Associate Magazine - FBINAA - Q4 - 2022

FBINAA CHARITABLE FOUNDATION THE HEART AND HELPING HANDS OF THE ASSOCIATION

T he FBINAA Charitable Foundation was created in 2010 to meet a critical need of the National Academy Associates. At the time, there was no legal way for the association to give emer gency assistance to our members, regardless of how worthy the need. The creation of the Charitable Foundation, a separate non profit, helped to solve this issue. Aiding the membership through disaster relief, extreme hardship, and personal loss continues to be the backbone purpose of the Foundation. 2022 has been a significant year for us. Our financial strength has allowed us to increase most assistance payments to $3,000 – more on that later. We have provided $36,000 in family assistance as of this writing, but nothing for disaster recovery. We know that figure will not stand, with storm and fire seasons in the foreseeable future. We are typically able to act on requests within a matter of hours of receiving them, and we have $3,000 assistance checks in the mail in less than 48 hours. There is an important role all our members can play here. Please keep a sharp lookout for fellow members who may need assistance be cause of a disaster or family emergency, and let the Foundation know! Keep reading for the biggest news of all! If you want to get to the heart of the matter, look at the Foundation website and YouTube for short video interviews with members who have been assisted by the group’s work. We prom ise you will not log off with dry eyes. Our scholarship program remains strong. We continue to provide 18 $1,000 scholarships and one $2,000 scholarship for children and grandchildren of NAA members and students selected by the Association of Former Special Agents of the FBI. Many of these scholarships are sponsored by NA chapters, as you will see in the results we publish each year. Since 2017 alone, we have funded $121,000 in college scholarships. As time moves on, we hope to expand this program. In a truly gratifying demonstration of the powerful bonds forged by NAA membership, the Foundation has received nearly $12,000 in donations specifically to aid Afghan members who left their country in the last year. With assistance from the FBI’s international operations group, we are in the process of locating these members in their new homes and determining the best way to get the funds to them. Thanks to all who have contributed to this effort!! We have members in Ukraine as well. In fact, the 2022 Euro pean Chapter retrainer, now cancelled, was set to be held in Kyiv. The situation is far too unsettled today to think about aiding

Ukrainian members, but the need will almost certainly arise in the future.

The Science and Innovation Award , a newer undertaking of the Foundation but part of our initial plan, recognizes a program, product, technology, or process each year for its contribution to the advancement of policing. Watch for a summary of the 2022 award winner and nominees. What is happening to our fundraising efforts this year? Although we have strong corporate financial support for some of our programs, much of the Foundation’s assets are a direct result of chapter and individual contributions across a wide range of options. As already mentioned, several of our annual scholar ships are sponsored by NAA chapters. This not only allows a chapter to make a collective donation on behalf of its members, but it frees up funding to be used for critical areas like personal hardship and disaster relief. Our heartfelt gratitude goes out to 5.11 Tactical, who this year made an annual donation of $51,100! Without doing the math, that’s about 67percent higher than prior years. Their sup port has been a major factor in the Foundation’s success from Day One! This year’s Hawaii getaway contest not only raised an all time high of more than $33,000, but for the first time ever it sold out early, six weeks before the annual conference! Foundation board member Ed Fuller is committed to donating this trip every year, which is also a bedrock of our financial success. We owe great thanks to Ed, our first private sector board member and our strongest individual supporter! Board member Joe Hellebrand donated $40,000 from the disbandment of another not-for-profit organization. This was a first for our Foundation. The fourth year of the Yellow Brick Run was another major success, providing $31,000 for the Foundation. Cumulatively, this fun event has brought in about $100,000 during its existence. Our Angel Campaign had another strong year, raising $24,000 with a quarter of the year remaining. For a donation of $250.00, you will receive a commemorative unique Angel Sup porter challenge coin marked with the year of your donation and automatic registration in the Yellow Brick Run. Since its incep tion, the Angel Campaign has earned some $62,000.

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