Haas Foundation | Using small gifts to make big difference for students

A second pair of shoes for two brothers who took turns wearing their one pair to school. A root canal for an A-student in such pain that she got her first D. A stipend for students who were failing woodshop because they didn't have $3.80 to buy the required piece of wood.

The trend in philanthropy these days is to make "strategic" gifts aimed at changing "systems."

For the last 44 years, the low-profile Saul & Dayee G. Haas Foundation has followed a more old-fashioned strategy of giving directly to individuals.

Close to 700 middle, junior-high and high schools get Haas grants each year to do whatever is needed to help students stay involved in school and school activities. The money has gone for sports-participation fees, caps and gowns, uniforms and sometimes a haircut. It has paid for basics like clothing, coats, food -- even a blanket for a student who lived in a house without heat one winter.

For Delena Martin Neves, the foundation provided $40 for a choir uniform that her foster parents couldn't afford when Neves was at Rogers High in Spokane in the late 1990s. That small gift helped her pursue a talent for music and, just as important, feel normal.

"With all the drama that being a foster kid in high school has, feeling normal is a high-stakes issue," she said. "Many teens engage in risky behavior to fit in. I got to engage in my talent to fit in."

Saul Haas, a founder of KIRO-TV, and his wife, Dayee, started the foundation when their daughter was a student at Seattle's Garfield High.

Saul and Dayee G. Haas Foundation

Assets: $9 million

Disbursements: $365,000 in 2005-06 school year

Beneficiaries: Nearly 14,000 students at 680 middle, junior-high and

high schools

www.haasfoundation.org

At back-to-school night, Saul Haas asked then-Principal Frank Hanawalt what he could do to help. Hanawalt told him about a student who just that day had dropped out because she was embarrassed about her clothes and wanted to work to help her mother provide better ones for her siblings.

The Haases first set up a trust, then established the foundation, which has provided more than $10 million in gifts, mostly in small amounts.

Each school gets anywhere from $200 to $5,500 a year, based on need. If the school raises money on its own, the foundation, largely run by volunteers, will work to match some of that, too.

Haas and his wife didn't want students to know where the money came from. They wanted counselors and principals to be able to respond quickly and quietly to issues students face without having to reach into their own pockets.

Until recently, the foundation was so low-key that some school principals didn't know who provided the funds, either. Now it's seeking new partners so it can expand to every secondary school in the state that wants its help.

-- Linda Shaw