NY Foundation Confronts Tough Task: Distributing Cash

Caption to picture: Rex Johnson, right, "dean" of the University of Lending, Elgin, Ill., presents a $20,600 check to Frank Kerbein, executive director of the New York CU Foundation. The University donated $100 to the Foundation's disaster relief fund for every student attending its sessions in Chicago and New York following the terrorist attack.(Picture UnAvailable)

ALBANY, N.Y., April 8, 2002 - Like United Way and the Red Cross, the New York Credit Union Foundation is finding it harder to give away money than one might think.

The foundation, which has raised some $1.3 million for the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, has extended the deadline for individuals to apply for funds to May 31, according to Frank Kerbein, executive director of NYCUF.

"We just received another $5,000 today," Kerbein told The Credit Union Journal. "Hopefully the word is out that after March 31, we won't be raising more money for this."

The foundation made some disbursements of funds early on for immediate needs by donating funds to the Twin Towers Fund on Sept. 14. Other disbursements included one to a credit union that lost a board member in the attacks and another that covered the cost of a counseling session for employees at one credit union.

The First Phase
"In the first phase, we're offering $1,000 grants to eligible family members of credit union members anywhere in the world who were lost in the attacks," Kerbein explained. "Initial estimates were that 3,000 deceased in the attacks, and assuming that about one-third of the population are credit union members, that should have brought us to $1 million, but it looks like we will struggle to get to that number."

Part of that struggle is making sure that people who are eligible to receive the grants are aware that they are eligible. NYCUF is trying to get the word out to credit unions all over the world to help it find those CU members.

Kerbein declined to say how much money has already been distributed, noting that the number changes every day. While there are deadlines on the fundraising and on applications to receive grants from that fundraising, the foundation has not set a deadline by which time it must have all funds distributed, in an effort to ensure NYCUF is able to do a methodical job of identifying recipients.

"The greatest challenge is that we're not a disaster relief foundation by nature," he explained. "We're checking in with credit unions, particularly in New York and at the Pentagon, so that they can help pull together the paperwork for their members."

The Next Phase
The next step is for the foundation trustees to discuss options for what to do with any remaining monies, once all of the individual grant applications have been processed. Kerbein said he hopes to schedule that meeting soon after the May 31 deadline has passed. "This is a trust given to us by the credit union movement," he said, but added, "we don't want to remain in this business."

Even as NYCUF has been handling this effort, it has still been working on its core reason for existing: supporting the education of staff, management, volunteers and consumers of credit unions. The foundation is sponsoring a statewide competition on youth financial literacy and has made grants related to the education of credit union staff, as well.

"As always, we want to thank the credit union movement for both the financial and moral support we have received," Kerbein added. "We've had 1,400 credit union donors from 50 states and four countries.