American Revolution Bicentennial Commission of California

The legislation that established the American Revolution Bicentennial Commission of California stipulated that the commission “shall operate without the appropriation of state funds for its purposes, but that expenditures of the commission shall be financed from donations, gifts and grants from private or other public sources” (Chapter 1425, Statutes of 1967). The federal government did provide California and each of the other states $45,000 a year for two years to cover the cost of hiring staff and renting an office as a state headquarters. The commission also organized a non-profit corporation to receive donations and to contribute money to various organizations celebrating the bicentennial (forty such grants received more than $400,000 in federal matching funds). One such donor was the Liberty Ice Cream Company, makers of “America’s Bicentennial Ice Cream.”