ForGood: Louisville's Philanthropy Magazine. Issue 3 / 2016

ISSUE 3 / 2016

LOUISVILLE’S PHILANTHROPY MAGAZINE

PHIL GAHM’S IN & OUT OF THE BOX PHILANTHROPY

A Force For Good Henry Heuser Sr. This I Believe

Perspectives: Susan’s Musings

Photo by Anthony Tran

More than a year ago, I was sitting at an event where Jamie Merisotis, President and CEO of the Lumina Foundation, was speaking, and he said something so simple yet so profound, I haven’t stopped thinking about it since. He said, “Every morning, I wake up and have one goal – to increase Americans’ success in higher education.” Period. Simple, unequivocal and inspirational. I started to ask myself, my staff and my board, “What do we wake up singularly focused on every day at the Foundation?”

Over the last 18 months, the Foundation has been developing our latest strategic plan, and Jamie’s statement has been a constant reminder to us to be simple, unequivocal and inspiring in our work. Through dozens of conversations with community stakeholders, diligent work by our board and staff looking both internally and externally, and carefully synthesizing it all, I am proud to say that every morning I wake up with the goal to create a community where people and place thrive.

Yes, I have the best job. Ever.

But, I didn’t start this, I am just fortunate enough to lead a team toward this vision that builds off the 32 years of work we have been doing with our donors to create impact in community. Take, for example, the story on page 8 of how Henry Heuser Sr. is inspiring the next generation of entrepreneurs 17 years after his death. And how Phil Gahm, our cover story on page 10, is inspiring a new generation to handle adversity like a “Champ.”

But community change doesn’t happen overnight, and it isn’t just pulling one lever that makes the difference. The unique role of the Community Foundation is our ability to leverage a wide variety of resources as a real “force for good” in our community.

While together with our donors we made $49 million in grants last year, 84% of which stayed in Kentucky and S. Indiana, I know that when we lead with our vision we are able leverage our unique position to create impact in community. I hope you enjoy the article about the Foundation as a force for good on page 4, where our partners share their perspective on this role we are honored to play.

Whether you are a donor, nonprofit or civic partner, and whether you are joining with us on traditional grantmaking, or partnering with us in CFL Impact Capital, our impact investing initiative, or participating in the communitywide Give Local Louisville campaign, together we are a force for good.

SUSAN A. BARRY, JD President & CEO Community Foundation of Louisville

EDITOR Cara Baribeau

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Turney Berry Amy Higgs Courtney Woeste

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Kertis Creative Gary Guthrie Anthony Tran Chris Witzke

COPY EDITOR Amy Higgs

DESIGN Joe Weber, Bisig Impact Group

PUBLISHER Community Foundation of Louisville

ForGood is a publication of the Community Foundation of Louisville. At the Community Foundation, we are committed to promoting the understanding and participation in philanthropy in all of its different shapes and forms. This publication is an expression of that commitment that we hope helps to inform, inspire and create a community of thoughtful citizens dedicated to improving the world around them.

Visit cflouisville.org to learn more.

Contents /

ISSUE 3 / 2016

feature

PHIL GAHM’S IN & OUT OF THE BOX PHILANTHROPY P. 10

ON THE COVER Phil Gahm

PHOTOGRAPHY Chris Witzke

P. 3

THIS I BELIEVE Nobody can walk the trail alone.

P. 4

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A FORCE FOR GOOD Creating a community where people and place thrive.

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P. 8

HENRY HEUSER, SR. A legacy of innovation.

P. 14

WHO INSPIRES US April Hickman stitching together a new life.

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Nonprofits

worth knowing

Every day around the world, more than 42,000 people are forcibly displaced from their home countries as a result of conflict or persecution. These people, defined as refugees, are afforded protections by the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR); these include safety from being returned to danger, access to fair and efficient asylum procedures, and measures to ensure that their basic human rights are respected while they secure a longerterm solution.

According to the UNHCR, we are now witnessing the highest levels of displacement on record; however, only about 2 percent will be resettled in a new country and given the opportunity to rebuild their lives.

Many of those have done so here in Louisville. Americana Community Center, Catholic Charities and Kentucky Refugee Ministries are three of the organizations that provide resettlement and supporting services to help welcome the refugees and ensure their successful integration into our community.

CAN A

IF A

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Americana Community Center: Provides educational opportunities, counseling and creative arts programming to the diverse population of Jefferson County, including refugees, so they may realize their individual potential, build strong families and create a healthy and supportive community for all.

Catholic Charities Migration & Refugee Services: Brings together church and community resources to provide refugees with essential housing, employment, education support and community connections necessary for a successful resettlement.

Kentucky Refugee Ministries (KRM): Compassionately welcomes and serves the world’s displaced people and promotes refugees’ self-sufficiency and successful integration into our community through connections to education, housing and employment opportunities.

When refugees are resettled in communities, they often arrive with very few possessions.

Agencies like those mentioned above do their best to anticipate the needs of those being resettled.

From providing transportation, to coordinating childcare, to delivering baskets of food from the refugee’s home country, these acts of kindness and service go a long way toward helping individuals and families reach self-sufficiency. And these agencies rely on the generosity of donors like you. Your small, unrestricted gifts can make a big impact for these families who are so far from home. $100 to Americana Community Center would allow a refugee child to attend two weeks of the Americana Summer Program, a free, 7-week program that helps to prevent summer learning loss and promote learning and connection with others by

Mwaliasha Mikalano, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, at KRM’s annual World Refugee Day at Tyler Park, an event that celebrates the strength and resilience of refugees. Photo by Gary Guthrie/KRM

engaging children in arts, recreation, gardening, STEM and other activities. $200 to Kentucky Refugee Ministries (KRM) would provide monthly bus passes to four refugees, allowing them to travel to their first job in the United States. $300 to Catholic Charities Migration & Refugee Services would provide doctors’ visits and prescriptions for six refugee clients or help fill 10 backpacks for newly resettled refugee children.

Learn more at americanacc.org, kyrm.org and cclou.org.

This

I Believe

/ B Y LO U I SE D I C KINSON RICH

Nobody Can Walk the Trail Alone hen I was young, I believed that I was strong and selfsufficient. Since I was not completely stupid, I knew perfectly well with my head, if not with my heart, that life is no bed of roses. I was prepared for disappointment and for, possibly, tragedy. When they came, I’d handle them personally with style. Only sissies lean. I was afraid of nothing and I could do anything, or at least I so believed. Nothing in this world or the next could daunt me, Big Louise, the heroine.

Now I am older. I have met with poverty, flood, famine, hurricane, brutalizing labor, and illness, on extremely personal grounds. I have seen the sudden and tragic deaths of those nearest and dearest to me. I have had to shoulder responsibilities, for which I am ill fitted, and the much more difficult burden of sudden, if brief, fame. I have been hard pressed for money, as we say in Maine. I’m not whining. I’ve had a wonderful life, with the joys far outweighing the sorrows. But still, in all, there have been times when I was fair to middlin’ desperate.

There was time when my husband and my year-old son and my motherin-law and I had one meal a day.

We ate baked potatoes and salt. It didn’t do us adults any harm, and my neighbor woman, Alice Miller, provided me with six oranges and six quarts of milk a week—she kept two cows—for the baby. She said her doctor’s book said that babies needed it.

Then there was the time in December. My husband and I were laughing together over a silly joke in the evening after dinner, relaxed in our slippers before the open fire.

We’d spent the day snugging down the cabin for winter, and we felt good

W

knowing that there were forty miles of lake and impossible road between us and the nearest settlement. We were having fun. “Louise, you gorgeous fool,” he said, and died.

I don’t know how I could possibly have survived that—because you see, I loved him from the bottom of my heart—if it hadn’t been for my other neighbor, Alice Parsons. She came and sat with me, not saying a word, just with infinite wisdom being there all through the awful formalities of the coroner and the sheriff, who must investigate in Maine any case of sudden death.

There was the time after that when I owed a lot of money to a lot of people, I’m sorry to say. I went to the butcher and the baker and the candlestick maker and told them that I couldn’t pay them now, but if they’d give me breathing space, I’d clear the books and, of course, pay the interest.

They all gave me the same answer.

“Mrs. Rich, I’m sorry to hear about your trouble. Ralph was a good man.

We’ll miss him a lot. About the money, take your time. I’m not worried.

Anytime at your convenience, and forget the interest.”

So now I have grown up. I don’t believe in myself anymore, not in myself alone. I do believe in myself as a member of the human race. I believe in the decency and sympathy and kindness of every man and woman and child that I meet. Nobody, not even Big Louise, can walk the trail alone. I know that now.

I believe also that I have an obligation. Whenever I see one of my brothers or sisters in trouble—a car off the road, the need of a cup of tea in my shabby living room by the elderly lady down the road who is lonesome—I am privileged to have the opportunity to repay, in a small measure, my debt.

I don’t know about God. He’s too

big for me to understand. But I have seen his visage reflected in the faces of the people who have helped me through my hard times. I hope to live so that someday, someone will say, “Louise Rich? Oh sure, I know her.

She isn’t so bad. She’s human.”

I believe in humanity.

“I AM PRIVILEGED TO HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO REPAY, IN A SMALL MEASURE, MY DEBT.”

Louise Dickinson Rich’s life in northern Maine became the fodder for her best-selling book, “We Took to The Woods.” Following her husband’s death, Rich moved with her children back to her hometown of Bridgewater, Mass., where she wrote numerous books for adults and young adults.

“Nobody Can Walk the Trail Alone,” by Louise Dickinson Rich. From the Essay Collection at thisibelieve.org, Copyright ©2005–2016 by This I Believe, Inc. Reprinted with permission.

This I Believe is a Louisville-based non-profit organization engaging people in writing, sharing, and discussing the core values that guide our daily lives.

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A FORCE FOR GOOD

BY AMY HIGGS

a

ffecting positive change in a community is difficult to design, challenging to manage and particularly tough

to measure. But, change can be seen. It can be felt. And, it can be influenced. Everyone can name at least one city, town or neighborhood where positive change and growth are leading to a brighter future. Similarly, many can think of communities struggling with significant declines in culture, arts, economy and overall opportunity.

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$49M grants GRANTS by geography 84% Kentucky &

S. Indiana

Creating a strong and thriving community takes concerted efforts by multiple parties over long periods of time. Those that are playing a leading role are serving as a force for action, a force for positive change – a force for good.

Since 1984, CFL has been an indisputable force for good works in the Louisville community, deploying not only funding, but equally vital human, social and intellectual resources, to create a lasting impact.

CFL’s commitment and efforts to influence positive change can easily be seen in Give Local Louisville (GLL). This 24-hour day of online giving made history in 2015, raising $3 million for the 362 participating nonprofits in our community. More than 5,200 donors from all over the globe joined CFL’s efforts to demonstrate the power of citizen philanthropy.

In a series of op-ed articles in the Courier-Journal, local nonprofits shared the far-reaching impact of GLL. “The 137 gifts received through GLL allowed us to provide care for 235 additional un-owned cats in need of spay/neuter services, vaccinations, flea treatment and a full veterinary check-up,” Alley Cats Advocates told the Courier-Journal.

16% Beyond

But the donations it received were secondary to the visibility GLL generated for the animal rescue organization. “Through the publicity generated for this event … our community also became more aware of Alley Cat Advocates and the services we offer.”

For Hildegard House, a new nonprofit that will provide access to hospice services for those in need, GLL provided a major boost to its freshman fundraising efforts, but it meant even more in human capital: “Not only did we receive generous donations, we also made new friends and obtained loyal volunteers, and networked with many nonprofit organizations.”

A WEALTH OF KNOWLEDGE

These and many other positive results during Give Local Louisville make it clear that CFL brings people and funding together for the good of the community. A less visible, but equally powerful contribution can be seen in its knowledge-building, says former CFL board chair and current donor Barbara Sandford.

“People don’t realize how helpful the Foundation can be,” says Sandford. Its key role is to “help people understand how they can carry out their charitable intent.”

3116

recipient orgs

$448M total assets

all data for calendar year 2015

As the largest charitable foundation in Kentucky with $448 million in assets, the Foundation made over $49 million in grants in calendar year 2015. Through over 10,500 grants by donors and the foundation, they invite others to join them as a force for good creating impact in the community.

Sandford comes from a fundraising background and is familiar with the nonprofit community, but the average person may not know where the needs are, she says. “If you don’t know exactly how to do what you want to do, talk to the Foundation. Their emphasis is on enabling anyone to be charitable.

You don’t have to be a billionaire to be a philanthropist.”

She adds that, despite her experience in nonprofit sector, CFL continues to show her exciting new ways she can make a difference with her dollars, most recently through CFL Impact Capital, CFL’s impact investing program. Sandford’s recent gift to this relatively new initiative supported Chef Space, a kitchen incubator in Portland that provides a shared, licensed commercial kitchen for food entrepreneurs to rent at affordable rates and have access to resources to help build their businesses.

“It’s the wave of the future for charitable funds to be used in such a creative way for the community,” she says.

CFL was one of Chef Space’s initial investors, likely giving it the exposure it needed to bring in additional support, says Sharon Bird, public policy director for Community

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A FORCE FOR GOOD

Ventures, the nonprofit behind Chef Space.

“The first investors are critical to a project, and having an entity with the reputation of the Community Foundation was such a big benefit to getting Chef Space off the ground,” Bird says.

Sandford acknowledges that backing such a new and unique concept was a bit of a risk, but she trusted CFL’s recommendation based on our partnership over time. “This is one organization that I can depend on the quality. If they say something is a good investment, I know they’ve done their homework.”

Matt Wallace of Kentucky Shakespeare with John Hamilton from Metro Parks and the summer production team planning summer scenic designs.

THE RIPPLE EFFECT

In addition to taking risks on innovation, CFL remains committed to strengthening the fabric of Louisville’s nonprofit community through initiatives like the Alden Fellows Leadership Development Award.

The Alden Fellows is a grant program that gives nonprofit leaders access to high-quality professional development opportunities. Matt Wallace earned the fellowship in 2014 during his first year as producing artistic director for Kentucky Shakespeare Festival, but he says its reach has gone far beyond his own career.

Wallace used the funding to travel to Stratford-Upon-Avon, England, to work and study with the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, explore its Shakespeare archives, visit The Globe Theater and the Royal Shakespeare Company. But Wallace didn’t go it alone — the trip became one of donor cultivation as members of Kentucky Shakespeare Festival’s Stratford Society were invited to join.

Those donors also paid for a second staff member to travel and study with Wallace.

The biggest benefit came two years later, though, when Kentucky Shakespeare was invited back to England to participate in the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death celebrations.

“Kentucky Shakespeare became the first group to perform at New Place, the site of Shakespeare’s adult home,” says Wallace. “We

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Photo by Chris Witzke

Andrea Wells with Farm to Baby preparing organic baby food at Chef Space.

performed live on the BBC a scene from ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ in front of millions. We represented the United States and walked in the Shakespeare birthday parade and performed in the Shakespeare gardens — all of these amazing things and this worldwide exposure was a result of that Alden Fellowship two years ago.”

While it was a financial award, the ultimate value of Wallace’s

Alden Fellowship came from the less tangible resources that grew out of it.

“To be able to form relationships with other theaters … to be able to lend credibility to the work we were doing at a time when we really needed that extra support is manifesting itself in record audience numbers.

We’re doing our longest season ever, we have greater financial stability,” says Wallace. The Alden Fellowship “played a big part in all of that.”

SUPPORT FOR OUR COMMUNITY’S FUTURE

While awards like the Alden Fellowship have the potential to create lasting impact for individual organizations, CFL also is focused on the broader landscape. Through a partnership with the Greater Louisville Project (GLP), CFL is cultivating resources for generations to come, according to GLP project director Ben Reno-Weber.

GLP is an independent, nonpartisan civic initiative supported by a consortium of 13 foundations that provides an unbiased examination of Louisville’s competitiveness in key areas – education, jobs, quality of place and health — and uses publicly available data and peer city comparisons to help clarify Louisville’s civic priorities. CFL was a founding partner of GLP and also hosts its board meetings and

provides basic infrastructure for this limited-staff organization. But the relationship is about so much more than the money.

“When the Community Foundation calls a meeting, people show up,” says Reno-Weber. “Ours is a really symbiotic relationship because the Community Foundation is forever trying to help people learn how to best drive impact with their philanthropy. And the Greater Louisville Project is the city’s critical friend and data partner. So we can help to identify the areas in which investment in the community will be the most catalytic. It’s a really nice partnership.”

“As the whole philanthropic community becomes more committed to impact assessment, data, data-driven giving and generally understanding how individual philanthropic efforts or social efforts

roll up into moving the needle as a community, that partnership with Greater Louisville Project will just get stronger,” he adds.

By discerning the Louisville community’s needs and opportunities through its collaboration with GLP, the CFL staff and board can assess which resources have the potential to create desired change. Then, by joining with individuals, families and nonprofits, CFL’s positive impact is greatly expanded through the power of those partnerships.

Thanks to success stories like these, it’s clear CFL is committed to bringing powerful change to our community by leveraging the right resources — whether people, knowledge, networks or financial assets. It’s this kind of deliberate focus on partnership that strengthens the fabric of a community.

Now, that’s a true force for good.

Scenes from the 2015 Give Local Louisville nonprofit rally at 4th Street Live!

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Henry Heuser Sr.

A Legacy of Innovation

Henry Vogt Machine Co. was part of a proud history of innovation in Louisville, growing from a small shop to a 35-acre plant that manufactured worldclass ice machines, valves and boilers. Henry Vogt Heuser Sr., grandson of the company founder, was an engineer who headed the company for decades. He was a man who liked to get out on the shop floor – to invent, innovate and make things happen.

ccording to his son, Henry Heuser Jr., his father wasn’t a “fat cat” who sat in his office; he was engaged with the manufacturing business. He loved solving challenges on the shop floor and supporting people with good ideas, encouraging patent development and supporting growth of new businesses.

Mayor Greg Fischer, who co-founded SerVend at the age of 25, was one of those people. In a tribute video CFL created to memorialize Mr. Heuser, Mayor Fisher shared a story about how his business was helped: “We started our business in a garage, literally a garage, and one of our dreams was to display at the National Restaurant Show in Chicago.

We thought that would be our big break!

We shared that with Mr. Heuser and he said, ‘I think I can make that happen. We have a tradeshow booth there and maybe

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you could go in a corner of that.’ And we said, ‘But, Mr. Heuser, that’s against show rules …’ He said, ‘Forget about those show rules, you need to be at that show.’ ” That’s where Mr. Heuser’s heart was.

It wasn’t about being sure of anything; he took risks and invested in people.

Mr. Heuser died in 1999, but before his passing he made a $5 million endowment gift to the Community Foundation to establish the Vogt Invention & Innovation Awards. Since 2000, the Foundation and Greater Louisville Inc.’s EnterpriseCorp., its partner in this endeavor, have been supporting entrepreneurs who are willing to take a risk and start a new business in Louisville. To date, more than $2.7 million has been awarded to 55 companies ranging from medical technologies to environmental innovations to packaging solutions.

“We are delighted with how the award has made such a difference in this

community,” says Heuser Jr. “The spirit that it creates, the positive impact it has had on so many companies. When I see the award winners and finalists, I’m struck by how they are energized to think that maybe someday they will be giving back this same kind of opportunity to other people if their business is a success. That’s the spirit in which this gift was made.”

As Mayor Fischer put it, “Awards like this can help the city in a big way because they inspire other people to leave their own legacy. It may not be entrepreneurship, it could be art, it could social justice. But when they’re saying, ‘what do I want to do here as I think about the great beyond, what do I want to have left behind?’ How the Community Foundation can come together, in this case with the Heuser family, to make this happen, helps us today with the entrepreneurs and helps us for all time when you think about how we can create legacies of our own to make our city a better place.”

A Legacy of Innovation

Jeremiah Chapman

FreshFry Winning a Vogt Award in 2014 was a pivotal moment in the life of startup FreshFry, and the company continues to reap rewards two years later.

FreshFry has developed a pod that extends the life of frying oil by extracting impurities generated through the frying process. Its current customer base is stadium concessions, saving them 50 to 90 percent on oil filtering costs.

When co-founder and partner Jeremiah Chapman pitched to the Vogt Awards committee, his company was still in the concept phase, with no viable product yet to sell. “I was floored by the level of trust they had in me because I was so early stage,” he says.

The money was used to get FreshFry’s first product out the door, for additional testing and for space to start a small-scale manufacturing operation. Production has increased 5-fold in two years, with four partners now working full time in the business.

While the award was instrumental to

John Vellinger

Techshot Lighting Receiving a Vogt Award in 2010 proved to be a game changer for a technology startup in Southern Indiana.

Techshot Lighting LLC produces an LED-based shelter lighting system, BATLITE, designed specifically for military field applications. It uses up to 60 percent less energy than other lights and has an unprecedented life expectancy of about 50,000 hours. The product had been sold mostly to U.S. Army and Marine Corps units responsible for testing new technologies.

Before winning a Vogt Award, Techshot Lighting was paying $150 for each castmetal housing for its LED lighting system.

While the product was technically superior to fluorescent lighting systems that have been in use by the military for decades, the price was much higher.

FresyFry’s growth, “it was worth a lot more than the $20,000,” Chapman says.

“I thought the support of the Vogt Awards would end after Demo Day … but it carries much more prestige than that,” he adds. “It has opened a lot of doors to continue our innovation.”

The competition itself also showed Chapman the importance of making solid connections. “It taught me that money is money, but you really need people who strengthen your group,” he says. “I would much rather take less money from a smart person than more money from someone who is just going to let me go.”

This lesson has been especially helpful as FreshFry fundraises for its next stage of growth. Plus, the visibility the company gained through the Vogt Awards is aiding those efforts behind the scenes. “For all the local investors, before we get in front of them, they have heard of us before.”

But by far, the biggest benefit Chapman gained from his Vogt Awards experience is confidence.

“Sometimes, especially with young entrepreneurs, you need to be told that it’s OK that you don’t know everything, we trust you and believe in you,” he says. “I would like to say thank you to the committee for the Vogt Awards and Henry Heuser for doing that.”

“We couldn’t afford to buy the hard tooling we needed to help reduce the cost of the product,” says John Vellinger, CEO of Techshot Lighting. “After being selected for the Vogt Award, we used the funds to buy hard tooling and build up some inventory.

The cost of each housing went down to $10.”

This 93-percent reduction in cost

enabled by the Vogt Award allowed Techshot Lighting to price BATLITE more competitively, lowering a barrier to capturing more market share, Vellinger adds. The company was able to sell enough of its lights to hire a contract manufacturer in Lafayette, Ind. to ramp up production.

Techshot Lighting then decided to purchase the equipment used by the contractor in Lafayette to set up its own manufacturing operation on its Floyds Knobs campus. With $230,000 from the Floyd County Revolving Loan Fund, Techshot Lighting was able to remodel one of its own buildings for production.

Thanks to a growth trend launched by its Vogt Award, Techshot Lighting is currently fulfilling an order for about 15,000 lights and received a new order for nearly 20,000 units in May. The lights now sell for approximately $250 each.

“The Vogt Award was not the largest we’ve received, but arguably it may have been the most timely,” says Vellinger. “We are so grateful to Henry Heuser and the Vogt Awards for giving us the boost we needed to take Techshot Lighting to the next level.”

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PHIL GAHM

IN & OUT OF THE BOX PHILANTHROPY WRITTEN BY COURTNEY WOESTE PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRIS WITZKE

PHIL GAHM IS STANDING in the basement of his Indian Hills condo, fondly flipping through a stack of letters and hand-made thank you cards. He pulls out one, then another, smiling and telling stories about the people who wrote them.

The cards and letters are all from people Gahm has hosted in his suite at the KFC Yum! Center during University of Louisville basketball games. But they aren’t business contacts or golf buddies or even family members. They’re kids from Big Brothers Big Sisters and homeless families from Volunteers of America.

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They’re members of autism and cystic fibrosis groups. They’re people facing adversity whose lives Gahm is hoping to change through his organization, “The Champ” Foundation.

And, in turn, they’re changing his.

“You don’t realize how much good is going on in our community. I get to see the good things in that suite,” says Gahm, 59, who created the organization in 2010. “I call it my ‘sacred space’ because anybody who walks into that space is showing me, by example, how you’re supposed to be compassionate, how you’re supposed to be helpful and be thoughtful.

After you hang around those people enough, you start thinking ‘maybe I should start to be like that, too.’ ” Gahm is co-owner of his family’s successful cabinet business, Kitchen Kompact, and part of the family that founded Valhalla Golf Club. He’s a dad and a sports nut. “Philanthropist” isn’t a title he planned to add to that list, and one that – with his trademark humility – he tends to shrug off. But a health scare almost 20 years ago set him on a path that, through a series of events and chance meetings, made him into one nonetheless.

In 1997, Gahm, then a 40-year-old

father of five, was playing in a golf tournament when what felt like an electric shock to the head took him to the ground. He was sweating, with a nagging pain in his throat, but the former high school football star and Purdue University rugby player got up and finished the round anyway.

A trip to urgent care later in the day found nothing out of the ordinary, and he geared up for day

Gahm didn’t know what that meant – just that it should have something to do with sports, and it had to be hands on. Around 2000, Gahm started playing basketball every Monday afternoon with kids in the after-school program at St. Boniface Church.

After a while, he was looking for something more when he came across a note in the church bulletin asking for volunteers for Meals on Wheels.

The nun who usually delivered for

“YOU DON’T REALIZE HOW MUCH GOOD IS GOING ON IN OUR COMMUNITY.” two of the tournament. Standing on the first tee the next morning, rain began pouring, and the tournament was cancelled. But the celebratory dinner was still a go and, despite still feeling a bit off, Gahm went. Not long into the evening, that nagging pain suddenly turned into a dagger-like stabbing in his throat. Gahm rushed to the emergency room.

Within hours, he was undergoing a triple bypass to repair a dissection of the aorta, a tear in the wall of the main artery that carries blood from the heart. It’s a life-threatening condition that usually goes undiagnosed until it stops a patient’s heart. The doctors told Gahm he was within an hour of dying. If he’d played golf that day, they said, he’d have died on the course.

The brush with death pushed Gahm into a low period. He was stressed and crying at work. He needed something, he just didn’t know what.

“When you think you’re invincible and then you’re not, you think you’re dead,” Gahm says. “I just needed something to make me feel like, ‘hey, God, you kept me around. What did you keep me around for?’ I had no clue. That’s all I was thinking about for two years.”

In 1999, his mother also suffered a dissection of the aorta. Thanks to Gahm’s experience two years earlier, he recognized the symptoms and the doctors were able to diagnose it in time. That helped him to start his own existential healing process.

“I thought, I’ve got to do something. I’ve got to say thank you somehow,” Gahm says.

ElderServe would be leaving, and someone needed to replace her.

Gahm signed up.

On his first day, he met Robert Blincoe. Sister Dorothy told him Mr. Blincoe was special. But Gahm didn’t spend too much time finding out more.

“I got in, I got out. I was delivering food, making myself think I’m doing something good, but I was always in a hurry,” Gahm says.

One day, Blincoe told him to stop rushing and sit down. Gahm complied, though reluctantly. They started talking about sports, a topic dear to both men, but soon moved on to politics, church and other things.

Gahm stopped rushing through his

deliveries to Blincoe and instead sat in his living room – the same spot every time – talking about life.

Blincoe was a veteran and a former boxer who had trained in the same gym as Muhammed Ali. By the time Gahm met him, he was a housebound senior suffering from the Agent Orange he had acquired in Vietnam.

But he never complained. Even in the hospital, where Gahm would visit often over the last three years of his life, Blincoe was upbeat and positive.

It’s that attitude that inspired Gahm’s foundation, and the message he tells visitors to his suite at half-time.

“All you can do is handle adversity in the best manner that you can.

It’s called ‘The Champ’ Foundation because Mr. Blincoe handled adversity like a champ,” Gahm says. “I tell them, here you are, in your glory in a suite watching a U of L basketball game, and then you may go back home and have something happen to you the very next day. How are you going to handle that? Because that’s when you find out who you are — when you handle adversity. I didn’t find that out until later in life. I’m talking to people who are getting hit early with huge problems. I feel almost like it’s not me talking. It’s Mr. Blincoe talking. I’m just the messenger here.” continued on p. 17

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IN & OUT OF THE BOX PHILANTHROPY

MARCUS STUBBS WRITTEN BY COURTNEY WOESTE, PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRIS WITZKE

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A few years ago, Marcus Stubbs was a homeless high school senior sharing a room with his family at Volunteers of America’s emergency family housing shelter. When the opportunity arose to attend a University of Louisville basketball game with “The Champ” Foundation, Stubbs thought it would be fun. Who wouldn’t want to watch a game from a suite at the KFC Yum! Center?

But it was at halftime when the foundation’s creator, Phil Gahm, gathered the group and talked about facing adversity, the importance of helping others and accepting help that’s offered to you that Stubbs realized he was getting more out of the experience than just fun. He was getting an opportunity. “(Gahm) was someone just reaching out.

That’s an important thing – just reaching out to someone you don’t even know,” says Stubbs, 22, now a senior at Western Kentucky University. “It was like a chain reaction. When he gave a lending hand, I wanted to do that, too. Whether it was big or it was small, I wanted to make sure I did something for someone else.”

Gahm was likewise inspired by Stubbs, whose ability to thrive despite obstacles epitomized the mission of “The Champ” Foundation. Gahm followed Stubbs’ progress and, in December, announced two endowed scholarships funded by “The Champ” Foundation and named for Marcus Stubbs.

“I thought, ‘here’s a kid at a young age that’s handling adversity right off the bat and trying to turn it into something good.’

That’s what ‘The Champ’ Foundation is all about,” Gahm says. “I wanted to do something to honor him.”

The scholarships are designed for alumni of the Volunteers of America’s Family Emergency Shelter program.

One scholarship will fund education at Western Kentucky University. The other, administered through the Community Foundation of Louisville, is for any school in the Kentucky Community & Technical College System.

During the past four years at WKU, Stubbs has lived up to the lessons learned in the suite, mentoring minority middle school students and giving back through his business fraternity and campus ministry.

This winter, he will graduate.

“It’s been golden,” says Stubbs of his journey. “I won a scholarship, I’m going on my third study abroad trip, I’m making relationships with administrators, students, people in Bowling Green. I’m just doing the best I can to pay it forward like Phil has done with me.”

IN & OUT OF THE BOX PHILANTHROPY Participants in the Dirt Bowl.

LOUISVILLE STORY PROGRAM WRITTEN BY COURTNEY WOESTE, PHOTOGRAPHY BY KERTIS CREATIVE This year’s home win against second-ranked University of North Carolina was, arguably, the high point of the University of Louisville’s basketball season. But inside Phil Gahm’s suite at the KFC Yum! Center, the night was even more special for the Louisville Story Program.

Gahm, founder of “The Champ” Foundation, was hosting the nonprofit Louisville Story Program and its group of local authors writing a book about the Dirt Bowl, the revered West Louisville basketball tournament. The group was just happy for the experience: an evening in a suite watching two of the country’s most celebrated programs in one of the year’s most exciting games. At halftime, Gahm made the group’s night, surprising them with a check from “The Champ” Foundation to support the book.

“You should have seen (the director),”

Gahm says, laughing. “When he found out we were contributing, he almost hit the floor.”

Published by the Louisville Story Program earlier this year, “I Said Bang!: A History of the Dirt Bowl, the Crown Jewel of the Most Basketball-Obsessed City in America” is a collection of stories written by 37 different people who have been involved with the Dirt Bowl over its 46-year history as coaches, mentors, players or spectators.

The basketball tournament was started in the summer of 1969 by two college students during the height of unrest in the Civil Rights era. By the end of that summer, the Dirt Bowl was the social center of the community, drawing members of the city’s professional team the Kentucky Colonels, star college and high school players, and sandlot legends. The tournament became

the cultural event of the year for decades to come, drawing families, friends and neighbors together.

The Louisville Story Program is a nonprofit that helps underrepresented Louisville communities tell their stories in their own words.

“The support of Mr. Gahm and his ‘Champ’ Foundation has been a godsend for the Louisville Story Program,” says Darcy Thompson, founder of the program.

“We would not be where we are without Mr. Gahm.”

“The Champ” Foundation also supported the program’s first book, “Our Shawnee,” written by eight students from the Academy @ Shawnee. Gahm recently announced the foundation will support the program’s third project, a collection of memoirs and oral histories by authors from the Kentucky School for the Blind.

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Who

inspires us

APRIL HICKMAN WRITTEN BY AMY HIGGS

I

n 2014, April Hickman was struggling. With a brand new baby on her hip who was sick much of the time, no stable housing and no car, Hickman found it difficult to hold down a traditional full-time job.

On a whim, she decided to try sewing for the first time, making a skirt for daughter, Marlee, now 2 years old, on a borrowed machine. It wasn’t exactly a masterpiece, but Hickman says, “I was so proud of it.”

That tiny skirt marked the beginning of a new lease on life for Hickman and her family, which now includes another daughter, Michilee, 1. Hickman and her girls were fortunate to move in to Salvation Army transitional housing in February 2015.

After a bit of practice and a few

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completed infant dresses, Hickman’s Salvation Army case manager lauded her skills and suggested she start a business. The seed was planted for Hickman’s Wonderfulee Marlee Etsy Shop, which is flourishing today.

When Hickman participated in the Etsy Entrepreneurial Training Program as part of her journey earlier this year, a representative with Kiva, a program the Community Foundation has supported, came to class to educate participants about how a microloan could help grow their businesses.

Hickman’s application for a $3,200 Kiva loan was fully funded. She is using the money to finance her equipment and supplies, including a surger, fabric, mannequins and clothing tags. She handmakes all the clothing and sells them exclusively online at

etsy.com/shop/WonderfuleeMarlee, but her goal is to also get her line of children’s clothes into storefronts like Salon Bacco and Block Party Handmade Boutique.

While her Kiva loan was certainly the boost she needed to take her Etsy shop to the next level and begin to gain financial independence for her family, it is worth much more to her than money.

“It’s given us hope for the future and helped me find dreams I didn’t know I had,” Hickman says. “No matter what happens, I know everything will be OK.” With April’s inspiring story of talent, entrepreneurial spirit and resiliency, we think she will be much more than OK!

Advisors

Corner

HAVE YOU EVER CONTEMPLATED A REMAINDER INTEREST IN PROPERTY?

BY TURNEY BERRY

A commonly overlooked charitable planning idea, and one of my favorites, is the gift of a remainder interest in a house (including vacation property) or farm. The idea is super-simple: a donor agrees that when she dies, the house or farm passes to the Community Foundation of Louisville. The donor retains the right to live in and control the house or farm so long as she is living.

That means the donor continues to pay to have the grass mowed and the windows washed, as well as all utilities, taxes, insurance and maintenance. It is only when the donor dies that the property is deeded to the Community Foundation.

What if the donor is married? In most instances, the gift to the Community Foundation is worded so that Foundation will own the house or farm only after both spouses have died. By the way, the house can always be sold while the donor or donors are living.

The charitable remainder interest transfers to the new house or the proceeds from the sale are divided up actuarially.

What’s the benefit? The donor receives an income tax deduction in the year the gift is made in the amount the IRS estimates the Community Foundation will receive (in present value) after the donor dies. The donor loses no income but receives a current income tax deduction. The amount of the deduction depends on how old the donor is; how old the donor’s spouse is if the remainder takes effect after both

have died; the value of the house or farm involved; and how much of the gift’s value consists of land (which does not depreciate) versus house (which does).

As with any sizeable gift other than cash or marketable securities, the donor is required to get an appraisal. Most appraisers are familiar with these gifts, so this process is not complicated.

Based on the appraisal provided by the donor, the Community Foundation can calculate the value of the gift of a remainder interest for you. Although it is tough to generalize, for a 60-year-old, the charitable gift might be about 40% of the value of the property, and for an 80-year-old about 75%. For two spouses, the gift is naturally smaller: for two 60 year olds, the gift is about 30%, and for two 80 year olds it is about 65%.

One more feature makes this idea especially attractive. Suppose the donor wants to keep the house or farm in the family. Three years after the initial gift is made, the donor’s children or grandchildren might decide to buy the remainder interest from the Community Foundation.

The donor’s descendants would pay the Community Foundation now, and the Foundation would agree that, after the donor has died and after it receives the house or farm, it will convey the house or farm to the descendants. The donor’s estate receives an estate tax charitable deduction, but the descendants own the house or farm they have “prepaid” for. The price paid to the Community Foundation must be

arms-length appraised value, of course.

If that purchase price goes into a donor-advised fund, the donor and/or future descendants may advise on making charitable gifts, just as with any other fund.

I would encourage donors interested in this unique and beneficial charitable planning idea to contact the Community Foundation of Louisville to learn more.

“BASED ON THE APPRAISAL PROVIDED

BY THE DONOR, THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION CAN CALCULATE THE VALUE OF THE GIFT OF A REMAINDER INTEREST FOR YOU.”

Turney Berry is a partner at Wyatt Tarrant & Combs LLP where is the leader of the Firm’s Trusts, Estates & Personal Planning Service Team, and serves on the Firm’s Executive Committee. He concentrates his practice in the areas of estate and business planning, estate and trust administration, and charitable giving and tax-exempt organizations. He is a frequent speaker before civic, charitable, and community groups throughout the region and is a regular lecturer before lawyers, accountants, trust officers, and financial planners at institutes and seminars across the country.

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continued from p. 11

“The Champ” Foundation was formed in 2010, but grew from seeds that were planted over the course of at least a decade.

There were the kids at St. Boniface who he’d play basketball with and think how great it would be for them to experience a college game. When the Charlotte Hornets considered moving to Louisville in 2002, Gahm went to a meeting to talk about buying a suite to bring underprivileged kids to games. After the meeting, a city alderman came to him and asked why he didn’t consider buying a suite for University of Louisville basketball games. At the time, the team played at Freedom Hall where suites didn’t turn over often. Gahm tabled the thought and continued his work with Meals on Wheels.

Then, it was announced that U of L basketball would have a new home – a brand new arena to be built downtown.

“I thought, ‘well, I have to now!’”

Gahm says, laughing. “What am I going to do? Am I going to be a hypocrite or am I going to really do something?”

Gahm bought the suite, then got

to work on the details. He walked into the Big Brothers Big Sisters office downtown – in his sweat pants, fresh from the gym – and asked if he could host a group. He even stopped basketball legend Darryl Griffith on an airplane one day to talk with him. But he knew he was in over his head. When two different people suggested he talk with the Community Foundation of Louisville, Gahm set up a meeting.

“After I left that meeting, I said, ‘that’s a definite. We need them,’” he says.

The partnership has been an overwhelming success. Over the past six years, “The Champ” Foundation has hosted more than 50 organizations at more than 100 games.

For the participants, the experience is one they’ll remember forever. The people who attend the games are, for the most part, not in a position to afford tickets to any sporting event, let alone a suite at one of the country’s premier college basketball programs.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience for a population that, from time to time, needs to be center of attention,” says John Launius, director of

Volunteers of America, which “The Champ” Foundation has hosted several times. “Phil makes them the center of attention for that day.”

The Community Foundation has also helped Gahm expand his foundation’s reach with scholarships set up at Northern Kentucky University, Bellarmine University and Western Kentucky University and with financial grants to support books published by the Louisville Story Program, which tells the stories of the city’s underrepresented populations.

He’s not sure what direction it will take next, but Gahm is excited to see what else “The Champ” Foundation can do to change the lives of others, and his own.

“Bad as all that was, (the health scare) was the greatest thing that ever happened in my life,” Gahm says. “I assume that’s the way things work.

You have to go through something horrible that you can’t understand, then the little angels start saying ‘hey, what about this, why don’t you try this.’ I’m not sitting here reading the stars. I don’t know anything. It’s like it’s all just fallen in my lap. And you gotta do what you gotta do.”

WANT TO DO MORE? The Community Foundation helps families turn their success into highly personalized giving plans that serve as a lasting tribute to their family’s values and the causes they cherish.

Receive your free Family Philanthropy Guide today!

Contact: Dana Johnson, Director of Giving and Donor Partnerships 502.585.4649 or danaj@cflouisville.org

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