giving back.”

At CFSI, we help individuals, families, and businesses give back in meaningful and impactful ways. Last year, CFSI fundholders granted more than $4.4 million to the many varied and individual causes that are important to them.