Seventeen years ago, former USC and Los Angeles Rams quarterback Pat Haden joined the board of an old, little-known charitable foundation that helps needy young people get an education.

The George Henry Mayr Foundation, established in 1949, has no office of its own, no full-time staff and no website.

Under Haden’s leadership as board chairman, however, the $25-million foundation became a lucrative source of income for him and two of his family members — even as its scholarship spending plunged to a three-decade low and the size of its endowment stagnated, a Times investigation has found.

Haden, his daughter and sister-in-law together collected about $2.4 million from the foundation for part-time roles involving as little as one hour of work per week, according to the foundation’s federal tax returns for 1999 to 2014, the most recent year available. His annual board fees have been as high as $84,000; the foundation paid him $72,725 in 2014.

During Haden’s tenure on the board, donations directed to USC, where he has been athletic director for nearly six years, far outpaced the amounts given to any other school, a Times analysis of the tax records shows.

Haden, 63, was a paid advisor to the foundation in 1998 and became board chairman the following year. That same year, the Mayr Foundation gave $645,000 in scholarships, down from $1.1 million in 2008.

I’ve never heard of fees that large. Adam Hirsch, law professor at University of San Diego who specializes in trusts

Spokesmen for Haden and the bank defended the payments, saying they were appropriate for the work done and the board members’ skills.

Haden declined to be interviewed for this article, but responded to some questions by email and issued statements through USC spokesman Tim Tessalone. The $12.5-billion Ford Foundation paid its board chairman about $30,000 less than the Mayr foundation paid Haden in 2014.

Mark Hager, an associate professor of philanthropic studies at Arizona State University, said in an email the Mayr payments to the board would be high “even for a foundation that was giving out more than $50 million in grants each year.”

“I’ve never heard of fees that large,” said Adam Hirsch, a law professor at the University of San Diego who specializes in trusts.

Tax returns for the organization are not available for the first two decades of its existence. When Crahan left her post this year, she was succeeded by Haden’s daughter, O’Connor, Wells Fargo said.

During her time on the board, Crahan was paid an average of $30,000 annually, less than Haden and his sister-in-law, tax records indicate.

In an interview at her Windsor Square home, the 80-year-old Crahan said she depended on Haden, as board chairman, to set the director fees.

After his NFL career ended in 1981, he practiced law and provided color commentary for national television broadcasts of Notre Dame football games, moving easily between the worlds of sports and business.

When USC hired Haden as athletic director in 2010, he was a longtime member of USC’s board of trustees and a partner with former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan in a successful investment firm.

Haden is stepping down as athletic director June 30, but he plans to remain on the school’s payroll for a year to oversee the $270-million renovation of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, where USC plays football.

Since Haden became chair of the Mayr board, the foundation has given $16.6 million in scholarships and other educational grants, according to tax records. He added that “distributions to USC were for scholarship funds to deserving students.”

Tessalone, the USC spokesman, said in an email that “Pat recuses himself whenever USC is discussed.”

In a foundation document and a USC publication, however, Haden is mentioned in connection with Mayr gifts to the school.

The foundation’s 2001 tax return noted that a $15,000 donation to USC was “for the endowment per P Haden.”

And a USC newsletter in 2006 said Haden supported one of the university’s schools “through personal donations and scholarship grants awarded by the George Mayr Foundation, which he chairs.”

In 2006, the foundation also was a “Bronze Sponsor” of a fundraising dinner at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel to support USC’s Marshall School of Business, according to the school’s website.

Cuts in funding linked in part to a federal citation for having a child left alone in a schoolyard at a Head Start site will force Westmoreland Community Action to close 11 of its centers and lay off 24 workers at the end of the month.

Waltenbaugh did not return several calls Thursday and Friday to talk about the issue that led to the reduced funding to his agency for the program that offers educational and other services to low-income children and their families.

Community Action last year received about $5.5 million from Westmoreland County to operate Head Start.

The federal agency barred the county from having exclusive rights to the funding because of the citation and for the program receiving an inadequate performance rating from the U.S.

Community Action received $3.9 million this year, and Seton Hill Child Services won a $1.6 million federal grant for the program, which equals the overall funding received in 2015.

According to reports posted on the federal agency’s website, Westmoreland County, as the lead agency for the local Head Start program, was cited in October 2013 after a 4-year-old at a center was left alone and unsupervised in an Irwin schoolyard for about 10 minutes.

Community Action last year subcontracted with the Seton Hill agency to provide services to about 780 children.

The federal report also found the Westmoreland County program was not meeting its standards for instruction criteria, scoring in the bottom 10 percent of all Head Start programs.

For more than a decade, the county commissioners applied for Head Start funding and then passed the money along to the nonprofit Community Action, which operated 29 centers.

How do you bring entrepreneurship to underprivileged people of India?

Lakshmi: BYST is a not-for-profit organisation that primarily assists disadvantaged Indian youth in developing business ideas into viable enterprises under the guidance of a mentor, with the main objective of turning job seekers into creators.

We started this unique model of ‘Guru-Shishya’ Parampara (teacher-disciple) relationship, wherein the mentor trains, supports, monitors and helps the entrepreneur in networking and nurturing them, till they are self-sufficient to run an ethical business and, in turn, make a valuable contribution to society through creation of wealth and employment.

We encourage applicants without asking for financial down payments or collaterals. The loan is provided at the special interest rate offered to small businesses.

We started off with our first BYST in New Delhi and now we have expanded to 10 regional clusters, including Tamil Nadu, rural Haryana, Odisha, Assam, etc And today I am happy to say that we have financed and created nearly 4,200 entrepreneurs creating employment for about 1,75,000 people, and 10 percent of BYST-supported entrepreneurs have become millionaires today.

YS: How do you choose your entrepreneurs? What are the challenges in convincing the underprivileged to take up entrepreneurship?

Laskshmi: BYST’s focus was always young people between the age of 18 and 35 years, who have a business idea, capacity, capability, passion and central focus to drive their ideas.

In the initial years, we went to villages, grassroot-level NGOs, ITIs (Indian Technical Institutes) and polytechnics and chose young people. In fact a Rajeswari, who manufactures printed computer stationery, one of the first entrepreneurs, turned a crorepati in seven years.

YS: How do you get mentors for your programme? Initially, it was a tough task for us to convince people from the corporate sector to mentor these entrepreneurs, but then JRD Tata took this up and inspired people, as he believed the worthiness of the idea and gave me all the courage to run the programme.

We explained the importance of knowledge sharing that the mentors need to do for the rural sector in the field of business. Mentors also feel this is their way of giving back to the society and 70-75 percent of mentors have some small business background and guide the entrepreneurs in the right way. We told the mentors to support our entrepreneurs for the first two years, but many of them continued their relationship for more than 10-12 years. Today, we have nearly 4,000 volunteers as mentors, who even travel 40-60km with us to reach the entrepreneur they mentor.

YS: What kind of ideas from the entrepreneurs do you support? But the mentors guide their simple ideas in the right way and today many of these entrepreneurs have succeeded as they have imbibed a commitment to excellence, quality and ethics from their mentors.

I still remember one of the first entrepreneurs who came forward to work with us was Pradeep Lumba from Delhi, who made corrugated boxes and started this in Haryana. I want this concept of reaching out to the target group, appreciating and admiring the potential of the group by creating mass mentoring movements, and support through incubation to rural India.

I want to demonstrate our success stories to bring about change in policy in the government at national level to reach out these potential youth of rural India.

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North Huron School receives Meemic Foundation grant

Submitted to the Tribune

KINDE a The Meemic Foundation, a non-profit organization created by Meemic Insurance Company, announced Ellen Yaroch received a grant to North Huron School. With these literacy tools in various formats, students are able to develop a desire for reading and become proficient readers.

aExceptional educators are always looking for new and creative ways to inspire their students and we want to make sure that financial concerns donat stand in the way of those ideas,a said Pamela Harlin, administrator for the Meemic Foundation. aThe goal of Meemic Foundation grants is to provide the resources necessary for teachers to create a dynamic learning environment for students that not only educates the children but inspires them as well.a

The foundation looks to fund innovative programs, events or projects that will significantly enhance studentsa classroom experiences in all educational settings including public, private, parochial and charter schools as well as colleges and universities.

The Meemic Foundation has been offering financial assistance in the form of grants to schools and educators for more than 20 years. What began as a college scholarship program has expanded into a foundation that has touched more than 1.5 million students through its financial support of education initiatives.

Annually, teachers spend a good amount of their money on educational supplies for their classrooms. Meemic Foundation grants can help alleviate budget strains on teachers via grants and allow educators the freedom to be creative with their lessons.

Members of the Chequamegon Bay Area Community Fund gather at a reception Thursday announcing grants made by the Fund totalling $5,000 to the Mount Ashwabay Educational Foundation and the City of Ashland for their Ecological Stories Mural in the Lake Shore Drive tunnel.

Members of the Chequamegon Bay Area Community Fund gather at a reception Thursday announcing grants made by the Fund totalling $5,000 to the Mount Ashwabay Educational Foundation and the City of Ashland for their Ecological Stories Mural in the Lake Shore Drive tunnel.

A pair of $2,500 grants will enable a pair of non-profit organizations to carry out plans to benefit the Bay Area community.

The funds come from the Chequamegon Bay Area Community Fund, an affiliate of the Duluth-Superior Area Community Foundation.

aThey work to raise endowed funds, which are aforever funds,a permanent funds in the community,a she said. aThey take the earnings from those funds and grant them every year to area non-profits.a

The Fund began making grants last year, awarding $1,000 each to aResource Reusea the Ashwabay Outdoor Education Foundation for the Friday night youth program and Junior Ski Patrol, the city of Ashland for the East End Community Garden internship, Lake Superior Big Top Chautauqua for the Free Families Matinee and BART bus transportation, Northland College for a summer camp for Native American youth, and Recreation and Fitness Resources, Inc. a Home Base for the North Coast Sailing Program.

This year, the awardees included the city of Ashland for their Ecological Stories Mural in the Lake View Drive tunnel, part of the City of Ashland Mural Walk project, and the Ashwabay Educational Foundation to fund a part-time outreach Education coordinator to teach area school children how to use winter outdoor recreational equipment.

aThis one is really neat,a said Dennison. aThey are actually going to be going into the schools in Bayfield, Washburn and Ashland to teach the students how to use snowshoes and Nordic skis.a

Dennison said the goal was to teach students the fundamentals of winter outdoors equipment in a low-key manner that will help prevent the natural embarrassment school children face when trying something new for the first time.

Dennison said there were significant benefits for getting youngsters involved in winter outdoor activities.

aIn northwestern Wisconsin, we have long, dark winters, and for our mental and physical health, itas so important to get outside, so the neat thing about Ashwabayas program is that they are starting them early and going into the schools rather than asking them to come all the way out to Ashwabay,a she said.

Dennison noted that the city of Ashland is the Mural Capitol of Wisconsin, and has spawned mural projects in Marengo and Highbridge.

aThis ecological stories mural is going to talk about the human relationship with the ecology of the Lake Superior basin, specifically, the Chequamegon Bay area,a she said.

She noted that the grant awards had been increased for this year.

aThat is a testimony to the growth of the fund; they more than doubled their assets last year,a she said. aIt shows that there is support in the community, and it shows that we have an educated community that understands if you give to a permanent fund, you are permanently supporting the community, and when the non-profits need it, we have the funds there ready for them.a

Dennison said the funds come from community donations, and a number of fundraising events, including the Brownstone Days Trail Run and the annual Turkey Trot 5K run.

This year there have also been two new funds established and administered by CBACF that provide grant funding for educational and charitable purposes as advised by the donors, including the Dave Olson and Kathryn Grafsgaard Family Fund, aimed at supporting the preservation of the Lake Superior basin, and to assist with funding for Our Lady of the Lakeas initiative to allow students to attend the Catholic school, and the Albert H.

aWhat does it mean to us? aWe are the Ashwabay Outdoor Education Foundation, and we will be able to meet that mission, we will be able to reach the community in a different way.a

Rose Spieler-Sandberg, an assistant planner with the city of Ashland, said the grant means that not only does the mural project have more financial support, but it represented an additional measure of support from the greater community.

aIt means that the greater community is saying, aYes, we want this to happen,aa she said.

Spieler-Sandburg said the mural would be a work celebrating the ecology in the Chequamegon Bay region.

aIt will be a painted landscape going from a hardwood forest to a wetlands, to the lake, with mosaic animals interspersed throughout,a she said.

Non Profit of the Week – College of the Canyons Foundation Non Profit of the Week College of the Canyons Foundation

The College of the Canyons (COC) Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit auxiliary organization formed to generate philanthropic support for College of the Canyons. The board’s mission is to provide an affordable and accessible college education for all individuals who have the desire to succeed.

Like other educational institutions, College of the Canyons needs charitable gifts to endow scholarships and to support educational programs and capital improvements, which can mean the difference between ordinary and extraordinary programs and services for student success. Enrollment has grown from 800 students in 1969 to more than 20,000 in 2016.

The Foundation’s Mission

The College of the Canyons Foundation provides financial support for the Santa Clarita Community College District.

Viehwey and about two dozen other people involved with the Hancock County Community Foundation traveled the county by bus on Friday to visit with community leaders and learn about their town’s unique histories.

The “Community Plunge” bus tour celebrates the recipients of the foundation’s Celebrating Communities grants, which aim to make Hancock County a better place to work, live and play.

The bus full of donors and board members traveled to seven locations in the county where Celebrating Communities grants were received and used for local improvements, from bike racks in New Palestine to history panels on the Pennsy Trail in Greenfield.

The community plunge is a great way to see the pride Hancock County communities take in their towns and what they have to offer, said Viehwey.