Our Focus & Work
We support organizations and initiatives that create healthier, stronger, more connected communities.
Literacy & Reading Access
Helping children and families discover the power of books, reading confidence, and lifelong learning.
Mothers & Newborn Care
Investing in healthier beginnings through exceptional care for mothers, babies, and growing families.
Public Libraries as Pillars of Community Health
Supporting libraries as trusted centers of education, connection, workforce development, and civic life.
Freedom to Read & Access to Information
Supporting efforts that defend intellectual freedom, oppose book bans, and ensure libraries, schools, and communities remain places where all people can explore ideas freely.
Jewish Community Support
Strengthening Jewish identity, continuity, education, and community life through meaningful partnership.
Health Literacy
Advancing programs that help individuals and families better understand and navigate their healthcare.
Featured Impact
Photo courtesy of Page Ahead Children's Literacy Program - Seattle, WA
Believe in Reading is a literacy-focused philanthropic initiative funded by the Potash Family Foundation that supports nonprofit organizations, schools, and public libraries working to teach, improve, and encourage reading for people of all ages. Through grants and targeted funding, Believe in Reading helps expand access to books, strengthen literacy instruction, support underserved communities, and invest in programs that create lifelong readers. The organization prioritizes proven, community-based efforts that make reading more accessible and impactful for children, families, and adult learners alike.
In 2021, Steve and Loree Potash made a transformational $7.5 million investment in University Hospitals to support the expansion of UH Ahuja Medical Center and establish the Steve and Loree Potash Women & Newborn Center. Their gift helps bring exceptional, family-centered care for mothers, babies, and growing families to Northeast Ohio, including advanced maternity, labor and delivery, and newborn services. As part of their commitment to both health and literacy, the Potashes also created the Baby’s First Books program, which provides families leaving the hospital with board books, parenting resources, and connections to their local public library—encouraging reading and learning from a child’s very first days. Through this investment, the Potash family is helping create healthier beginnings and brighter futures for generations to come.
Steve and Loree Potash have long championed the vital role libraries play in education, access, and strong communities, and their support of the American Library Association reflects that commitment on a national scale. Through the Potash Family Foundation, they established a $500,000 matching challenge grant in honor of ALA’s 150th anniversary, helping inspire additional philanthropic support for the future of libraries and the profession. Their gift advances key priorities including literacy of all kinds, advocacy for libraries, equitable access to information, intellectual freedom, and strengthening the next generation of library leadership. By investing in ALA at this historic milestone, the Potash family is helping ensure libraries remain essential pillars of learning, opportunity, and democracy for generations to come.
In 2025, the Potash family made a $100,000 leadership investment in Cleveland Kids' Book Bank to help advance its Next Chapter Capital Campaign, supporting the organization’s mission to foster literacy and a love of reading for children across Greater Cleveland. Their gift helped fund an expanded permanent facility designed to improve book storage, volunteer operations, and large-scale distribution allowing even more children to build home libraries and access the life-changing power of books. Through the Foundation and Believe in Reading, the Potash family has been a longstanding champion of literacy, helping ensure that every child has the opportunity to learn, grow, and succeed through reading.
A core priority of the Foundation is protecting the freedom to read, learn, and access ideas without censorship. Through Steve Potash’s leadership as Founder and Chairman of the 501c3, Freedom to Learn Foundation (FTLF) and 501c4, Freedom to Learn Advocates (FTLA), the family supports national efforts to defend intellectual freedom, oppose book banning, and ensure that libraries, schools, and communities remain places where people can explore diverse perspectives. Their work helps provide advocacy resources, legal support, public awareness, and philanthropic investment to safeguard open access to information and uphold the essential role reading plays in a free society.
