ABOUT RICHARD & ENIKA SCHULZE
Richard and Enika Schulze established this family Foundation in December 2007. Richard is the son of a German immigrant and a mother who was the oldest of 13 children in a Polish immigrant family. Enika emigrated as a child with her parents from the Netherlands.
Both of them have achieved a measure of success and believe it was a result of energy, persistence, hard work and application of skills developed through education, enhanced by mentors.
Richard and Enika were entrepreneurs. Richard created the nation's leading air quality consulting and compliance company that both facilitated improvement of the environment by industry as well as enabled hundreds of engineers and meteorologists to develop successful careers as managers. Enika launched publications - a magazine and a book publishing company - that helped define the paralegal field.
Our Vision
Richard's value system was shaped by the Presbyterian Church. The people who are part of this church have been a great aid many times. The foundation will thus support the church and the education of teaching elders.
Our Primary goal is to help others help themselves. Since education was a primary ingredient of our success, we will support educational activities.
Life is enriched by culture in the classical sense. Thus donations will also be channeled to support arts organizations.
On a selected basis, we will support organizations that encourage people to make positive changes in their lives by becoming better disciplined and goal-oriented.
Although there are many opportunities to support medical causes, the modest amounts that we can contribute may not be appropriate to make a decided difference in this area.
Our Major Focus
Since both Richard and Enika were entrepreneurs, we understand the ideas and principles of starting new ventures. We are particularly receptive to grant requests the offer the promise of growing a non-profit. For Example, we funded the hiring of a development director for an ESL non-profit. We are funding the Campaign staff of an arts organization that seeks the raise $30 million over 5 years. We offered matching grants to allow two non-profits to leverage their existing fund-raising to acquire new office space and build a building, respectively. we are not interested in "sprinkling money around." We want our gifts to be significant to the receiving organization by enabling them to do something that they were not able to do previously.
We don't wish to become too important to any one organization. We will assess grants to avoid becoming a lead donor to a non-profit, except for fledgling non-profits. We are also inclined to support those people or organizations that have shown some ability to encourage those they serve to advance beyond sustenance levels. for example, we are less inclined to support homeless shelters and more willing to support organizations that aspire to significantly improve the lives of those showing initiative, especially through education.
Since the foundation has assets similar to an endowment, we would prefer that our gifts be "consumable" rather than add to an existing charity's endowment. One of the pleasures we receive is the knowledge that our gifts are being wisely spent on discrete projects.