David Kauffman Vice Chairman BNI Foundation
This year we are celebrating our 25th year as a foundation. This is a great milestone. Over the first 25 years of giving, we have donated over 3 million dollars to our local communities in support of our children and the teachers who educate them. There are now formal entities in 14 countries and Business Voices activate and many more! But with your help we can do so much more!
We have been asked, where does the money go? We want to tell you that with the support of the BNI Global Team we can use 100% of all money raised or donated to help in your local communities. How many foundations can make that statement! There have been over 150 Givers Gain Grants, larger grants to projects like New Life Beginnings, Friends of Thai Daughters, The Monarch School, and Shine Service Centers. We are now also a proud partner of the NFLA and we have built learning centers for children who would not be able to go to school.
Some of the recent grants have gone to teachers like Sarah Stockham, who used the money to buy Leveled Readers for the advancement of students reading skills. Boys and Girls Club of NJ purchased 3-D printers for their science program. Partners in Education Toledo purchased College & Career Ready Material to help their students to be better prepared after graduation. Horizon House used its grant to buy and fill backpacks with school supplies for the elementary students in their shelters. College Settlement Camp bought science Equipment, microscopes, and binoculars. Suisun Valley K-8 School created tower gardens to teach the children how to grow and eat healthy. Raskob Learning Institute and Day School needed iPads and Jenny Strene, Principal, needed Robotics kits. The Paraison School purchased books on Technology and the ATG Learning Academy needed Chrome tablets to help communicate with their students. The Bradford Elementary School art department purchased art supplies and new books to replace their 35-year-old textbooks. These are just a few of the many organizations that your BNI Foundation has helped.
What have our Business Voices teams been up to? We created Business Voices Futures Leaders Week where we had over 64 chapters giving career advice to over 6500 children in a single week. Look for more information on how you can get involved this year from October 15th to 21st. https://bnifoundation.org/future-leaders-week/ They have completed Career Days and Fairs, School Supply Drives, Student Mentoring, Student Recognition Events, School Projects like building computer rooms and libraries, Clothing drives, and so many other projects.
As a parting thought, remember this is YOUR foundation and with YOUR help we can do so much more to insure the children of the world can inspire to greatness!