By Kelly Schwalbe, PIF Chairman
We talk a lot about PIF – our Professional Improvement Foundation – in AAEA circles, but where did it come from? And what does it do exactly?
Let’s start with a bit of history. The AAEA Professional Improvement Foundation (PIF) was the brainchild of Larry Harper, former editor of Missouri Ruralist and 1990 AAEA president, according to past PIF Chair Gregg Hillyer. Larry’s vision was to have a separate fund with a $1 million endowment, where the annual revenues could be earmarked for professional improvement and development for members and to promote the agricultural journalism profession.
True to Larry’s vision, the initial “professional improvement fund” was created in the early 1990s. Past PIF Chair Paul Queck recalls that the fund grew significantly after the joint 1992 annual AAEA meeting and IFAJ Congress in Indianapolis, which generated nearly $40,000 that AAEA put into the account. Several years later, the fund was transformed into the Professional Improvement Foundation and received 501(c)3 status.
As it was chartered, any member of AAEA is automatically a member of the foundation, which is managed by a separate 12-person board of trustees, elected on staggered three-year terms, and three officers. Since its creation, Paul Queck, Gregg Hillyer, Gil Gullickson and I have chaired the foundation. For more specific details about the foundation and its structure, members can review the AAEA PIF articles and bylaws at https://y7j.6d7.myftpupload.com/pif-articles-and-bylaws/.
HOW PIF WORKS
Because PIF is a non-profit entity, it does have to follow certain guidelines to maintain its 501(c)3 status and to achieve the overall principles under which it was originally chartered. Summarized, the four overarching objectives of PIF are:
- To fund professional improvement programs to persons in ag communications including, but not limited to, all active and affiliate AAEA members;
- To support and promote the ag communications community;
- To finance awards for outstanding writing, graphic arts and other work in the field of ag communications;
- To make scholarships and support internships and training programs in ag communications.
In short, the foundation was formed to receive, maintain and distribute funds “exclusively for charitable, educational, literary and scientific purposes as defined by the IRS” and as instructed by our bylaws. More importantly, as a charitable organization, contributions to PIF are tax deductible, which makes it attractive and easy for individuals, companies, and other organizations and foundations to provide funds that can then use for the benefit of members, students and the profession.
WHAT PIF DOES
In keeping with the traditions of past PIF trustees and chairmen, PIF is managed to provide funding for a wide variety of programs and needs of AAEA, its members and the profession. This includes scholarships and internships for ACT students, stipends for members to attend IFAJ Congresses, support for regional workshop programs, funds for an ag journalists’ mission to Cuba, AMS stipends, webinars and much more.
Over the last several years, to better meet the needs of members and industry, the foundation has increased the number of programs supported and total amount funded while trying to maintain a consistent level in investment reserves. Last year, PIF provided more than $50,000 in funding for these and other programs. And while the foundation has yet to attain the $1 million endowment that Larry Harper envisioned, it does maintain nearly $400,000 in investment reserves.
In the Byline over the next few weeks, other PIF trustees will provide more details on the foundation’s budget, programs supported and income-generating activities.
As we approach the end of the year and the “season of giving,” please consider the AAEA Professional Improvement Foundation as one of your places to give. If you’ve received PIF funds for a stipend or grant, or found value in a PIF-sponsored activity the last few years, please consider paying it forward so others can continue to benefit.
Having a constantly growing, fiscally robust foundation provides greater benefits, opportunity and value for all members and the ag communications profession.
And that’s why you should care.