/ SIGMA CHI FOUNDATION / supporters of Sigma Chi, n 2019, the Sigma Chi Foundation reached new heights: a Greek-letter pilot phase starting in 2021. This is another positive step among many for Sigma foundation record in grant and leadership support for our young brothers Chi as it remains the standard-bearer among Greek-letter organizations – all and an organizational record in academic scholarships awarded. made possible by the direct support of our donors over the last decade. I In late February, however, the world as we know it changed. As our lives return to normal and our brothers continue their pursuit of Each facet of Sigma Chi was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. excellence on campuses across North America, your contributions to Sigma Chi Undergraduate chapters closed as campuses shuttered, and, due to the dangers have never been more important. of the coronavirus and travel, the Fraternity and Sigma Chi Leadership Institute My fellow board members and our Foundation team are committed to raising (SCLI) were forced to make tough choices, including the cancelation of the the funds necessary to further expand the reach of the leadership development 2020 Horizons Huntsman Leadership Summit and conversion of our largest- and training efforts provided by SCLI, as well as enhance our support of funded leadership event, the Krach Transformational Leaders Workshop, to an academic scholarships. Our work in providing these much-needed resources for exclusively virtual format. our members is perhaps more important today than it was in February before our Our Foundation development team was largely sidelined for three months, world changed because of COVID-19. and members of our Headquarters staff in Evanston, Illinois, were moved into With your support, we will send a message to our undergraduate brothers remote roles. Yet, through everything, Sigma Chi and your Sigma Chi Foundation that we are committed to their future and the success of Sigma Chi. persevered and moved forward. As you’ll see in this report, despite the interruption to a typically strong For the good, spring quarter, we met each of our commitments to the organization for the 2019 to 2020 fiscal year. And, while not as grand as our record 2019 fundraising effort, our team closed the fiscal year effectively, maintaining an equally strong outlook for the present fiscal year. This fall, we awarded $3.92 million in scholarships and grants to Sigma Significant Sig John Forst, GEORGE WASHINGTON 1984 Chi and the Sigma Chi Leadership Institute. Our brothers have received close Chairman, Sigma Chi Foundation Board of Governors to $350,000 in academic awards and are guaranteed the support of Regional Chapter Support Coordinators as well as world-class educational programming Forst is a retired partner and deputy general counsel at Lord Abbett. Previously, he courtesy of the Sigma Chi Leadership Institute. served as managing director and chief counsel for a large international investment firm, In its own report, you read of the Sigma Chi Leadership Institute achieving practiced law in Washington, D.C., in private practice and worked for the U.S. Securities authorization from the Illinois Board of Higher Education for its first certified and Exchange Commission. leadership program. This program will be made available to our members in a expect more / THE MAGAZINE OF SIGMA CHI 75 President & CEO Report ooking back at our 2019 to 2020 fiscal year — a year unlike any other in the our brothers with certified values-based leadership curriculum — a game- history of our organization — the generosity shown by our alumni and friends, changing first in the Greek-letter world. particularly during the a global pandemic, cannot be overstated • We remain on track, in spite of the pandemic, to further growth of program LIn a difficult time, when it is not easy to advance our brotherhood, serve grants, academic scholarships and undergraduate chapter support over the our young men and fully address all of the challenges surrounding us personally next decade. and professionally, I am inspired by your dedication and commitment, by the • We are also well on our way to being on par with the fiscal performance chapter leaders who are determined to be part of the solution, by the thinkers and efficiency of great universities, and we are setting the pace in our who are reimagining what it means to be a Fraternity, and by the generosity of Greek-letter world. the thousands of brothers who contribute to put the wind in our collective sails. Thank you for expecting more. LEADER IN THE GREEK-LETTER WORLD As our new chairman, Significant Sig John Forst, GEORGE WASHINGTON 1984, Over the past 10 years, your Foundation has provided $29.9 million in support of noted, we were able to meet growing funding commitments in scholarships and Sigma Chi programs and academic scholarships — and this does not include the leadership programming and expand the reach of our training efforts across over $18 million of support simultaneously provided for chapter-specific projects. Sigma Chi. While the present fiscal year will see a slight reduction in grant support, When the impact of COVID-19 across our Sigma Chi undergraduate chapters largely related to the reduction of expenses for programs such as the Horizons became widely known, we were immediately called to action by the stories Huntsman Leadership Summit that were unable to operate due to COVID-19 of those brothers who were directly affected by the pandemic. Some of these restrictions, we continue to outpace our Greek-letter colleagues. young men were displaced from their campus residences, lost employment, Our fiscal year scorecard on page 78 will further show that our performance were forced to leave abroad programs or returned home to find families facing metrics, such as the cost of raising a dollar and percentage of our gifts going unforeseen hardships. Thanks to you our Brothers Helping Brothers fund provided directly to our mission, remain the industry standard. critical and timely assistance when it was most needed. Our Foundation beats the average of our Greek-letter peers in every category, On behalf of those brothers whose stories you’ll see later in this report, we are materially better than the thresholds established by charity watchdog thank you for supporting this cause. groups like Charity Navigator and the Better Business Bureau, and we are close to We recently completed the fourth year of our joint Foundation and Fraternity matching the performance of great universities in terms of efficiency. strategic plan, and the results are clear: Furthermore, the great work of our Board of Governors and Foundation staff, • We continue to deliver more significant value to our chapters and along with your support, have maintained the Sigma Chi Foundation’s place as undergraduates than any other Greek-letter foundation. the top Greek-letter fraternity foundation. • The Sigma Chi Leadership Institute (SCLI), funded by decades of continuous According to the 2020 Pennington and Company Fraternity and Sorority donor support, received Illinois state licensure and will begin providing Report (FY 18-19 IRS Form 990) your Sigma Chi Foundation: 76 THE MAGAZINE OF SIGMA CHI / winter 2020 to 2021 • Was best in the Greek-letter world in every identifiable category, including Foundation Board net assets, contributions, revenue, program services (grants and academic of Governors scholarships) and expenses out of 89 groups. • Contributed more toward leadership programming, general grants and academic CHAIRMAN Significant Sig John Forst, GEORGE WASHINGTON 1984 scholarship support than any Greek-letter organization. VICE CHAIRMAN Significant Sig Jeff Gill, SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 1978 • Raised 10 percent of what the entire industry raised — 8.5 times the Greek- TREASURER Significant Sig Kim Caldwell, OREGON 1969 letter average — and granted 9 percent of what the entire industry granted to PARLIAMENTARIAN Past Grand Consul, Order of Constantine Sig and our Sigma Chi members. Significant Sig Robert Joseph, WILLAMETTE 1967 THE YEAR AHEAD Order of Constantine Sig Mark Anderson, ILLINOIS 1977 As our nation and the world recover from this pandemic, we have made changes to our Order of Constantine Sig Loren Butler, IDAHO 1963 operations to get us through the pandemic and position Sigma Chi for continued success. Significant Sig and Past Foundation Chairman Joe Durzo, SYRACUSE 1967 Operating expenses have been reduced by 28 percent in this difficult year. Over Significant Sig Randy Coppersmith, SOUTH FLORIDA 1979 the past five years our non-grant expense — the cost of everything we do other Significant Sig Steve Goodroe, GEORGIA 1971 than giving money away — has actually decreased by 16 percent while we’ve given Past Grand Consul, Order of Constantine Sig and Significant Sig Michael Greenberg, ILLINOIS WESLEYAN 1982 away 64 percent more on an annual basis. Order of Constantine Sig, Significant Sig and Past Foundation With the continued success of our online programming through SCLI (more than Chairman Robert Johnson, MIAMI (OHIO) 1969 24,000 registered Sigma Chi users) and the launch of Sigma Chi’s first certified academic- Significant Sig Hon. John Koskinen, DUKE 1961 licensed programs, we expect to see positive behavior metrics such as fewer instances of Order of Constantine Sig and Significant Sig Joe Martin, substance abuse, hazing, behavioral and sexual misconduct. Meanwhile, we also expect HOUSTON 1976 to see brothers becoming more involved on campus and increasing their contributions to Order of Constantine Sig and Significant Sig Jeff Muir, GEORIGA 1971 philanthropic efforts. Significant Sig John Pasquantino, NEVADA-LAS VEGAS 1984 We are all looking forward and working to make tomorrow’s Sigma Chi even Order of Constantine Sig, Significant Sig and Past Foundation better. And I hope that you will continue to join us on our quest to build better men Chairman John Peterson, INDIANA 1955 who are prepared to succeed in college and throughout their lives.