The Liebman Family: A Tradition of Thoughtful, Compassionate Giving

The Liebman family has spent decades quietly nourishing social, educational and economic causes in the Chicago region and beyond. For the Liebmans, philanthropy is a family value that runs deep.

Charles and Mary Liebman, who passed away in 2024 and 2011, respectively, were instrumental in setting an example for their children: Paul (who passed away in 2020), Elizabeth, Becky, and Tom. Becky recalls lively family discussions about societal needs and public policy.

As Charles himself was known to say, “It’s terribly important to remember that 15 to 20 percent of people cannot thrive in our system without the rest of us helping. Our system, dynamic as it is, needs us to step up to address that reality.”

Both Charles and Mary embodied this belief through their philanthropy, aided by the support and partnership of the Trust. In 2002, the couple used the shares of the company Charles founded in the 1950s to create the PERT Foundation, a supporting organization of the Trust. This type of giving vehicle affords the donor greater flexibility and administrative ease than a private foundation, along with access to the Trust’s philanthropic and community expertise.

Named for the four Liebman children, the PERT Foundation has funded numerous education and workforce initiatives throughout the Chicago region. For example, the foundation provided multiyear support toward the development of a training program for nurses at McHenry County College. It was also an early supporter of the Trust’s Unity Fund addressing the region’s critical needs.

Today, Tom and Elizabeth are helping to carry on their parents’ legacy by serving on the PERT Foundation’s board of directors. And Becky focuses her philanthropy on the building of political and economic power in disenfranchised communities, “hopefully resulting in public policies and liberated imaginations that better serve all of us,” she says.

Reflecting on their father’s legacy, Elizabeth, Becky and Tom say, “Charles wasn’t a guy looking for fanfare or credit. But he’d look people in the eye and leave the question in the air — the question of, ‘what actions will we take in view of the needs that exist?’ The Trust was the engine he settled on to do that in a way he didn’t have the expertise to do by himself.”