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Home Depot
Founders Give Back
Home Depot opened as three stores in Atlanta
in 1979. In the first year of operation, founders Arthur Blank and
Bernard Marcus lost $1 million. But their concept was strong, and
in 1980 Home Depot turned a profit. In 1981 the duo took the
company public, and in the years since Home Depot has become an American
retail phenomenon that today employs 230,000 associates.
The two founders, with help from writer Bob
Andelman, recounted their success in
Built From Scratch: How a Couple
of Regular Guys Grew the Home Depot from nothing to $30 Billion.
A reviewer for Knight-Ridder News Service described Blank and
Marcus as “two brilliant, yet down-to-earth men."
Arthur Blank was born in Queens, NY, in 1942.
His family was poor, and he grew up in a series of one-bedroom
apartments. He became an
accountant, and during the 1970’s worked for Handy Dan Improvement
Centers. There he met
Bernard Marcus.
Born
in 1929 in Newark, NJ, Bernard Marcus was the son of Russian immigrant
parents. He hoped to become a
doctor, but he couldn’t afford a medical education.
Instead, he became a pharmacist.
Through a series of mergers, Marcus ended up an employee of Handy
Dan.
When
the two men lost their jobs in the late 1970’s, they joined forces to
found Home Depot.
From
the beginning, Blank and Marcus were committed to sharing the wealth.
They made an early decision to pay good wages, and to make employees
shareholders. Home Depot has created 1,000 millionaires to date.
And Blank and Marcus are among the richest men in the country.
Each
year Home Depot budgets approximately $15 million for corporate giving.
One of the Home Depot millionaires, former executive vice president Ronald
M. Brill – who helped build the company – has given away almost $2
million through a direct endowment and a charitable trust.
Both
Blank and Marcus have now retired from active participation in Home Depot.
Today, they devote their
creative energies to spending their vast fortunes in ways that make a
difference. Using the
vehicle of family foundations, they make grants to organizations
throughout the country.
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The
Blank Family Foundation doesn’t operate from an endowment.
Instead, Arthur Blank provides the funds for the foundation each
year. In 2001, the foundation
distributed over $29 million in 303 grants.
The foundation is truly a family affair.
Blank’s brother, his wife, and his three oldest children are all
active in foundation decisions. Blank
strongly encourages their participation, as he plans for the work of the
foundation to continue long after his own death.
Although
the foundation gives to a variety of recipient organizations, Arthur Blank
particularly hopes to make a difference in the lives of children. He himself overcame a serious stutter earlier in life, and he
believes children should have every opportunity for health and
self-confidence.
The
Blank Foundation is among the minority of foundations that provide
operating funds, and they like giving to fairly new, small organizations.
Although they have made grants to organizations throughout the
country, this year the foundation is accepting proposals from Georgia; New
York City; coastal South Carolina; Maricopa County, Arizona; and Park and
Gallatin Counties in Montana. Family
members have homes in those areas.
The
Marcus Foundation has concentrated its efforts on large grants with big
impact. The foundation
recently gave $3.9 million to the CDC Foundation to establish a
state-of-the-art Emergency Anthrax Response Center at the Centers for
Disease Control. $45 million
was contributed to fund a national network of centers to treat children
with brain disorders. And
Marcus has committed $200 million to build the new Georgia Aquarium.
By Jillian Coleman
Wheeler
2008 (c) Live Oak
Tree, LLC
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