Archive for the ‘Investor Stories’ Category

Aspire to Inspire: the Catie Curtis Endowment

Monday, August 25th, 2008

Catie Curtis understands how the gift of an instrument can forever change a young person’s life. When Catie was 15-years-old, growing up in a small town in southern Maine, she was given a guitar with the only catch being that she had to learn how to play it.

Now, in the midst of a musical career that has seen her travel all across the U.S. and Europe, release nine studio albums to critical acclaim – including a 2006 International Songwriting Competition Grand Prize – Catie has a desire to give the same gift she once received. Catie has created one of Hope Equity’s newest Interests, the Catie Curtis Aspire To Inspire Endowment, to provide continuous, ongoing funding for the ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) Foundation so that guitars can be given to budding young musicians that can’t afford to buy their own.

“My passion is to put guitars in the hands of aspiring young musicians. They can use it as a vehicle to create a life for themselves, if they so choose,” Catie said.

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Investor Story – Carla and Erik Schneider

Wednesday, August 6th, 2008

For Erik and Carla Schneider, Hope Equity offers a way to feel more personally connected to the different causes that they support.

The Schneiders support the life-changing work of Heifer International both physically, through their local area volunteer network, and financially, through their Micro-Endowment with Hope Equity.

Heifer International is a non-profit organization that has alleviated hunger and poverty around the world for more than 60 years by helping poor families achieve self-sufficiency through sustainable livestock and agricultural projects.

The Schneiders live in Bellevue, Washington, where Carla works as an assistant manager at an assisted living facility and Erik works as a software engineer. They are both very involved in their community and church. They first heard of Heifer’s work at an event at their church in 2002.

“It wasn’t until a couple of months later that I looked on the Web site, and I was hooked,” Carla said.

As the Schneiders made donations to Heifer they would receive inspiring information about the different projects in the field. Carla has even had the opportunity to visit Heifer projects in Honduras.

“I still get goose bumps thinking about it. It was just really amazing to see not just that their material status had improved, but the pride in those women’s faces was astounding and very touching,” she said.

Erik said they were soon drawn to Hope Equity because it was a more permanent and secure way to support the work of Heifer International.

“With Hope Equity you can track the money you gave,” he said. “We really like that idea.”

Each month the Schneiders give to two different areas through their Micro-Endowment. One is usually the Ghana Country Endowment, because they both feel personally connected to the country and its people. Then the other area they give to is determined by what’s going on around the world, and in their lives, at that moment.

“If something is happening in China like with the recent Earthquakes, we might choose to give to that endowment. If it is Earth Day we might give to an environmental endowment, or even gender equity for Mother’s Day,” he said. “That’s why we love Hope Equity; you can make those choices.”

The Schneiders have also found other unique ways to further their family’s commitment to ending hunger. After reading the statistic that one child dies every five seconds due to hunger, Carla decided to auction off her diamond wedding ring. The proceeds of the auction were then put into a new Micro-Endowment selected by the buyers of the ring.

The Schneiders are a modest couple whose only hope was that their story of auctioning off their wedding ring would inspire others to do something in some way to help end hunger and poverty.

“Years down the road somebody might come across something of value to them and think of what they could do with it (to help end hunger and poverty),” Erik said.

For more information on Heifer International, visit www.heifer.org.

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Investor Story – Patty Ivins & Chris Specht

Wednesday, May 21st, 2008

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Patty Ivins and Chris Specht are like many young couples that reach a point in their professional careers where they want to give back.

For Patty and Chris, this path has led them to Drop In The Bucket, a non-profit based in Los Angeles that builds water wells and improves sanitary conditions in Africa. In order to provide a permanent, sustainable way to support Drop In The Bucket, they turned to Hope Equity’s Micro-Endowment™ program.

“We are a young working couple that is starting to have disposable income that doesn’t need to go to new TV or a new car,” Patty said. “We believe this is achievable and attainable and feels like something direct. Hope Equity is for real people that don’t have hundreds of thousands of dollars to donate to charity.”

Patty and Chris both work in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles. Patty is a television producer and her husband Chris is a marketing producer that works in product placement. Their jobs have taken them all over the world. About 10 years ago, the couple first visited Africa on a trip to Zimbabwe and was immediately taken with all aspects of the continent.

“We are interested in everything in Africa, from the wildlife to the plant life to the people,” Patty said.

When the couple learned about Drop In The Bucket, it reinforced their desire to help improve conditions in Africa in any way they could.

“The simplicity of the idea makes it so brilliant,” Patty said. “They revolutionize how people can introduce and provide water to areas where people don’t have access to it. “

Drop In The Bucket was formed in 2006 by a group of friends in Los Angeles who felt they had the tools and resources to make a difference in Africa. Their goal was to provide a clean, easily accessed water supply for villages and schools. Within six months, they had built their first wells before they had held their first fundraiser.

Drop In The Bucket spends very little money on operating costs, with all of its volunteers and board members paying for their own traveling costs and expenses. It is the same basic principle that attracted Patty and Chris to Hope Equity, who’s administrative costs are funded through a separate endowment so that any gift made is never touched or used for any purposes other than what the donor designates.

“So little you give actually gets to the non-profit,” Patty said. “This type of giving is particularly powerful because you really feel people receive it and it’s not being lost to overhead. It feels a lot more direct to give through Hope Equity.”

As Patty and Chris have become more involved with Drop In The Bucket and witnessed the organization raising more and more money, they realized there also needed to be a more long-term way to provide support for the projects.

“At first, it never occurred to me that organizations would have the access to these kinds of resources to do something that is more sustainable,” Patty said.

Patty said she sees Hope Equity as a way to fund her favorite charities every year.

“This year we are able to donate to Drop In The Bucket, but, who knows, next year we might not be in the same position to donate,” she said. “Through Hope Equity, Drop In The Bucket can work off the assets that come off that initial capital.” But for Patty, the most exciting part of being involved with Hope Equity is simply watching their Micro-Endowment grow.

“To be able to watch money grow at Hope Equity will be very gratifying,” she said. “It’s the same way people get excited about watching their investments grow.”

Patty and Chris are also supporters of Kiva and other microfinance tools. They hope to use their Micro-Endowment™ to provide additional funding to microfinance organizations.

For more information, visit www.dropinthebucket.org.

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