Adolfo “Pepe” Piperno, a son of Camden and longtime Cherry Hill resident, founded the Domenica Foundation in 1991 in honor of his mother, Domenica Piperno. Although he enjoyed a long and successful career in retail management and ownership, Pepe’s entrepreneurial spirit and lifelong embrace of dovere, an Italian term meaning duty or responsibility, led him to pursue doing good in addition to doing well. Guided by Domenica’s generous and compassionate example, the Piperno family were soon delivering food, diapers, and Christmas gifts to local charities. The Domenica Foundation quickly expanded to sponsor scholarships to Catholic schools for children from low-income Camden families to attend.
The profound influence of two local activist Catholic priests – Father Michael Doyle of Sacred Heart Church and Father Robert McDermott of St. Joseph’s Pro-Cathedral – reverberates throughout the Foundation and its work today. The Domenica Foundation now partners with nonprofit organizations throughout South Jersey to fund programs that provide education, food, housing, and other resources that open the door of opportunity and enable all of our neighbors to thrive.
Learn more: Domenica Foundation
