Making a difference, doing a world of good
Financial advisers working hard to improve the lives of others and finding new purpose along the way
Five financial advisers won leadership awards at the 13th annual Invest in Others Awards Gala on Thursday for their many hours of volunteering and other philanthropic efforts. Presented by the Invest in Others Charitable Foundation, this award program recognized advisers in five categories.
Winners received $45,000 for their particular charity and the 10 finalists received $15,000 awards. The Lifetime Achievement Award winner received $55,000 to donate to his charity.
For the second year, the organization also gave $1,000 awards to 60 honorable mentions.
“This evening is a rare opportunity to bring the industry together to celebrate the good that advisers are doing each and every day in their communities,” said Megan McAuley, executive director and president of the Invest in Others Charitable Foundation. “We’re thrilled to recognize the incredible charitable work of this year’s honorees and support their charities with substantial award donations.”
More than 600 financial professionals and guests attended the awards event in Boston.
Reflecting the Marines’ motto of “Semper Fi,” or “always faithful,” former Marine Eric Candelori has been actively supporting the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation for more than 40 years. As a teenager, he helped his father, also a former Marine, work on volunteer projects for the same foundation.
The nonprofit provides college scholarships, based only on financial need, to the children of any Marine in active service or honorably discharged. The assistance fills a significant budgetary void for military families, as the current GI Bill is generally only enough to help one family member. The foundation disburses some $8 million per year to about 2,300 recipients.
In 1995, the younger Mr. Candelori, senior vice president with Merrill Lynch Wealth Management in Tysons Corner, Va., joined the foundation’s board and soon made his mark, setting up a business plan in 1998 to create a $100 million endowment. The organization is on track to reach this goal by 2021 and he is still on the board.
“So many charities don’t have all the pieces they need,” he said. “Namely, a worthy cause, a business plan and the right people with the drive, the skills and the passion.”
Bivona Child Advocacy Center is a one-stop, stand-alone nonprofit that services the million-person metro area of Rochester, N.Y. The statistics about its clients are sobering. It serves about 2,000 children a year, most of whom have been sexually abused.
The center, which houses 23 partner organizations under one roof, receives referrals from parents, schools, law enforcement and doctors. The children, accompanied by a victim’s advocate, are shepherded through a process that includes a forensic interview and medical and mental health evaluations. Follow-up services are provided as required.
“There used to be multiple interviews,” said Wayne F. Holly, president and chairman of Sage Rutty & Co. in Rochester and chairman of the Bivona board. “But the goal is to lessen the trauma, to just tell the story once, so the healing process can start sooner and they don’t have to relive the event.”
These types of centers are becoming more and more common as people are more willing to talk about childhood sexual abuse, he said.
“We can’t look the other way or pretend it’s not happening,” Mr. Holly said. “We are taking the conversation out of the shadows and into the public so that we can deal with it. We need to take care of the children.”
Rugby might not seem like a logical choice to introduce to inner city schools in America, but unlike many other sports, it requires almost nothing in the way of equipment, said Michael Deutsch, vice president at United Capital, a Goldman Sachs company, and board chairman of Memphis Inner City Rugby.
“It’s a sport that is under-represented by African-American and Latino kids, but once you’re in the game, everyone is the same,” he said. “And when you step on that field, everything you go through on a day-to-day basis, you leave on the sidelines.”
The program annually serves about 200 boys and girls, from elementary school through high school, at charter schools with few resources. It provides certified coaches, transportation, clothing and nutrition, along with academic tutoring and leadership training for kids.
The speed of success of the seven-year-old program has been surprising, Mr. Deutsch said. Not only have 94% of graduating participants gone on to continue their education, but after only two years in existence, the girls’ team has started winning state championships.
“It’s about creating opportunities for our kids to succeed,” he said. “It doesn’t take much: just a ball and a field and people who care”.
“It’s overwhelming, as hard as it is. We’re not saving the world, but we have the capacity to save these people — one at a time,” said Mike Mayernick, wealth management adviser with Northwestern Mutual in Nashville, Tenn. He is co-founder, along with his wife Suzanne, of Love One International, which serves about 6,000 people a year in the impoverished Masindi District of Uganda, the region from which they adopted their daughter 10 years ago.
The charity provides medical care, food distribution, school tuition and training in best practices in farming and child care in order to encourage empowerment and sustainability. Its “recovery center,” located one to two hours away from the remote area’s villages, has 15 beds for patients who need to be nursed back to health, whether they’re recovering from a hospital stay or are being treated for malaria, tuberculosis, HIV or severe malnutrition. The Mayernicks are fundraising to build a bigger center that can serve 100 people.
“We are trying to save lives — it’s so foreign to people in the U.S.,” Mr. Mayernick said. “There are literally people dying from things that can be prevented.”
It’s all about continually taking things to the next level for David A. Pickler, president and CEO of Pickler Wealth Advisors in Collierville, Tenn.
Starting as a local PTA member, Mr. Pickler moved on to serve on the local school board, followed by stints on state and national school board associations. Inspired by the knowledge and contacts he’d gained through the years, he decided to establish the American Public Education Foundation to develop an educational model to replicate across the country.
Mr. Pickler took this step to address a lack of accountability and responsibility among parents, business leaders, educational leaders — and students themselves — to demand quality education with high standards, he said.
The foundation works currently with high schools in two local school districts and has two main focuses:
• Teaching and advocating for financial literacy.
• Bringing together local governments, chambers of commerce, community colleges and public schools to foster workforce development.
“There’s no greater reward than bringing people together with a shared vision and giving them tools to empower them,” Mr. Pickler said. “It’s the power of the possible.”
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