For a long time, I’ve dreamt about setting up a foundation. In these dreams, the foundation would serve others but its mission was never clear. It was ever changing with each dream, ever-morphing into variations of the same idea of serving others. Until last week, this has always been the case. Last week, the mission of my foundation revealed itself to me.

It happened at dinner. I was with friends, one of which is an administrator for a significant collegiate foundation. At one point, the table centered its discussion about the process of raising money for a foundation, the costs, the overhead. The topic started wheels to turn in my mind.

I became stuck on the notion of foundation giving; the idea that many foundations give to organizations who then distribute the money into various programs and services. Funds become diluted in the process of the giving. This is not to say the gift isn’t needed. It is only the reality of a donation’s lifespan.

Therein stood my foundation’s mission. It must center on the distribution of money directly to the individual. It must help individual lives by supporting them in a financial way. Most importantly, it must support those individuals that have made a significant difference in the lives of others; individuals who have led a selfless life in their pursuit to make a difference in the world.

It’s not difficult to find these individuals; men and women who run soup kitchens, thrift shops, health clinics; men and women who donate their time to clean up toxic environments or educate a community. These people are everywhere. 

To support the determination of the selfless individual, the person who makes a difference in the lives of others.

There it is. The mission statement of my foundation. 

I see the foundation supporting the man who runs a soup kitchen who suddenly needs surgery to remove his gall bladder but doesn’t have insurance. I see the foundation supporting the woman who runs a shelter that needs funds for expansion. I see the foundation helping the man who educates his African village on safer sex. I see the foundation helping a physician who donates free medical advice in remote areas of the country.

I’ve been thinking about this new foundation a lot of late. I can visualize it’s presence just beyond the horizon. Now I wait for the money to get it started.