A Message from Hallee Winnie, Executive Director of Your Foundation

Foundation Executive Director Hallee Winnie, Michigan Gamma

Dear friends,

It’s always an honor, and now is a particularly exciting time to lead our Foundation. In just a few weeks, we will celebrate the largest fundraising campaign by a National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) organization and Pi Phi’s largest philanthropic endeavor ever. What a testament to the unending loyalty of this sisterhood!

While we will have much to celebrate at convention, I’m most focused on the increased capacity you have helped to create with the SHINE THROUGH campaign. Growing the Foundation’s capacity was a clear goal of the campaign from the forefront. I’m truly in awe of the historic impact donors like you have made on our sisterhood. With your support, the Foundation has grown our staff to better care for and connect with our increasing number of donors, and we’ve intentionally recruited volunteer leaders with skills needed to ensure we’re making the most thoughtful decisions in stewardship of your investments.

If you’ve read the last issue of The Arrow, you are familiar with the acronym VUCA, which describes the world we are living in today. VUCA stands for volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. Pi Beta Phi Leadership Development Officer and Georgia Alpha LISA MASTERS shared in The Arrow, “It’s critically important to understand the external environment in which we’re operating to make the best decisions and plan the best strategies for achieving our goals. In a VUCA environment, problems that appear familiar on the surface may require very different solutions than those that worked in the past.”

Lisa offers three tips for navigating the VUCA world: taking care to maintain resilience, being inclusive and planning while remaining flexible. To this end, our Foundation — led by industry best practices — reassessed our needs and reviewed investment management firms over the last 18 months. After careful review, the Board of Trustees selected AMG National Trust as our new investment firm. AMG has a strong history of helping clients preserve and grow investment assets. And, aligning with our campaign goal, AMG builds the Foundation’s capacity in terms of stewardship, their commitment to the fraternal foundation community, and their proven dedication to clients’ success.

Capacity, to me, is about preparing for what’s to come. Capacity is how our Foundation will help Pi Beta Phi survive and thrive in a VUCA world — it’s how our Foundation will ensure the future of our sisterhood. You have helped build our capacity and achieve incredible success with this campaign. We’re so very grateful. Thank you!

In Pi Phi,