Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
Welcome to the Clear Impact Podcast, brought to you by Mitre Brands University. Thanks for joining us today. My name is Sheri Conner and I am your host.
[00:00:19] Speaker B: Our giving has not gone down every single year. We are breaking records for the amount of money that people are investing into the Mitre foundation that we are also then able to put out into the communities.
But they trust us with that. You know, it would be easy for them to say, you know what, it's a hard year, we're not going to give this year if it were just a box check, but they're entrusting us to one be good stewards with that money. Back to the whole, why would I give to the Mitre Foundation? A lot of times people don't know where to give.
[00:00:49] Speaker A: Good morning. We are here on the Clear Impact Podcast and I am chatting over the phone today with Amanda Klinger from the Mitre Foundation.
Welcome.
[00:00:59] Speaker B: Thank you so much for having me.
[00:01:01] Speaker A: Yeah, so we have a foundation, but Mitre Brands absorbs the cost of all of the admin work. So your check doesn't come from the foundation, your check comes from Mitre Brands. But your sole responsibility is the foundation, right?
[00:01:16] Speaker B: Yes, absolutely. And that's one thing we're really proud of. And you know, when you hear other organizations talk about, you know, 97 cents of every dollar goes towards the causes they support, one dollar of one dollar goes to the causes that we support. Because again, my salary, when we're hosting events and things like that, none of those expenses come out of donations people make. Miter Brands pays all of those. So we're really thankful for the company to be that invested in giving back.
[00:01:47] Speaker A: Yeah, that's amazing.
So before we get into some of the details about the foundation, because that's really what we want to talk about today, I want to know, so tell us a little bit about your background, maybe your history.
How did you land in just doing foundation work and give us some background on all that.
[00:02:05] Speaker B: Sure, absolutely. So I have been with Mitre Brands for the last 13 years and I have held a number of different roles within the company.
So with the Mitre Foundation, I started to get involved in 2020, and it was actually Gwen had given my name as a potential to think through because of course 2020 was Covid times and we hosted a big event that was our main fundraiser. Still is our main fundraiser. But of course you couldn't have a party, you couldn't get together. So the task was, okay, so we can't get together, but we need to raise money because we want to still support the organizations that we have been supporting. So what can we do to raise money? It was no small feat. I'm grateful my name was given because truly, it has changed my life and the path that I had been on career wise. But yeah, coming up with that plan and having it be digital and, you know, doing some golf where you could segregate and kind of keep your distance from people, but that was really how I got involved. And over the years getting more and more involved after that. I was the lead on the golf outing each year, but getting more and more involved that it was about 50% of my time I was spending doing my financial analyst position at the time, and 50% doing foundation work. So we all knew that that wasn't an ideal situation for anyone. And that's. Yeah, that's when we kind of approached the subject of a full time foundation person.
And I expressed my interest in having that role. So going through the interviewing process and everything, I was lucky enough to land that. And that officially started January of 2025.
[00:03:48] Speaker A: Okay.
Well, it's amazing and I'm just ever so impressed with how the foundation is organized. I've recently become part of the Venice Outreach Committee just in the last couple of months and we actually have a meeting later today. And so I'm learning more about how it all functions, but it's really a well oiled machine. You guys have really thought through all of the different things that can happen when you're raising money, harnessing volunteer hours and then distributing money. Right. And the due diligence behind all of it is just amazing. And so kudos to the company and to you and for all those that are involved.
So I wanted just to ask you a few questions about this because there are people that might not even know we have a foundation and might not understand all the different things that go into that.
So there are four key areas that we focus on. And so I'd love for you to just touch on what those are. And then how did we arrive at those four areas?
[00:04:45] Speaker B: Sure. So we have community outreach, we have HERO support, Children's well being and cancer support.
So just by the titles alone, there are a lot of different causes that fit within those four pillars. So it definitely is broad support. Some organizations will only support veterans or, you know, only different things. So we are really open to pretty much anyone coming to us with requests, you know, to consider supporting them.
How we arrived at those four areas, I can't really speak to the origin because I wasn't involved back in 2015. When the foundation began.
But for example, hero support, that's going to cover our veterans, that's going to cover active military, ems, firefighters, and we're really, really proud to support our heroes that are just keeping us safe every single day. So that is that category. Children's well being. Most of us have kids and Mitre Brands is such a family first organization company that that's kind of a no brainer. We want to take care of the youth regardless of what they're going through. If it's food insecurities or they're battling cancer or something like that. Cancer support again is a little more widespread. That could be children, that could be really anyone that's going through that battle. We are hard pressed to find somebody who has not been affected by cancer in some way. And then I community outreach for the last, because this can encompass a whole lot. I'm so proud of this one because for me it's more than just giving a donation to a cause for them to go and do the good works. This is getting the money right from the Mitre foundation to potentially the neighbor down the street who lost their home in a fire. And that's directly going to them to support them right now when their greatest need is. So I love our community outreach portion of the pillar structure.
[00:06:45] Speaker A: That's amazing.
And so how many different outreaches do we have?
[00:06:49] Speaker B: We did change some things around. We had a number of acquisitions and the goal is to have a different outreach committee at every single plant. So when we first started, we had some committees that were very, very close together geographically that we've condensed just because it made better sense for volunteerism and giving and all of those things. So currently we are at 15. We are actively creating our 16, and I want to say we have two or three more that we want to set up throughout the country to make sure that everyone's covered. They're the experts. I don't know what's going on in Southern California. So Temecula, California, the committee there, they're the experts on what the need is in that local community.
And those outreach committees have their own budget, they're getting together, they're voting on different things that they want to support and really managing that committee as their own little mini foundation. So we're really proud of the work that they do.
[00:07:44] Speaker A: Oh, that's awesome.
So I wanted to go back and touch on the foundation beginnings. I know you mentioned you didn't necessarily know how the four pillars arrived, but do you know much about the history of the foundation, like how it Came to be.
[00:07:58] Speaker B: Yeah. So MI Windows and Doors, they've always been philanthropic. We talked about, you know, 2020. I was brought into this really large golf outing. But this year is the 28th year of this golf outing. It's changed throughout the years, but clearly doing the math, the foundation was started in 2015.
That event and the G started happening well before that. But the company had a desire to do more, and they formalized the giving by creating the foundation in 2015.
So when they did that, it was one committee in Pennsylvania, where we're headquartered. And I think there was 10 members in that committee. And now it's grown to those 15 overall committees and counting, with hundreds of committee members nationwide.
[00:08:43] Speaker A: Wow, that's amazing. So that's easy math for me, because my youngest daughter was born in 1998, and she is 28. So in 1990 is when the golf tournament started.
[00:08:52] Speaker B: Yes. And I think back then, I mean, it was a couple of people, you know, everything, of course, takes time to grow. I wanna say Habitat for Humanity was the benefactor of all the money that was raised. We did a video for our 25th anniversary where we interviewed the gentleman who actually started the different fundraising events. And it was really special to have him on video. We invited him to the event that year to share just how we've progressed over the year. From you making $10,000, I think it was year one, to raising multi million dollars today.
[00:09:28] Speaker A: Yeah, I know. It's so impressive. I mean, everything about it is impressive. But one of the things that I'm super impressed with is the 40 hours of volunteer time off. And this is granted to all team members, right?
[00:09:42] Speaker B: It is, absolutely. And it's unheard of. When it first came out, I'm like, wait, what are they giving us? You just don't hear about corporations giving that time to their team members.
[00:09:56] Speaker A: We are sharing our expertise around all topics relating to the window and door industry. Whether you are a customer selling our products or a homeowner doing research, the Clear Impact podcast provides helpful content that makes an impact. Subscribe today wherever you listen to podcasts.
Yeah, and so basically how that works, if people are not familiar with volunteer time off, is that we can go serve for a nonprofit all day and not have to use a PTO day and not have to go unpaid. And a lot of our team members are hourly employees. And so if they have the option to go work for free or go work for money, they're probably going to go work for money.
And this kind of eliminates that hardship from them feeling like, oh, I really want to go help that. I really want to go be involved in that cause, But I also can't miss a day of work, and I can't really take a PTO day.
So, I mean, that's just amazing.
[00:10:54] Speaker B: Yeah, it's really tough to find the time. We all have again, jobs, families, commitments. And I think a lot of people do want to give back and maybe don't know how to get involved or to find the time. So it is really, really special that we're giving those 40 hours. And we did some math here.
In 2025, I wrote this down so I'd get the number right. So in 2025, our team members logged over 7,800 VTO hours.
So. And again, we can do some math there. 7800 hours is substantial in a given year, but it's also a drop in the bucket when you consider we have thousands of team members.
So we have this. I would love to raise more awareness about the program. And there's no strings attached. You know, you find something that you're passionate about, and, I mean, you need your manager's approval to get time off of work, but you can use those VTO hours and you can volunteer with a cause that you're passionate about. So I think there is still a little bit of a disconnect where it sounds too good to be true or people don't really understand the program. But my goodness, I would love for every single team member to get out there. And it doesn't have to be volunteering with a MITRE foundation. Maybe there is something we're doing that you can use your VTO to volunteer with our foundation, but it could be anything if you're passionate about your local food bank or. Or, you know, maybe your kid is involved in something that you want to go and participate in as well, and you normally wouldn't be able to because it's done during the day. I mean, these are all things that you could request to use that VTO time.
[00:12:29] Speaker A: Yeah, it's amazing. I think before we were acquired, PGT offered eight hours of VTO a year, which I was like, wow, that's awesome. So I'm like, 40. I get 40 hours this year. That's amazing.
So I have to figure out how I'm going to spend that, because I do have some opportunities coming up. Do you think we do the 40 hours? Like, how does this benefit our company? By giving people a chance to go serve in nonprofits?
[00:12:54] Speaker B: You know, I think the biggest benefit is we're fostering an Environment where we're putting good out into the world. You watch the news. Some days there's not too much good going on. But we know people still care and getting involved to give back to those that are less fortunate or just need a hand up. It's good business. The foundation isn't a box to check. We truly care about others. We want to help however we can, including helping our fellow team members when they need a hand up. And I get asked the question all the time. So Mitre foundation is a private foundation. We do a lot of grant writing where we're giving funds to, let's say, the Ronald McDonald House or maybe a hospital foundation or things like that. And I get questions that people are curious, well, why would I give the Mitre foundation money? Why wouldn't I just donate to Ronald McDonald House or a cause that I want to support?
And, you know, the answer is, you don't have to give to the Mitre Foundation. If you're passionate about something, just be a good steward on this earth, you know, go out and do something, get involved, and it doesn't have to be through us. And people kind of look at me sideways like, you're the program manager. Aren't you supposed to be, you know, raising funds and getting volunteers and all of that? And yes, but we are here to do good, not just to collect all this. So we can say, oh, the Mitre foundation raised this or gave this or did this. It is just about doing good. So ultimately, that's what we're trying to raise awareness and just, again, foster that environment where we're all giving back and doing good.
[00:14:29] Speaker A: I love that. And so you mentioned earlier that this role has changed your life. Can you talk more about that?
[00:14:35] Speaker B: Sure. I mean, I was always into finances, spreadsheets, all of those types of things. And of course, you know, you try to plan out your career path. And I've worked for a couple of different companies and doing different things, but that was pretty much a constant. That financial aspect was something that I thought I would be doing for the rest of my life. Never in a million years did I think that managing a program, a charitable program, would be in my future. But going through leading the golf outing and then getting involved in other charitable, you know, directions with the foundation, it is so meaningful to me. Like, it fills my soul. It is so much more than I go to a job and I do it and I get paid. I just feel like this is kind of what I was meant to do with my life, to give back, and I get paid for it, too. So I do come to work and I do make a living by doing this, but it is so fulfilling. Just the joy I get out of what I do every single day. I am truly blessed and I'm so thankful for the company. I get emotional when I talk about it. I'm so grateful to work for a company that honestly cares. And again, to say it again, it is not a box to check they care.
And being able to do this every day, it's just a true blessing.
[00:15:49] Speaker A: That's amazing. I love that. I've spent a number of years in the nonprofit world myself, and so I totally understand that. And it is different when you come to work for a company, but then you see this side of it and you're like, oh, this isn't just like, you don't have to work for a nonprofit in order to do good and put good out into the world. You can work for a company that aligns with that mission and that mindset and. And that gives you opportunities to serve and give. So, yeah, that's amazing. I love that.
[00:16:20] Speaker B: Absolutely. And one more thing along those lines, too. Talking about getting involved wherever you can, but for the people, and we have a ton of donors that believe in us, but for those donors, it's hard times, especially in the window industry right now. And a lot of our donors are customers or suppliers or team members, leadership, et cetera. Our giving has not gone down every single year. We are breaking records for the amount of money that people are investing into the Mitre foundation that we are also then able to put out into the communities. But they trust us with that. You know, it would be easy for them to say, you know, what is a hard year? We're not going to give this year if it were just a boxed check. But they're entrusting us to one be good stewards with that money. Back to the whole, why would I give to the Mitre Foundation? A lot of times people don't know where to give. You know, they want to help. But can I trust this cause? What's the full story with this organization and just not knowing. They don't do anything because they don't know what to do. We are vetting all these causes. You know, we are looking into their charity ratings and things to make sure that they are legit and it is someone that we want to get behind.
So with them trusting us to do that, investing their money in us, knowing that that's going to go to a deserving cause, again, it's just really, really special. And I'm humbled by the generosity out there and that they do trust us to do right by, you know, the funds that they're giving.
[00:17:45] Speaker A: Yeah, it's amazing. So if people are not familiar with the MITRE foundation, how do they find out more about helping or donating or being involved? There's a website, right?
[00:17:55] Speaker B: Yes, absolutely. So we do have a dedicated website. So that is mitrefoundation.org so that will have a ton of information about what we have going on. And I was just on a call. You know, we're constantly talking through how do we keep it fresh and how do we put content in there that people want to read about and want to know and how to get involved and all those different things. So MITRE foundation is a great resource to go to the website. And again, hopefully there'll be even more in the future that is a little more interactive. Also, reach out to your local outreach committee to find ways to get involved. Maybe it's joining their local committee or just finding out ways that you can volunteer. We do have a foundation email as well, and you can get there through the website, but it's foundationiterbrands.com so maybe you don't know who is on your local outreach committee or you have a broader question, and we'd be happy to answer any questions people might have. So that's another resource.
[00:18:50] Speaker A: Yeah. And if you're a customer, you can talk to your local rep and say, what's going on with the foundation? And I know last year at the golf tournament, I had the opportunity to be there and got to meet a lot of customers and a lot of reps. And that's an invitation only kind of an event because obviously there's a limit to how many people can come. But if you're interested and you want to know more, talk to your rep and see where that leads.
[00:19:14] Speaker B: Absolutely agree. And Talking about those 15 outreach committees, we do have a sales outreach committee that they're processing more of those requests if a customer would bring something to us on, something for us to support, or again, if they want to see what volunteer opportunities we have.
[00:19:30] Speaker A: Yeah. So I know we didn't spend a lot of time prepping on this one. Kind of threw it at you last minute. But of the MITRE DNA statements, which one is your favorite today?
[00:19:41] Speaker B: I would have to say this statement, and I'll read it verbatim here, and I'm not doing this from memory, I'll be honest. But. But we focus on opportunities, not obstacles, because the only barriers that exist are the ones we choose to create.
The word opportunity is so special. And our founders have kind of drilled this into everyone is there are a ton of opportunities that are out there. It's up to you if you're going to take the opportunity. And I think from a foundation standpoint, this is also important. You know, when we are helping people, we're putting out kind of a bridge, a path to say, say, hey, let me help you give a hand up. It's up to them to take that opportunity and to make the most out of it. So I focus on opportunities. Often I kind of obsess over them. You know, when something comes in front of you, it's like, wait, is this a life altering opportunity? We talked a little bit about me joining the foundation full time and that changing my life. That was absolutely a massive opportunity that was put in front of me that I chose to take. And it's life changing. So I would put that out to everyone. To pay attention when those opportunities come past you on when to grab them again could make a complete difference in your life.
[00:20:57] Speaker A: Yeah, well, and I mean the same for me, right? Like, the podcast was not something I had done before coming here. And I kind of went into this kicking and screaming. I was like, I like talking to people, but I don't know anything about recording or audio stuff or like, can we hire somebody to just to take care of all that? And my boss was like, nope, you're gonna figure it out. And you know what? I finally did, I watched a lot of YouTube videos and figured out how to manage a soundboard and how to edit recordings. And now that's primarily what I'm doing.
And I love it. It's one of my favorite things to do.
And it's been an amazing way for the company to spread their message a little further and to have engagement with, with all different people throughout the entire company and then customers and vendors and, you know, lots of different voices that have been here. So, yeah, I think that one's a good one. I love that one too.
[00:21:53] Speaker B: Yeah, it's good.
[00:21:54] Speaker A: Yeah. So is there anything else we need to know? Are we good?
[00:21:57] Speaker B: I think we're good. Yeah. Just we're going to keep focusing on raising awareness for the foundation and, you know, all the parts of that, you know, how people can reach out for help if they need it, how they can offer help if they have it to give. So really just educating our team, the community, et cetera, on ways to grow the foundation and just continue doing good.
[00:22:17] Speaker A: I love that. Well, Amanda, you're definitely the right person for the spot that you're in. And you're a professional juggler in my opinion, cause you always have a thousand things going on. But I do appreciate your time. Thank you for chatting with me today about the foundation and giving us some insight. And I know I'll see you sometime this fall. Maybe I'll see you this summer, who knows.
[00:22:38] Speaker B: Absolutely. And thank you so much for having me today to educate more on the foundation.
[00:22:42] Speaker A: Awesome. Thanks.
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