Off-Site at the Zoo

I became a donor to the Employees Community Fund shortly after I started working at McDonnell Douglas – increasing my contribution each year by one dollar. My contributions to this organization increased significantly in December 2019 when I joined the board as a grantmaker. Then my contributions increased again when they foolishly elected me president in December 2023. But as the saying goes, the more you give, the more you have to give. I didn’t expect to have such an emotional and spiritual connection to ECF, but being this close to the work that our partner organizations do, and seeing the impact that they have on thousands of needy people around the St. Louis area, has had an impact on me as well.

I’m proud of the work that we do, and I’m proud of the people on our board who donate their time to do it. Today, for example, we all took a day off of work to hold our annual off-site meeting at the St. Louis Zoo. And yes, we took an hour break to visit the elephants (including one-year-old Jet), but we spent most of the day reviewing grant requests and giving away money. Being a part of ECF has been a very rewarding experience for me personally, and it led directly to my starting the Pipes Family Foundation. I’m often jealous of the ECF budget – I wish our foundation had the resources that ECF does. But I’m also very conscious of the fact that we are both out there doing good in the world, and that is the most important thing.