24 FRONTDOORS MEDIA | JUNE 2018 10 QUESTIONS WITH... CONTINUED 7. What’s new at the Trust right now? We’ve been in kind of an evolution lately, as with any organization. Everyone has a life cycle and we’re a 50-year trust. So after 50 years we go away and all of the money will be distributed. So in the first 15 years you’re kind of just establishing yourself, having the processes in place. Now we’re at a stage where we have two new trustees who are looking at things differently. You know, I’m relatively new as a CEO. So it is definitely a time of change for the Pulliam Trust. Change is always exciting. In four years, we’ll have our 25 th anniversary, so we’ll be halfway through our life cycle at that point. In the past couple of years we’ve made a lot more strategic grantmaking decisions. 8. What have been some highlights of 2018 so far? This has been a great year, but they’re all great years. I always tell people, if you’re not happy working at a foundation there’s something wrong with you because you exist to help the community. How cool is that? This has been a really great year for us. In Indianapolis, we gave our largest grant to date, a $3 million grant to endow a scholarship program at one of the universities there. That was a big deal for us. We have an opportunity to do some exciting work around the Verde River that we’ll be announcing pretty soon and conserving some farmland up there to help protect wildlife. So that’s one of our biggest grants in Arizona. However, we have the opportunities we have because some staff is retiring. They’ve been here since the very beginning of the Trust and they’re moving on. It will give us a chance to bring in some new ideas. We can learn from people who have not been at the organization for so long and continue to refine what we’re doing in our general grantmaking. 9. How does the Trust strategize to invest in ways that will make a long-term effect on the community? There is a need for basic philanthropy. We have nothing against food banks, but they need to have food to feed those people. Now you’re changing that person’s life for the week or two because they have the food box, but you’re not taking them out of poverty or anything. There will always be the element of our grantmaking that is responsive to those kind of things — you need to house people and you need to make sure that they’re safe, but you want to make long-term impact. That’s why for us and other foundations you pick a couple of areas that you think you can own in the respect that you become so familiar with them that you know the players and know what space you can make a difference in. You stick with it for the long haul and you adapt to the changing environment. 10. In addition to your role at the Trust, you’re also a father. Tell us a bit about that in honor of Father’s Day. I have the best family. Three girls and one little grandbaby. Two of them live here and the eldest lives in Denver with her husband. My youngest daughter is a teacher. She’ll be leaving that and going to work at the Science Center doing curriculum for science teachers. Our middle daughter was a social worker. Now, she assesses preschools for First Things First. And our eldest daughter does marketing and communications for the University of Denver. It’s interesting how our paths cross professionally.

JUNE 2018 | FRONTDOORS MEDIA 25