History of The FarmHouse Foundation

Believing that there should be a broader financial base and support for the Fraternity's operations, the Executive Board established an Endowment Committee at the 1950 Conclave. In anticipation of the Fraternity's Golden Anniversary, the Golden Anniversary Fund was officially launched in 1952. After the Golden Anniversary Year of 1955, the name of the Fund was changed to Golden Opportunity Fund.

Delegates to the 1962 Conclave approved a Trust Agreement establishing the FarmHouse Foundation and the appointment of Joseph Ackerman, D. Howard Doane, Oscar B. Jesness, Francis W. Peck, Lew T. Skinner and C.W. Weldon as Trustees of the Foundation.

The Trust established the FarmHouse Foundation as an agency that shall administer funds entrusted to it "to foster high standards of scholarship, character, leadership and cultural development among all the members of FarmHouse Fraternity. Also, the funds entrusted to the Foundation shall be used for scholarships, student aid and assistance to needy students and for the improvement of the level of educational achievement for students of agriculture and related sciences including specifically loans and grants to provide better housing and living conditions for groups of students of agriculture."

Formal organizations of the FarmHouse Foundation was accomplished on December 1, 1963, at a meeting held in Chicago , Illinois . It was attended by the Trustees; Russell J. Kleis, National President of FarmHouse Fraternity; Robert Baldridge, Esq., a member of FarmHouse Fraternity and a lawyer who handled all of the legal aspects of establishing the Foundation in his capacity as Chairman of the Foundation Committee of FarmHouse Fraternity; and Darl E. Snyder, National Secretary-Treasurer-Editor of FarmHouse Fraternity.

Two Trustees are elected at each biennial conclave of the Fraternity. The order of succession of the first Trustees was to be:

Name and Chapter	Term Expiring
D. Howard Doane, MO	1964
Francis W. Peck, HON	1964
Joseph Ackerman, IL	1966
Oscar B. Jesness, HON	1966
Lew T. Skinner, NEB	1968
C.W. Weldon, IL	1968

The Trustees elected Joseph Ackerman, C.W. Weldon and Darl E. Snyder to serve as Chairman, Treasurer and Secretary of the Foundation.

By-Laws for the Foundation were adopted. Robert Baldridge was elected to serve as Attorney and the firm of Ernst and Ernst of Chicago was named auditor for the Foundation.

The National Executive Board of FarmHouse Fraternity provided the Trustees of the Foundation a fund of $2,000 with which to begin operations.

The first major project of the Foundation was the establishment of a scholarship program. Beginning with the 1963-64 academic year five grants of one hundred (100) dollars each were to be made to sophomore students in the College of Agriculture at four (4) universities where FarmHouse Fraternity was represented by a chapter and one (1) to a university where FarmHouse Fraternity did not have a chapter.

Additional projects such as leadership development, establishment of libraries in houses of the FarmHouse Chapters and publication of education materials aimed at carrying out the purposes for which the Foundation was established were to be developed by the Trustees.

Funds to support the program of the Foundation were to be solicited, together with funds for the Golden Opportunity Fund, by the Golden Opportunity Fund Committee of FarmHouse Fraternity.

Announcement of the formation of the Foundation was made through Pearls and Rubies , the magazine of FarmHouse Fraternity.

Annual meetings of the Foundation Trustees were to be held in Chicago at the time of the International Livestock Show. In the even years the Trustees elect their officers for the next two years. By-Laws amendments were adopted at the 1966 Annual Meeting changing the time and place of the meeting to a Biennial Meeting to be held at the same location as the biennial Conclave of FarmHouse Fraternity.

In a letter addressed to the FarmHouse Foundation under date of January 7, 1966, the Internal Revenue Service of the United States Treasury Department states "...we have concluded that the trust (FarmHouse Foundation Trust Agreements) is exempt from Federal income tax as an organization described in section 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code."

"Contributions made to the trust are deductible by donors as provided in section 170 of the Code. Bequests, legacies, devises, transfers or gifts to or for the use of the trust are deductible for Federal estate and gift tax purposes under the provisions of sections 2055, 2106, and 2522 of the Code."

By action taken in May of 1966, the National Executive Board of FarmHouse Fraternity discontinued the Golden Opportunity Fund to allow the FarmHouse Foundation to enlist support from the membership of the Fraternity for the Foundation and its program.

In 1969 Darl Synder resigned as Secretary-Treasurer-Editor of the Fraternity, but agreed to continue as Interim Secretary of the Foundation. When he resigned as Interim Scretary in August 1970, accounts were transferred from LaGrange , Illinois to St. Joseph , Missouri . William C. (Wick) Haynes, NC '57, and subsequently Robert L. Off, CO '64, have served as the chief executive officer for both the Foundation and International Fraternity.

During the late ‘60s and the ‘70s, the Foundation placed significant emphasis on the development of programs, which it could support and, thus, more actively contribute to “building men.” Grants were made to more than a dozen leadership conferences, library acquisitions, and a chapter counseling program. The leadership conferences were designed to enhance the Fraternity's ability to help individuals relate themselves to campus life and organization concepts of FarmHouse.

In 1974, with the involvement of D. Howard Doane, the Foundation moved forward on a pilot program to enhance social poise and interaction. The first “Chapter Challenge Grant” was made in 1977, for the development of an educational program in conjunction with the Iowa State Chapter's 50 th anniversary; a second went the following year to Oklahoma State Chapter. As historical educational materials for chapter use, the Foundation underwrote the cost of recording and duplicating copies of videotape interviews with Founders D. Howard Doane and Henry Krusekopf.

The First “Educational Program Grant” to the International Fraternity Board was made in 1978, to support an assortment of activities with “educational purposes” compatible with the corporate guidelines of the Foundation.

During the decade of the ‘70s, the need for more aggressive annual giving and increased major gift solicitation was recognized. Subsequently, both the Trustees and the Fraternity staff directed more attention to direct mail appeals to the entire alumni membership and initiated personal contacts with potential major donors. Increased attention was also given to developing and adopting policies for fund solicitation, administration, and investment of Foundation resources.

Several trust and memorial funds were established during this time, including those bearing the names of Elmer C. Scheidenhelm, IL '23, D. Howard Doane, MO '05, Joesph Ackerman , IL '26, and H.K. Wilson, IA '27. Increased numbers of alumni and their families responded to the direct mail appeals and the appeals and recognitions included in Pearls and Rubies . Concurrent with these developments, the Foundation Board recognized the need for greater staff support and its obligation to assume a portion of the costs of the International Office.

In the 1980s and ‘90s, the Foundation began to benefit from the groundwork laid in the ‘60s and ‘70s. The Foundation Trustees and the International Office staff currently administer 38 endowment funds, most having a corpus of $10,000 or more, and more then 20 restricted or designated gift funds to support scholarships and other educational activities for 28 chapters.

The Fraternity and Foundation International Headquarters relocated on June 1, 1993 to 11020 NW Ambassador Drive , Kansas City , Missouri , in a suite near the Kansas City International Airport . The move was made after being in St. Joseph , Missouri , since 1969.

In January 1997 Robert L. Off (CO '64) moved to full-time employment as the Executive Director of the FarmHouse Foundation and became the first full-time Foundation staff member. Then in July 2001, Allison Rickels was hired as the Director of Annual Fund and Communications, enabling them to concentrate on fundraising and Foundation programs.

In 2005, the Board of Trustees decided to take on the most ambitious fund-raising project in the history of the Fraternity: a $4 million comprehensive campaign for the 100 th Anniversary of the Fraternity. The Fraternity had always been under-captitalized and the Foundation had been established to address this issue. However, the Foundation had only begun to change this situation in 2005. It still needed to put a firm foundation under the excellent programs the Fraternity provided to about 1,350-1,450 of the nation's best undergraduate men each year. Campaign 2005 set out to do this. At the 2002 Conclave, the FarmHouse Foundation Trustees and staff joined with FarmHouse undergraduates, alumni, and friends of the Fraternity to launch the Foundation's campaign. Thanks to the generosity of alumni and friends across the country, Campaign 2005 was a big success, bringing the Foundation's endowed funds to well over the $4 million goal of the campaign.

The Foundation saw many changes in 2007. After 35 years of service to the Fraternity and Foundation, Bob Off (CO '64) retired from his position as Executive Director to serve as Executive Director Emeritus beginning in August 2007. Allison Rickels was selected by the Board of Trustees to become the Executive Director of the Foundation. The Foundation and International Fraternity staff had outgrown their offices and in September 2007 moved into a suite at 7306 NW Tiffany Springs Parkway, Suite 210 . With Rickels' move to Executive Director, the search began to fill her previous position. In January 2008, Andrea Ward was hired as the Annual Giving & Communications Coordinator.

In the 2010-2011 Fiscal Year, $1,381,268 was donated by 1,640 alumni and friends. Net Assets of the Foundation reached $7,086,691. This allowed the Foundation to provide the Fraternity with $347,449 in funding for educational and leadership purposes.