Even before he made a lot of money, Gary Rood was thinking about how to give it away. Rood worked as a hospital administrator and later as a hospital president; in 2007, he and his wife Christine created Rood Investments, an asset management and real estate investment company in Vancouver, Washington. From the earliest days of his career, Gary Rood watched other prominent figures making gifts to worthy causes and he wanted to do the same. He was particularly inspired by Phil Knight, the billionaire cofounder of Nike, who grew up in Portland, Oregon. Knight has given hundreds of millions to universities and research centers in his home state and beyond.
“Being from the Northwest, you know, even before I had a dime, I wanted to emulate the Phil Knights of the world,” Rood said in a recent interview. “I was always very interested in people like that who made a lot of money and gave away a lot of money, and I made up my mind that I would do that if ever I got the opportunity.”
Today, Rood Investments’ earnings fuel the couple’s philanthropy, which has increased significantly in recent years and prioritizes healthcare and children in the Pacific Northwest. They’ve supported the Boys & Girls Club of Southwest Washington, started a scholarship for low-income students, funded cancer research at Oregon Health & Science University, among other donations. In January, the Roods gave $33 million to Friends of the Children — the largest gift they’ve ever given to a single organization. The Roods provided the gift in the form of real estate, including five debt-free commercial properties.
Portland, Oregon-based Friends of the Children (FOTC) is a national organization that provides paid mentors, or “Friends,” for youth who face systemic barriers. It has 29 locations around the country. Other FOTC supporters include the Ballmer Group, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, Hearst Foundations and WoodNext Foundation. Friends of the Children chapters also receive funding from local philanthropists (see IP’s report on Friends of the Children Austin).
The group seems to have a hot hand lately, likely related to its track record, but also thanks to another high-profile gift. The Roods’ gift comes on top of a $44 million award from MacKenzie Scott in August. FOTC was one of 343 organizations that Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, had given over the previous seven months, gifts that totaled almost $2 billion, according to her Medium post.
Rood expressed some tongue-in-cheek chagrin that he couldn’t quite match the size of MacKenzie Scott’s donation, but Terri Sorensen, the CEO of Friends of the Children-National, is jubilant about the huge, back-to-back gifts.
“It feels pretty incredible to be at Friends of the Children right now,” Sorensen said. “This is my 20th year, and we’ve been waiting for a tipping point like this, after years of never having enough resources. Our vision is that every child who needs a Friend should have one. We figured out how to scale this model and we’ve slowly been chipping away at it. And now we have the resources to do this, to almost double the number of locations we’re in and reach more children. That’s so exciting.”
“We’re going to keep showing up”
Friends of the Children’s tagline is “One Child. One Friend. 12+ years, no matter what.” The organization is built on the idea that to thrive, every child needs one person in their life who believes in them and is a consistent, caring presence. The organization matches children who are in foster care or are at risk of entering foster care with a Friend, an adult who provides companionship and support, and connects with the adults in the child’s life at home, in school, and in the community. Friends of the Children commits to working with each child from kindergarten through high school graduation.
Unlike many organizations that work with youth, Friends of the Children’s mentors are paid. FOTC Friends work closely with a program manager, and the national office provides ongoing training and support opportunities for all chapters.
“We’re big fans of volunteer mentoring, as well; we really believe in mentoring,” Sorensen said. “But we are working with children and families who face the most challenges — 100% of our kids face the possibility of going into foster care. In many cities, we’re actually partnering with the foster care system. These kids have many people coming in and out of their lives, and the average volunteer mentor stays less than 18 months. So we ask our Friends for at least a three-year commitment, and the average Friend stays five to six years. So it’s a long-term commitment, and kids know we’re going to keep showing up.”
The organization was started 30 years ago by Duncan Campbell, who grew up in a low-income community in Portland. Today, Campbell is an attorney and a CPA, but his early days were rough. “I was one of those children,” Campbell said, referring to the young people FOTC works with. He remains closely involved with Friends of the Children and serves on the board.
The group’s model isn’t cheap, of course, but Sorensen points out that it mitigates the high cost of foster care, mental healthcare, teen pregnancy and involvement in the juvenile justice system. Youth who participate in Friends of the Children show impressive outcomes: 92% enroll in postsecondary education, enter the workforce or join the military; 93% avoid involvement with the juvenile justice system; 98% avoid teen pregnancy.
Analysis by the Harvard Business School Association of Oregon found that Friends of the Children helps break the cycle of poverty, pointing out that “for every 100 FOTC graduates, society gains: 24 more high-school or college graduates; 59 fewer teen parents; and 30 fewer people getting an early start in prison and correspondingly fewer victims of the crimes they would have committed.” They concluded that every $1 invested in Friends of the Children participants returned $7 to the community.
Friends of the Children will use $28 million of the Roods’ $33 million gift to expand its work to more parts of the country and $5 million will go to the Friends of the Children chapter in southwest Washington, where the Roods live. The remaining $5 million will fund a new Center of Excellence, which Sorensen describes as a hub that will provide training and thought leadership to promote FOTC’s model. At Gary Rood’s request, the new center will be named after Duncan Campbell and his wife, Cindy.
Sorensen said FOTC plans to put the funds to use immediately. “I think it can be really tempting to say, oh, you know, let’s put all this money into an endowment,” she said. “And we do have an endowment that was started by another funder. But there’s so much need. The Roods have told us they would like to see the impact in their lifetimes, and we want to show MacKenzie Scott the impact, as well. So our plans are to spend this funding down over the next five years so it goes to the children and families who need it.”
Inspired by other peoples’ giving
Friends of the Children may not have a high profile, but it has some powerful champions. In 2018, basketball icon Michael Jordan made a multimillion-dollar investment in the organization by donating the proceeds from his ESPN Films and Netflix documentary series “The Last Dance.” Olympic gymnast Simone Biles is a Friends of the Children ambassador; she recently highlighted its work when she was featured on a limited edition Wheaties box, and helped FOTC launch a new chapter in her hometown of Houston, Texas.
And then there was the recent donation from MacKenzie Scott. Some nonprofits reportedly prefer not to disclose that they’ve received a gift from Scott out of concern that other funders will believe the organization is well-enough funded and take their money elsewhere. But FOTC’s experience seems to show that the reverse is true, backing up a recent report from the Center for Effective Philanthropy that found a gift from Scott overwhelmingly either helped or at least did not hurt future fundraising.
“I’ve heard other leaders say they want to keep the gifts quiet because, you know, ‘people will think we have too much money,’’ said Sorensen. “I’ve just never bought into that scarcity mindset. And it’s paid off. I think people are inspired by other peoples’ giving.”
For philanthropists like Gary Rood, that is clearly the case. The Roods had given to FOTC before and were familiar with its operations. Gary Rood did a lot of research on the organization; he spent time with Duncan Campbell and has had numerous conversations with Sorensen. Still, he says the nods from Scott and Michael Jordan influenced his decision to make such a substantial gift.
“The fact that Michael Jordan and MacKenzie Scott funded the organization — yeah, that carried a lot of weight with me,” he said. “I don’t know either of them, obviously, but I’m sure I’m correct that they have very sophisticated people working for them, people who help them give away more money than I will ever dream of. I know darn well they put a lot of time and effort into deciding what they’re going to do with those funds, and I’m more than willing to follow their lead.”