Last Updated on September 18, 2024 by Luke Feldbrugge
The Kaufman Fund is committed to aiding Veterans with life’s basic necessities through food, shelter, clothing, medical care and more. The fund was founded in 1990 in memory of Ralph Kaufman by his younger brother, Wayne Kaufman. The organization offers several referral programs for legal, dental, mental health and chiropractic services; plus four of their own programs including Food for Vets, Trees for Vets, Tax Prep for Vets and the Artist First for Vets.
The Kaufman Fund Grant Check Presentation with Jay Flynn
The Homes for Heroes Foundation awarded the Kaufman Fund a $10,000 hero grant to help support the organization’s efforts of providing direct support to Veterans.
Jay Flynn, Hero Outreach Coordinator with Homes for Heroes, meets with Sheila Schneider, The Kaufman Fund Executive Director; and Brandy Dudenhoeffer, Homes for Heroes Real Estate Specialist, to briefly discuss The Kaufman Fund and how the funds received from the Homes for Heroes Foundation grant will assist their initiatives.
You can watch the full interview here or read the transcript of the interview below.
Jay: Hello, I’m Jay Flynn, Hope Hero’s Hero outreach coordinator. And I’m joined today by Sheila Schneider with the Kauffman Fund and Homes for Heroes, real estate specialist Brandy Dudenhoeffer.
Welcome to you both. Sheila, Brandy and I are so excited to have you with us today. And we’re really excited because we have a September 2023 Homes for Heroes $10,000 grant for The Kauffman Fund.
Sheila: Thank you so much. Greatly appreciate this. This is going to be so helpful.
Jay: Awesome. All right. So let’s just take a minute and talk a bit about The Kauffman Fund and the great support that you’re offering our Veterans and all of the good stuff you’re doing. So, Sheila, tell us the history of The Kauffman Fund and about its mission.
Sheila: So The Kauffman Fund was started in 1990 by Wayne Kauffman in memory of his brother Ralph, who was also a Veteran. So Wayne served in Vietnam, and he was very disappointed with the support that they received when they came back. He and his brother were very active in community service throughout the St Louis area, and he saw a need for Veterans to get assistance.
And so they started just hosting golf tournaments and passing that money through. Then they realized, you know what, we think we can do a better job here. So they started offering their own programs. And with that, we are now up to nine free programs. And we finally went from being a 100% volunteer organization to having one employee.
Jay: So you’re a team of one.
Sheila: A team of one, supported by a team of roughly 250 volunteers.
Jay: That’s awesome. So Brandi, you had the opportunity to make the nomination of The Kauffman Fund for this Homes for Heroes Foundation grant. Why did you do that?
Brandy: Yeah, so I’ve known Wayne for probably the last 8 to 10 years. I’ve seen how The Kauffman Fund has grown and how they’ve made a huge impact in the St. Louis area by helping Veterans. And, they continue to grow and they want to add programs. Recently they added Chiropractic Care, Dental Care, Taxes and Attorneys.
Yeah, I love that they are just wanting to grow and make a difference. So I felt like they were a great organization to nominate, and I’m super excited that they were able to receive $10,000.
Jay: So Sheila, Brandy mentioned a few of the programs. I heard you say you had nine.
Sheila: We have nine free programs.
Jay: Tell us about all these different programs that you guys offer to our Veterans.
Sheila: Like Brandi said, we have a legal referral, we have a dental referral, we have chiropractic referral, and we also have a mental health collaborative.
We also do Food for Vets, and Trees for Vets. This year, we also started our new tax preparations for Veterans.
We sponsor a night for expressive art through one of the local art programs just for veterans. They have their own night.
And then we also give out brand new winter coats to Veterans dealing with housing insecurities through some of the housing programs in the Saint Louis area; to include Saint Louis New Veterans Community Project, which is the Veterans Tiny Homes.
Jay: Wow, that’s wow, that’s a lot of things.
Sheila: It’s a lot of stuff. Not only that, but the second part of our mission is to network with other agencies. So once a month we host what we call Vet Net Connect, where we bring in anybody who’s working with Veterans. Whether it’s providing a great service, discounts, or for anyone just looking to hire a Veteran. We bring them all into one room. This month we actually had 75 people in the room. And so what this is doing is allowing for those of us who are working directly with Veterans to be able to say, you know what, we don’t work with that program, but I know somebody who does. Let me give that warm handoff. Let’s get you to the right people to get you connected.
Jay: Yes. That’s awesome. All right. So you talked about your programs. We know we’ve got $10,000 from the Homes for Heroes Foundation. How are you guys going to put that to use?
Sheila: So this particular grant money will be going to our Food for Vets. And so what we do is every other month we partner with a local food pantry and we give out a week’s worth of groceries to Veterans and their families.
But something that The Kaufman Fund does a little bit above, which is why this money will be so helpful, is we make sure that there’s protein and produce at those events because most food pantries are struggling just to keep non-perishables on the shelf. They don’t have the protein, they don’t have the fresh produce. So we go in and we make sure that we have that available to those Veterans just to help out a little bit more.
Jay: Awesome. It just takes it up a notch.
Sheila: Yes. And we do those throughout the Saint Louis area and it’s just a fabulous program.
Jay: All right. So somebody watching this video says, man, that sounds like something I can really get behind. How can folks get behind you guys and support you?
Sheila: Oh, well, first, check out our website, The Kaufman Fund. And there you can see all nine of our programs. You can also donate. You can see our other fundraisers that we are doing to try to make sure that we’re providing all these great services to our Veterans.
Jay: You guys are certainly doing such great work in the St Louis area. We’re so thrilled to be here with you to award this grant money and let you guys put it to use for a good cause.
Sheila: We greatly appreciate it.
Jay: Awesome. So for those watching, thanks for taking the time to join us today and we appreciate you being here. Give us a little bit of love. Share the video. Like the video. Leave us a comment.
Join us next time to see other great nonprofits that the Homes for Heroes Foundation is supporting all across our nation. And most importantly, take just a second out of your day to thank a hero.
Homes for Heroes Circle of Giving
Grants from the Homes for Heroes Foundation are made possible by the Homes for Heroes Circle of Giving and its network of real estate and mortgage professionals. Homes for Heroes, Inc. is committed to providing savings to community heroes; such as firefighters, EMS, law enforcement, military (active duty, reserves and veterans), healthcare professionals and teachers.
To expand its Circle of Giving, Homes for Heroes, Inc., donates a portion of its earnings to the Homes for Heroes Foundation. So, every time a hero buys or sells a home using the Homes for Heroes program, they are helping other heroes across the country facing a housing crisis or who are in need of urgent financial assistance.
If you are interested in learning more about how Homes for Heroes can guide you through the home buying, selling or refinancing process AND save you an average of $3,000 after closing, simply sign up to speak with a member of their team. They will follow up with you to answer all of your questions. When you tell them you’re feeling ready to speak with their local specialists in your area about home buying, selling, or refinancing, they will connect you with their local specialists to begin the process.
Simply visit the Homes for Heroes Foundation page if you’re interested in learning more about where it has awarded recent grants to hero organizations throughout the country, how much they’ve awarded to date, and how it all works.
If you’re interested in supporting and donating to the Homes for Heroes Foundation to assist heroes in need, please visit their donation page to submit your contribution via PayPal. And, thank you for your interest and support.
Thank you for watching another Homes for Heroes Foundation grant video about the impact it is making nationally and in local hero communities, along with hero supporting nonprofits who use the grant dollars they receive to assist the heroes they serve.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the Homes for Heroes YouTube channel to get notified of the new hero grants awarded by the Homes for Heroes foundation.
