Elks National Foundation Blog

by Meaghan Morris Lodge Grants Programs Coordinator On August 2, CIPsters (or CIPerstars, depending on who you’re asking) Doug, Katie, and I headed out to Elgin, Ill., Lodge No. 737 to aid in their Step It Up project, a program run with the help of Beacon and Promise grants. This program was designed to provide children in need with brand-new sneakers before they head back to school, as shoes can be on the backburner when families in need are faced with allocating resources toward school supplies and books for the new year. As someone who owns a whopping total of eight pairs of shoes—which is a generous estimation, mind you—I imagined this project to be impactful in their community with a couple hundred shoes maximum. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine the sheer magnitude of the almost 2,000 pairs of shoes the Elks provided. They had high tops, and they had slip-ons. They had light-up and sequined sneakers of all different colors and designs. They had hundreds of shoe

by Doug Wise Lodge Grants Programs Coordinator My name is Doug Wise, and I am the newest Programs Coordinator to join the Community Investments Program office. I graduated from the University of Wisconsin – Madison in December 2012 with a degree in History and moved to Chicago in the summer of 2016. I have spent the last few years working in restaurant management and am very excited for the change of pace in my new position. The opportunity to work for an organization that seeks to enable people to achieve philanthropic endeavors is one that I was delighted to take. The first few weeks working at the ENF have felt like taking a condensed course in Elks Studies. I have learned about the Community Investments Program, scholarships, Hoop Shoot, Communications, and Grand Lodge history. As a part of the Community Investments Program, I have become familiar with each type of grant that we offer and the ways that Lodges are putting them to work. My fellow newcomer Katie Graves and I are

by Katie Graves Lodge Grants Programs Coordinator Hello! My name is Katie Graves, and I am excited to be one of the new Programs Coordinators in the Community Investments Program office. I graduated from Valparaiso University with a degree in English and Secondary Education with a minor in Social Work in December 2018. I spent the next six months building and growing my small online vintage clothing business, working retail at a Swedish furniture store (any guesses?), and searching for a purposeful job that I could fall in love with that would also allow me to move from southeastern Wisconsin to Chicago. When I landed the Programs Coordinator position at the Elks National Foundation, I was ecstatic to begin this journey both professionally and personally. I was moving to my dream city, and I was going to be doing a job with purpose focused on helping passionate groups of wonderful Elks do good in their communities with CIP grants. I became a part of the ENF family at an excitin