Driving Change: How Donating Cars and Real Estate Fuels Charitable Impact and Supports Seniors | Howard Pearl from CARS Ep 92

“There’s 10,000 Americans turning 65 in this country every day, but there’s no real federally-based infrastructure to deal with dignity in aging,” says Howard Pearl, CEO of Charitable Adult Rides & Services (CARS). His organization is stepping up to meet this challenge, offering innovative transportation solutions for seniors and facilitating charitable donations in a way that maximizes their impact across various nonprofit sectors.

 In this episode, Howard speaks to host Jamie Truman about the organization’s unique mission, their process for partnering with nonprofits across the nation, and how their management of car and real estate donations have benefitted both communities and donors. He highlights CARS’ impressive achievements, including serving over 8,400 nonprofits and returning nearly $90 million to the community.

 Howard also discusses their evolving On The Go program, a national transportation system for older Americans which provides rides to attend social events and beyond. This innovative program not only enhances social engagement, but improves overall health and well-being.

 Tune in to find out how one donation can have such a powerful impact in the lives of so many!

 To learn more about how you can get involved, email Howard Pearl directly at howardp@careasy.org.

 Get more information on the On The Go program on their website! https://otgrides.org/home

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Email: info@trumancharities.com

This episode was post produced by Podcast Boutique https://podcastboutique.com/

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to the Truman Charities podcast. I am Demi Truman, your host. Have you ever considered donating your car to charity? Have you thought about it but did not understand the process or know what organization you'd even be helping? Or have you considered donating real estate but didn't understand the benefits of it?

Speaker 1: 0:20

I had the pleasure of speaking with the CEO of Charitable Adult Rides, also known as Cars Howard Pearl. Howard talks about how beneficial it is to donate your car or real estate to charity, how you can choose the organization that resonates best with you. Also their new program On the Go, where they help seniors get to their social events. Did you know that most seniors only qualify for transportation services to doctor's appointments, but not any social events? As someone who's personally worked with seniors rate out of college for years, and I understand how important it is for their overall health to stay connected, howard and his team are doing some amazing work within the community and I really hope that you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. Howard, thanks so much for coming on to talk with us today.

Speaker 2: 1:12

My pleasure. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1: 1:14

I want to talk a lot about your organization, which is a charitable adult rides as known as Cars, and it's amazing that I was reading that you completed over 400,000 rides. But before we get into your amazing organization, I want to know a little bit about you. So, Howard, why did you decide to become CEO?

Speaker 2: 1:32

What an interesting question. Initially I didn't decide to do this. I was doing something else, and a recruiter that I owed a favor to, who had done some other things for me, said I'd like you to interview for this particular position. I'd been overseas, working in China, for a number of years. I came back and just started working with another technology company as their chief operating officer, with an individual that I'd already been in business with at one point. We'd had a public exit together and I got a call and I said well, tell me about it. And it was something that I just wasn't interested in. The way it was described to me was well, it's this car thing, and I'm not exactly sure what it is, but people donate them and I'm going okay, yeah, you know I have a history in the automotive industry. What does this have to do with people donating cars? And, by the way, it's a nonprofit. I have no nonprofit experience and you know I'm this sort of carnivorous. You know build them, sell them, do something, you know, constructive. Along the way, at the end of the day, she convinced me that I should at least sit for the interview and, if nothing else, I would buy her a little time to find somebody to put into the interview. So I said, okay, fine, and I dressed up, went to the interview, sat down and I met a fellow there by the name of Michael Hopkins who was the chief executive at JFS in San Diego, which is the second largest in the country, next to New York. It's a very active social service agency, one of the largest in the state. You know, I was intrigued by what he was talking about and I said, look, this really isn't something that I want to do on a full-time basis, but you know, if you'll have me, I will be glad to go in and help the ex, the previous CEO. I'm old enough to remember having a Rolodex that didn't have a battery attached, and so I said I'll go to my Rolodex and I'm pretty sure I've got somebody in there that will be really well suited for this. And in fact I had a fellow that I was pretty interested in putting in the position. And then I came in, I started to work.

Speaker 2: 3:31

You know, the first week I was going home and my wife was saying you got like a real smile on your face, you seem to be happy with what's going on over there. And I said, well, there's the most incredible people. I've never met people that are as passionate about what they do, you know, except for sort of in the beginning when they get going with these guys have been at it for a long time but they're just as passionate as they were, you know, five years ago and they've been working under very difficult circumstances. She said well, that's nice, I'm glad you're enjoying this little sojourn. And you know, within about 10 days I pretty much knew that I was going to stay and I said to my wife I don't, you know, it's okay if I want to stay, but we I don't know if they want me to stay, like let's see what happens, right? So she, she said I'm pretty sure if you asked the else, please stay. And I did, and my 45 to 60 day little exercise turned into it's almost nine years, I guess now it's eight over eight years.

Speaker 2: 4:27

The reasons, I would have to say one of the people that were here and, by the way, I've had no turnover in that staff in the years every one of them that was here when I got here is still here today doing bigger, broader jobs are about 600 times the size and doing bigger, better, more, incredible jobs. And the other was the mission. The mission itself was how unique we raise money to fund our nonprofit by helping other nonprofits to raise funds to support their nonprofits and their activities across the country, and it was. It was intriguing to me and I saw the list of clients that they had and I thought, well, this is nice, but there's so many more out there. We should be doing way way more than this. We should be serving a lot of people. And of course, today you know we have several programs which I do hope we have a moment or two to talk about today. I'm very proud of all of them, but today we our top line is 100 plus.

Speaker 2: 5:19

We serve 8,000, but 8,400 nonprofits across the country and they include everybody from Red Cross, st Jude, children Research Hospital, shriders, kidney. You know most of the AAA guys, right down to perhaps you, you know, have a small Catholic Charities and you're operating out of a church basement and all you need are maybe three cars a year, give you about 9,000 bucks worth of margin and that's your entire budget for the year. Or, you know we only serve spotted dogs with three legs and you know Bob tails, and if the government says you're 501C3, we'll take you to market. We'll prepare your marketing materials, we'll help you with your digital campaigns, we'll help you with your mailing, and so on. We've got a very large marketing department because we partner with our nonprofits.

Speaker 2: 6:07

We're not a professional fundraising organization. We are a nonprofit that only serves nonprofits. That is, in fact, owned and operated by a nonprofit, so we bring all the tools to take your nonprofit and develop a fundraising program for you, which has been incredibly successful, for you know most of the people that we have partnered with and we share those revenues. So, in fact, it's a genuine partnership. If you don't make 80 cents, we don't make 20. Got it.

Speaker 2: 6:33

It's an 80, 20. We turn 80%.

Speaker 1: 6:36

Tell me a little bit about how you make your decision of who to partner with.

Speaker 2: 6:41

The first criteria, of course, is are you a nonprofit? Our computer systems won't process anything If you don't have a valid 501c3 or c4, so we, you know one certified that in fact they are legitimate nonprofits. Two is our business development group, you know, has a, and the accounting group had part of it, a paralegal who will do some research on you know who are you, who are your directors, what's the history of this organization? Is it, you know, legitimate and credible? Just because it's 501c3 doesn't mean it's being operated well, and so on. So once we've determined that it's a legitimate, credible, you know organization and that we have reasonable people we're dealing with, the business development team has, you know, basically a success group in it. Their job is to interview with you, really learn about your nonprofit, and then the marketing department will prepare marketing materials, which you have access to 24 hours a day, seven days a week, that you can download and either use on your website or use with your mailing lists or use with wherever you go to your donor base. In addition to that, we'll design a pay-per-click program for you and an outreach program.

Speaker 2: 7:50

We also we're very fortunate we have a relationship with Cox that owns Kelly Blue Book. If you go to Kelly Blue Book, you know one of the buttons you can push there is donate. If you don't like the value you're getting for your car, you know we'd perhaps you want to donate it and have a tax advantage from that instead. So you can donate through Kelly Blue Book and what that does it brings you right, and we have a lot of other sites that also bring you to the choices of the 8000. So you'll be asked questions as a donor, what are you interested in?

Speaker 2: 8:17

Make sure stuff is very interesting geographically. Do you want to get into a national organization or something local Interested in animal rights, people rights? You know human. You know human issues food insecurity, transportation and so on. So, and we do the same thing with real estate, by the way, which is, you know we're about a two year old venture now. That's going really incredibly well. Most nonprofits don't want to have anything to do with real estate. It's a very complex issue. We've defined and designed and are actively working within a system that negates 100% of the liability for any nonprofit that receives a donation of real estate, and that's going really well right now.

Speaker 1: 8:58

Yeah, I started reading a little bit about that. So you said that's a new venture that you're doing and that's been about two years, right?

Speaker 2: 9:05

We did a pilot for a year, worked out some of the bugs, as it were, and there were plenty, and really we've sort of gone full steam ahead and, you know, taken it to market and some of our larger clients are using it very successfully. Stations across the NPR system we serve about 80% of the NPR and PBS stations in the country that have vehicle donation programs and, in addition to DAVs, another one, disabled Vets, one of the largest, you know, military advocacy groups, and they've done very well with with real estate.

Speaker 1: 9:38

So I want to hear a little bit about some of your success stories within your organization. And then also, why donate a cart? Let's talk a little bit about that. What are the benefits of that and why is that so necessary within so many different organizations?

Speaker 2: 9:52

I think it depends on the perspective you come from. You know, if you're coming from an environmental perspective, you know, donate that car, let's give it a second life. Most people want to get rid of their cars. They start thinking about giving rid of their cars, you know, as soon as that thing turns 50,000 or 65,000, it's 75,000. They're oh my gosh, this thing should go right. But most vehicles will give you 150 to 200,000 miles reliably. But they're major components. Obviously. You know houses, brakes and things like that need to be replaced. But most vehicles, you know and I as much as I need to say, particularly the Japanese vehicles. You know they'll run 250,000 miles, 350 kilometers, without an issue.

Speaker 2: 10:31

So one, we like to see these things repurposed, we don't just want to see them. You know, life-followed, that's one. It gives an individual with a smaller income. You know, less access to credit and opportunity to buy. You know a vehicle from a different category of dealership. That's number one. Number two, you know, again along the environmental lines, some of our nonprofits insisted a certain percentage of these things actually go to be either recycled or dismantled. You know everything below a certain year they want them out the road. So it depends on you know where the organization is coming from. But for the individual the advantages are really, you know, quite significant. So let's assume that we take our car in and we go to the Chevrolet dealer or to the Ford dealer, IU, whatever you want super out of them to pick a brand. They go into the dealership and they, you know they offer me very little money for their car right. The car is not 100% and it's almost not worth it for me to trade it. So if I donate the vehicle, we are averaging about $1,700 a vehicle that's being sold and that's an average.

Speaker 2: 11:43

We get collectibles sometimes. We had a collectible go last year for $82,500. We routinely see collectibles go in the 30, 40, 50, $60,000 range. I think the most we ever got from a donated vehicle was we'd processed a $300,000 vehicle, the vehicle that auctioned off at Barrett Jackson for $300. That went to Schreiners. So the fact is that one you don't have to deal with the paperwork other than you know citing your ownership over your title over. So it's no hassle Whether it's sitting at the dealership because it's broken down and you don't want to pay for expensive repairs, we'll come pick it up. So we'll try to pick it up there, so you get the tax credit which you know which is a tax credit. So it's, you know, it's worth that money too. It's just so convenient. It's like hello, yes, we'll be there, pick it up. Thanks very much. You're up to anything.

Speaker 1: 12:40

So is there any individuals in particular that you know of personal stories that they've really been positively impacted by your organization?

Speaker 2: 12:50

It's hard for me to pick out individuals, so let me pick out individual organizations where you can see the impact on mass St Jude Children Research Hospital. They're taking somewhere between four and $5 million a year out of the program. That's pretty close, plus mine, I think it's actually a little better than that. But we've been to the hospital many times. We've brought guests and donors to the hospital because we want to get them involved in what's going on at St Jude, and so can you say which child, which piece of research which impacted even our adult health because of the research they do at that hospital that's out in the world? Do we know what that is? I can't say exactly. Shriners, the burn kids my gosh. We see the work that they do, so we see where the money goes and how it helps. We go to the DAV conferences where they serve us over a million 200,000 vets a year and we see these fellows that are having challenges, that aren't even aware of the incredible number of rights that they have and privileges that they should be taking advantage of to improve the quality of their life and deal with their issues and help to manage the VA and get a better quality of work. Now on the donor side. I hope one day to publish a coffee table book of the stories we get from the donor. You know, this is America. Everybody's got a love affair with their car one way or another to very exciting stories.

Speaker 2: 14:17

Well, it's really hard for us to get rid of this minivan because, well, we were on the way to the hospital with our first child and we left a little bit late. We got to the corner of walk and don't walk and it was 4.45 in the morning and there we were, in the middle of this intersection. While we had to deliver the baby in the back of the minivan, thank God a policeman came along and said why are you stopped in the middle of the street? And they delivered their first child. So the car had some sentimental value. I thought the story ended there. It didn't. The story continues.

Speaker 2: 14:49

Two years later. We're having our second child. This time we're ready, we're packed, the go bag is in, we're experienced parents. Now we get in the minivan, we're on our way, right. We get to the same corner, same intersection, walk and don't walk, whatever it is, boom. Second kid coming, ready or not, second child born, right there at the corner. So dozens of stories like this, but in terms of individuals. One story you remember was last year. Actually, it was a US-based non-profit. I forget the name of it, I'm sorry, but they were paying for surgeries. It wasn't a doctor to the boarders as one of ours as well, but it was another one similar to that but there was a young man needed some heart surgery and the hospital was offshore and they wouldn't proceed without receiving a deposit of some kind, and so we provided the organization an advance on that and the surgery did proceed. It was successful, and then we started the program, so we'll have some flexibility in that regard. We're developing a national transportation system for older Americans.

Speaker 1: 15:56

Yeah, I wanted to talk a little bit about that program and a couple other ones. So, yeah, we could expand a little bit on that.

Speaker 2: 16:02

I have to say it's my program. Well, some of my favorite, they're all my favorite. It's like which of my three children do I love more?

Speaker 1: 16:09

Depends on what day right.

Speaker 2: 16:12

Yeah, In real life too, sorry. But On the Go was a regional program started by JFS San Diego to serve aging Americans, aging adults here in the city of San Diego, and we looked at the program and thought they're regional, they're big social services, safe parking spaces for the homeless, food, I mean, all kinds of I mean that's what they do. We thought, you know, doing some research, there's 10,000 Americans turning 65 in this country every day. At this point. There's no infrastructure, there's no real federally based infrastructure to deal with dignity in aging. And, for example, why should you only be able to take a subsidized ride with your insurance or government assistance to go to a doctor or to go to, you know, a hospital?

Speaker 2: 17:09

I have a question for you Is your hair color and the shape of your hair important to you? I can tell you from my own experience. You know my mother who died at 96, the last request she made of me was these people don't always get me to my hair appointment. My appointment is on Wednesdays. I'm not feeling well this week. I want to get to my hair appointment. I'm not going to meet my maker with roots, and then, you know, for a moment I laugh, I say, come on. You know this is, and then you begin to realize how important those little things are in terms of dignity. And why are we providing, you know, dignified services for an aging population that has served this country, built this country and families in this country paid their taxes and all that? Why? Why can't we do that? Why can't we do that you should have access to, you know, either inexpensive transportation or subsidized transport. Look, when I'm 85, 90, maybe I don't want to go and do my own shopping every week, but, you know, maybe, you know, once a month I want to go and pick my own fresh fruits and vegetables. Maybe I just want to get out of those. Maybe I want to go and join, you know, my friend, you know Dolores, who's having her 90th birthday, and you know I have no way to get there and I don't want to impose on my children every day, particularly for something social or supposing, I want to go to a midnight mass, All these things that we should be providing to our seniors as the country ages. And so we're active now in 22 states.

Speaker 2: 18:42

We have an extraordinary dispatch system. We use the. You know, we use Lyft and Uber and Uber Health for the vehicles we have access to other what they call NEMT vehicles, which is non-emergency medical transport vehicles. I'm sure you've had people on that are in that industry, providing convenient transportation, and it's working out quite nicely. We're currently sort of rolling along at about 16,000 vehicles a month right now. It's expanding, it's growing and it's quite exciting.

Speaker 2: 19:16

We're responding to requests, we're program presentations and we have now new programs. So we have five, seven I think at this point. We've got seven dedicated operators that take the calls. To make it very simple, and it's a very, very high touch. So we'll spend the time with you on the phone to make sure that you're comfortable, that you know where you're going.

Speaker 2: 19:39

And the biggest part of the coolest part of this program is when it comes to high touch In some areas. The way we operate the program is, if you live in Chicago and your parents have retired to Fort Lauderdale, you may wanna know when we're picking up your mom or your dad and we're taking them to the doctor or to the barber shop and you may wanna know when he's coming home and you may wanna know if they came home and they had a package of instructions so part of the program can be set up to inform you of what's going on where they are. When they are, you can follow them online from home. I can watch where my mother's going not that I'm keeping track of her, but I am keeping track of her right, right yeah.

Speaker 2: 20:23

The teenage.

Speaker 1: 20:24

Right, you know, when you say that, and I was reading online about the amount of seniors that aren't able to go to social events and it was like sad because long time ago, when I had first gotten out of college, I started running this assistant living fitness center and I remember it was over and over and it was like social. It keeps them healthy. The more social they are, the healthier they are, the more positive their outlook is. It just is so important. So I absolutely love that program that you guys have going on. It really is gonna make a huge difference.

Speaker 2: 20:56

We're just about to start a fundraising campaign for On the Go. It's quite expensive to run it, so we started a campaign. I mean you can read about On the Go at otgoridesorg, otgoridesorg, which we'll talk about the program. So if there's anyone out there and you know who would like to donate some capital or fund the program, we're talking to some national brands to see if they wanna put their name on the program and so on. So we're at the point now we're into full development of On the Go. We've been working at it for a while and again we've got the bugs worked out in it. It employs now it employs all together with the operators and the people. It employs about eight people. But we're ready to blow that up. We'll convert some of our BDP operators and so on to get it there. But it is my favorite program. I don't know if you can.

Speaker 1: 21:54

Pull it up just a little bit more. I can see it. There you go, okay. Oh, there, it is there, you go, I love it, I love it.

Speaker 2: 22:04

Go Howard by Cars. Look the car donation program. Last year we probably returned about maybe close to $90 million to the community. Between the buddies we distributed and the work we did in our own community. Wow, I mean, it's a huge enterprise, unlike the other car donation program, the one with the obnoxious jingle nothing personal, you know they raise funds for their own, not proper, which is fine.

Speaker 2: 22:31

There probably are whatever biggest challenges in terms of finding the story, but we feel our service is quite different. We're not just catering to people who want to give away their vehicles. We do a tremendous amount to support the success of the program with our partners. Because, again, if you don't make 80 cents we didn't make 20 cents It'll cost me nine to 11 cents, cost me about 10%, eight, nine percent to run the place and we run a pretty tight ship here, pretty austere. We do have a parent that is, I think, now nine years, four-star charity navigator. I may have exaggerated it by a year, I think that that may even be longer than that, but you know they're 106 years old. So I don't want to be the guy that messes up and like I don't want one mini brick out of place.

Speaker 1: 23:20

I don't want to be that guy. No, you don't want to be that guy. So how do people that are listening what's the best way for them to get involved?

Speaker 2: 23:28

Well, it depends on. You know what involved means. Again, we're probably the, you know, the largest non. I have to say that we're the largest car donation program in the country that you have never heard of. You know, because we're B2B, other than our On the Go program. We don't, you know, get that involved with that side. But to get involved, look, if you've got a nonprofit and you sit on a nonprofit board and you're looking for a way to raise a little bit of extra capital, this program costs you nothing. You sign the agreement and away you go. You don't have to write a check, you don't have to show up with, you know, one card being donated, or you just you sign up and we'll, you know we'll help you get the program going. So the best way really, you know, is to either drop us an email you know car easyorg or, I don't care, send it, you know, send it to me. I'll pass it along to the right folks.

Speaker 2: 24:16

Howard P H O W A R D P at car easy. C A R E A S Y dot O R G. Oh God, there goes the email box. Oh, it's late, and we'll pass along and someone will call you and we'll get you. We'll get you going. We'll get you started.

Speaker 2: 24:33

If you are, you know, looking for a really, really purposeful and a really effective program that touches seniors across the country, come out and help us grow this on the go program. I'm excited about it because I recognized and, hopefully, the distant future. It will be there for me to use and I will have to use it. They will come a day when my son will look up at me the way I had to look up at my parents at some point and say, sorry, but do you mean a license? Yeah, it's inevitable. So if you wanna quietly impact a community that has served the country, that's a wonderful way to do that and we will find a partners. We've got some great people out there, but I like to see more what I call real folks involved, because they're the ones that go into their community and tell the stories right, and it's so hard not to be passionate about this stuff. I think that's why I've stayed.

Speaker 2: 25:37

Why I came was one thing, why I stayed. The people, obviously, but the work we do. It's not easy work, but it's so necessary. We have very strange concepts of money in this country, but I'm telling you there's so much good that people can do with little things like their vehicle or small, regular donations that don't impact the quality of their lives but in so many ways, impact the quality of many. That's the beautiful thing about this work. Everything you do every day isn't serving one nonprofit, it's serving thousands. It's a privilege to do this job. Really, the truth is it's a privilege to do the job. I don't know how you can feel any other way and, trust me, I've come a long way in my perspective on politics and humanity and the community and service. So for me this will be the last stop in my career and taking 35 years in the C-suite and putting it to work serving this community nationally is truly, it's a blessing. I hate to use that word, it's such overused these days but it's joy. It's just pure joy.

Speaker 1: 26:44

It's incredible to hear that, howard, how it's touched you personally and how your organization is helping I mean hundreds of thousands of people. And, before I let you go, is there anything that you wanted to talk about that we haven't covered?

Speaker 2: 26:59

I think not. I think there's a lot out there for people that digest. I know it doesn't sound like it, but other than on the go, we're a pretty quiet organization, except for the people that we work for. When you donate your vehicle you don't realize who's processing it, but it's quite a complex process Once you pick up the vehicle and transition it and get it to an auction and then sell it and then build the protection. I really encourage people to look at real estate. If we have a couple of minutes left, I've got a great real estate story. And then, if the well, two things One, we had a fellow that had five small strip malls. One wasn't doing very well, the others were long story. He donated the one that wasn't doing well and with real estate, unlike vehicles, you get the credit for what it sold for. With real estate, if you have a credible and the IRS defines what a credible assessor is if the real estate is assessed at a million two, we take a docks and then we get 800,000, you get the million two tax credit and then the cash comes in and so on. So he was able to donate, do good for the community, get a tax credit which helped them with what his obligations were on his successful strip malls. But unload, if you will, unload the one that wasn't performing at it, and so on.

Speaker 2: 28:17

And private property. Picture this you bought a cottage, you bought a summer home 35, 36 years ago. You paid $40,000 for the property. You put up a little cottage on it, but now the community is encroached. That property is worth a lot more money. You've winterized it. You raised it for kids.

Speaker 2: 28:35

When a fella had four kids he said what am I gonna do with this house? We're not using it anymore. I got one kid that's gone to Chicago, one that's living in New Jersey, one that I don't know. They're all over the place. My youngest daughter just got pregnant and he's like. So what he said was I'm gonna donate this thing.

Speaker 2: 28:52

And again the thing was appraised at over a million dollars. It brought in I don't remember it exactly, it was just over 800. And he said all right, here's the thing. I wanna take 200,000 of the money that comes in, so he gets a full tax credit. But of the capital it comes in, he takes 200,000, which he pays regular income tax on. It's just for regular income. He gave 25,000 each to his four kids and said this is your benefit from this cottage that you've used all your life, so I'm not gonna give it to you so that four of you can go to war over who gets what. And the other $100,000 he took, and he took his wife. Well, that was the plan. I don't actually but to go on one of those nine months around the world. You move into a column.

Speaker 2: 29:35

Oh how fun On a ship thing, yeah so. But the other thing is that he was getting ready to sort of cash in his IRAs and his 401ks, but he's going into that with a $700,000 tax credit pure tax credit. He'll never pay tax on that income that he's been protecting for years. So again, you gotta talk to your tax professional, but we have a lot of tax professionals that give us opinions on how this stuff goes. So there's some real practical reasons why people donate property, and if it's something you've gotten you can't sell, you should look into that.

Speaker 1: 30:07

Yeah, that's definitely something people should talk about with their accountant and it's a great it sounds like it's a great opportunity for a lot of people.

Speaker 2: 30:14

Look, thanks for the megaphone. I appreciate this, I really do.

Speaker 1: 30:17

Of course. Yes, you know it's truly unique what I was looking at, your organization and what you guys do. I was very excited to talk to you because you could break it down a little bit, because it is kind of a unique situation and you need that time to kind of explain and how people can really get involved and why it is so important for so many people to get involved within your organization. So I'm glad that you took the time to talk about it, because you guys are doing so many amazing things for so many different organizations. I mean you're helping gosh, I mean everyone.

Speaker 2: 30:49

I'm lucky, you've got a great staff. They are the most amazing group of human beings I think I've ever served with. I've had a lot of staff my career. These are amazing people. They really understand the value of a gift. Two words in this building on my sort of parting comments, only two words that are important in this building Gratitude people are giving us gifts. We need to sincerely dig deep when we say thank you for your gift and margin no money, no mission.

Speaker 1: 31:20

Well, howard, I think this is a good time to end. You explained at the very beginning you said, you know I came in and I had no idea like why are these people? They're nine years in, 10 years into this, they're still so passionate, like it's like the day they just started? So now I understand it, after talking to you about why everyone is just so excited about your mission and what you're doing. So thank you.

Speaker 2: 31:42

Howard, so much.

Speaker 1: 31:43

Of course. Thank you for coming on and I wanna thank everybody for tuning in to another episode of the Truman Charities podcast. And if you want to learn about Howard's organization, if you want to get involved, if you wanna email him and get in contact, make sure to check out the show notes. Thank you, if you liked this episode, please make sure to rate and review our podcast. That is how more people learn about the Truman Charities podcast and our organization, and to make sure you don't miss any of our future episodes, subscribe, subscribe, subscribe. If you'd like to follow Truman Charities, you can follow us on Facebook at Truman Charities, instagram at Jamie underscore Truman Charities and check out our website, trumancharitiescom.