2 / JUNE 2022 PRIME
“That
Guy” By Will Barrett - PRIME EDITOR
J
eff Kaufman wants to be that guy. He wants to lift others up, and silently observe with pride when they succeed. He says his parents, mentors, coaches and old bosses helped him greatly along the way, and the only chance he has to repay them is to help others the best he can. Through his and his wife Susan’s foundation, Kaufman can do exactly that. Together they run the Full Circle Foundation, which helps first generation college students in rural communities pay for tuition, and in building this relationship they receive two wonderful mentors as well to help them throughout their schooling. Kaufman too grew up in a small rural community, on the Fort Peck Reservation with his parents, two natural sisters, and three Native American siblings his family took in. At any time there were up to 22 Native American kids living with them, if only for a short time. The house was always filled with kids, Kaufman says, but it
never felt crowded. His mother stayed at home and cooked for those at the American Legion on the weekends, his father, a WWII veteran, was a plumber. Kaufman learned a lot from his father, and what he couldn’t get out of him he got from the ranchers who he worked for growing up. He graduated from Poplar High School in eastern Montana in a small class of only 52 students. In 1969 he became the first of his family to graduate college, from Dickinson State University. After graduation Kaufman was a high school wrestling coach before landing a job in 1973 with Allstate Insurance in Butte, MT. He would go on to work there for the next 35 years, spanning 19 different job assignments and 14 physical relocations that he and his family navigated. After retiring in 2008, Kaufman and his wife Susan dove head first into running their passion project, the Full Circle Foundation. According to their website, they “provide scholarships to students from rural cities of less than 3,000 people, in eight states.” The couple helps these students from start to finish, and are great resources for them beyond financial support. In total they’ve helped 10 young people be the first in their families to earn a degree. Kaufman and his wife are the only employees for the foundation, which means on average 98% of donations go directly to scholarship funds.
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“There’s nothing I like more than to watch somebody else succeed.”
To give back to the community further, and to spread awareness about his foundation, Kaufman gives about 10 to 12 presentations a year on leadership, personal choice, and bridging. Bridging is a term Kaufman uses for bringing people together, and bridging generational gaps in the workplace. “I don’t think I fix anything; I just try to create an open awareness of it. I try to make it a safe conversation,” he explains. Not only to raise awareness for his foundation, he creates these presentations to try and lift people up; to create better employees, better bosses, better customers and better people. He himself is a work in progress, “I can’t see myself not under construction with learning stuff and meeting people and helping and engaging and trying to be relevant.” Kaufman doesn’t charge anything to put on these presentations, he only hopes they’ll inspire people to donate to the foundation. Over the years he has accumulated over 50 mentees
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who he keeps in touch with from these presentations and from his work for the foundation, they range in age from 19 to 65 and come from all walks of life. Kaufman enjoys learning from others, and embraces the age difference between himself and those he mentors and presents for, “I feel physically older. But I feel blessed to be engaged with so many things and people.” He does this work because he feels he owes those who taught him. His parents, coaches, old bosses and old mentors, they gave him lifelong lessons that he feels need to be shared, “The only way I can pay them back is to give other people stuff.” When he retired Kaufman had one thing in mind, to give back to the community. It sure seems he’s found his own unique way of doing so. “There’s nothing I like more than to watch somebody else succeed,” says Kaufman, “It’s all just trying to make us better people
