Making a Difference One Person at a Time

By Linda Ellis Harmeling

I am pleased and excited about the progress we’re making to build the GIA Endowment Fund to guarantee – forever – our ability to provide our nonprofit education and research programs.

We count on our GIA friends – one person at a time – to help us gather the financial support we need to do just that. We also want to make sure our resources, such as those described in this issue from the Library and Collection, are forever available to the public.

One person at a time, you are helping us build momentum toward our goal. In fact, in the last few months, we have received important financial commitments to the GIA Endowment Fund from: Ofer Azrielant of Jewelry.com, a division of Andin International, Inc.; Mary Forté of Zale Corporation; Doug Hucker of the American Gem Trade Association (Colored Stone Research Fund); Cliff Miller of M.J. Christensen Diamond Centers (Diamond Research Fund); and John A. Green and Marc A. Green of Lux, Bond & Green (Research Fund).

All of these people are giving at a level that enables them to join our esteemed League of Honor, which requires a donation of $100,000 or more (most of the gifts listed are in excess of that amount). And what is the result of their generosity? We’ve now built the Endowment to a level of more than $42 million. That’s more than half way to our $75 million goal.

In addition to these recent gifts to our Endowment Fund, Frank Dallahan of JCK Magazine has provided our first sponsorship for the upcoming 2006 Symposium. He will also be inducted into the GIA League of Honor.

Our donors have told us they really appreciate the fact that they are able to designate their gift to be used in the area most important to them or their business. By law, as a nonprofit organization, we are required to spend contributions as the donor intends – that’s part of the trust. When you tell us you want your philanthropic gift spent a certain way and/or you want it to be available forever to generate income for that area, we’re going to do just that.

We thank you for helping us make a difference, one person at a time.