A nonprofit launched by entrepreneurs, with the well-being of America’s children in mind, is focusing on improving school safety and implementing emerging building evacuation systems, reducing drug(s) usage and bullying in schools nationwide.
Speaking to The Epoch Times at Liberty University’s CEO Summit in Kentucky on Oct. 12, SAFA co-founder Bobby Clark said: “We have a crisis in this country. Kids go to school today, their parents are afraid that they won’t come home, and kids are afraid to go to school.
“We’re in the process of raising $15 million over the next year or two,” he said, “and $10 million of that is going to be focused on a school grant safety program so that we can help those poor school districts get access to technology and resources that are out there that make their schools safer.”
Mr. Clark, who has a bachelor’s in business administration and a master’s in public administration from the University of Kentucky, has faith that the mission will yield a lot of support. He said: “[W]ho doesn’t want to get their kids home safe?”
SAFA has already partnered with drug crisis charity Victoria’s Voice Foundation, based out of Orlando, Florida, and the owners of Westgate Resorts, David and Jackie Siegel, who lost a daughter at the age of 18 to a fentanyl overdose.
“It’s just heartbreaking to see these people dying every day, and we need to get with parents, we need to get with kids and find mentors and others that can change their perspective on life so that they can live a good, healthy life,” Mr. Clark said.
The initiative is also partnering with a team of celebrity ambassadors, or “Superstars for School Safety,” and already has the support of entrepreneur and former “Shark Tank” investor, Kevin Harrington.
Toward its goal, SAFA has established a partnership with the Institute for Philanthropic Excellence (IPE), a team of experts in (entrepreneurship) and fundraising who share the common interest of helping small nonprofits establish a lasting legacy. IPE’s founder and president, Marvin R. LeRoy Jr., also spoke to The Epoch Times at Liberty University’s CEO Summit.
“The institute was created back in 2015 to really help a niche market of smaller to middle-sized nonprofits,” Mr. LeRoy Jr. said.
Mr. LeRoy Jr. said the IPE has helped over 100 organizations from coast to coast across the “entire spectrum of nonprofits,” from art and culture to health, to higher education, to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and the YMCA.
Mr. LeRoy Jr. was a presidential management intern during the Reagan administration but was “sidetracked” into nonprofits and has never looked back. The “genesis of the Institute” was the moment he realized he was writing the same fundraising case statement over and over again for colleges, and decided to focus efforts on one initiative dedicated to helping all smaller nonprofits across the spectrum of organizations get the leg-up they need to succeed.
The team at IPE, now totaling more than 40 associates based in twenty-one states was even able to use their expertise to lead nonprofits through the drought of the pandemic, by teaching them and mentoring “how to do fundraising differently” through online networking and creating new ways of being present in the moment.
“I think, by last count, we’re at about 1.8 million nonprofits [in the United States], and 90 percent of them have budgets of less than a half million dollars a year. So most of them are small, which is really our niche,” Mr. LeRoy Jr. said. “I fall in love with every project we do, and I’m the luckiest guy in the world. ... I’m blessed with what we’ve been able to put together and make happen.”
Mr. Clark has had a brain for business since college. As vice president of the student body at the University of Kentucky, he started a company offering work experience to students.
“We cleaned out apartments for landlords, we mowed grass, we did all kinds of different things, and that got me hooked on entrepreneurship,” he told The Epoch Times.
Mr. Clark is also co-founder of the nonprofit Kentucky Entrepreneur Hall of Fame, launched in 2010 after meeting a group of like-minded entrepreneurs who wanted to recognize and memorialize men and women who have “brought great jobs to the Commonwealth of Kentucky.” He’s also the founder of Sustainable Business Ventures, a company created to help hard-to-employ individuals create their own jobs through self-employment, including low-income youth and people in prison.
“We trained 29 inmates at Southeastern Correctional Institution in Ohio, and 19 of them graduated from our program,” Mr. Clark said. “[I]t was just a warming of my heart to be able to make a difference in these lives.”
Now united by a new mission, Safer America for All, Mr. Clark and Mr. LeRoy Jr. have another commonality in their lives, faith that bolsters their desire and capacity for helping others.
Mr. LeRoy Jr. grew up Protestant, went to Siena College in upstate New York, married into a Catholic family, has twin sons who have inherited his entrepreneurial spirit, and describes himself as “a pretty strong Christian man of faith.” Whilst Mr. Clark grew up Baptist, married into a Catholic family, and has a daughter.
“Faith has been a part of my life and everything that I do,” Mr. Clark said. “All my life, all my career, has been focused on helping others ... and now, with Safer America for All, we can help save lives. It warms my heart to do that.”
