PDF version - Community Foundation of Southern Wisconsin

2012-2013
Investment Club Gives Back
High School Students Learn to Invest and Give
Monroe
M
High School Alumnus Supports Investment Education
Bob Olson
onroe High School Alumnus Bob Olson thought it was important for students to learn how to be
both good investors and good philanthropists. So he created an endowment fund that allows
Monroe High School (MHS) students to do both.
Formed in 2006, the MHS Investment Club recommends investments for the $30,000 endowment
created by Olson and makes grant awards from the Fund. The grants, made in accordance with the Community
Foundation’s spending policy, have supported Project Lead the Way classes at the high school, a nonprofit child care
Monica Sefcik, MHS Investment
Club member, shows off the first
hard copy of an annual report
received by the Club.
center and homeless families in Monroe.
Just like the grant-making, the Club’s investment activities are not a simulation.
“My vision for the Club was to not only include the stock selection process, but to use real
money,” said Olson, a retired paper company executive.
The result is some dramatic real-world experiences for club members. An investment in
AMCORE a few years ago came to nothing when the bank and trust company was shut down
and sold. But recent investments in AT&T, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer have yielded high
returns.
The ups and downs of the fund’s portfolio do not bother Olson, who does not intervene in
the Club’s investment decisions. “I hope that they would learn that it is part of the risk and
reward process that goes along with investing,” he said. “It is a gradual learning process
that I hope will stay with these young people as they enter the adult world. Then, they can
decide for themselves if they want to be an investor.”
From the Cover
Monroe High School Investment Club members with Community Foundation of Southern Wisconsin Representatives Linda
Gebhardt and Ron Spielman at the Club’s annual grant-making meeting. The Club is advised by Sherri Hendrickson,
not pictured.
Creating a Fund
Creating a fund with the Community Foundation is an easy and efficient way to manage your charitable giving. Donors can both
personalize the fund and enjoy a variety of benefits from their Community Foundation affiliation.
Fund creators have many choices. You may set up your fund with stocks, bonds, real estate, personal property or cash. You may
name your fund for you, your family or business, or in honor of any person or organization you choose. You recommend uses for
the fund, supporting the causes and organizations you care about most.
In return, you receive tax benefits in the year your gift is made. The Community Foundation handles all the administrative details
and, in accordance with our investment policy, issues grants to charities in the name of the fund you establish.
If you create an endowment, your gift and all of its future earnings becomes a permanent source of capital benefiting your
community causes forever.
4 Giving Back . . . Giving Forward