2021 Impact Report

Jorge Lievana's passion is boxing, and he dreams of one day becoming an Olympian. Though already wildly successful at the age of 14 – Jorge is a State Golden Gloves Champion, Regional Silver Gloves Champion, and two-time State Silver Gloves Champion – he lacked a professional training ground. Instead of a gym, you could find him training in his garage or kitchen. With the support of Daniels Fund grantee Athletics & Beyond, Jorge now has access to a gym as well as financial assistance for flights, tournament fees, hotels, rental cars, and food when tournaments and competitions are out-of-state.

For the Daniels Fund and organizations like Athletics & Beyond, athletics is about more than the sport itself. It's about life lessons and character building – discipline, teamwork, fairness, and commitment. Bill Daniels was also a Golden Gloves Champion and, like Jorge, credited sports with changing his life. Our work with nonprofit partners and youth sports organizations helps ensure that youth experience the benefits of sports program participation, and elite amateur athletes can experience competition on the national and international stage.

• One in five Americans cannot name a single branch of government (Annenberg Policy Center Survey)
• Only 24% of eighth-grade students performed at or above the NAEP proficiency level on the civics assessment (2018)
• Only 7% of young Americans view the United States as a "healthy democracy" (Harvard Youth Poll)

How do you actively participate in something you don't understand? It is critical for the functioning of our nation's political systems, and our free enterprise system, that we all understand the basics of our government. In 2021, we launched the National Civics Bee, an initiative with middle school kids to increase civic knowledge in America in partnership with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation. We're also supporting organizations that train teachers or implement grassroots programs that teach our youth about our country's system of government and help develop contributing citizens.

The Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative Collegiate Program was established in 2010 to instill a high standard of ethics in students and strengthen principle-based ethics education in participating schools. The program consists of 11 university partners in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. In the annual Case Competition, students are given a complex business scenario, asked to apply a principle-based ethical lens, and present recommendations to a panel of judges. The 2021 event required creativity and flexibility as we took the competition virtual for the first time ever. Students from the University of Northern Colorado took home the gold in the undergraduate track and Colorado State University's team placed first in the graduate track. Read More.

2021 is a year that one Wyoming family will never forget. Meet June, who heard her mother's voice for the very first time in 2021. The Child Development Center of Natrona County, a Daniels Fund grantee, changed this family's lives with the purchase of special devices that enabled June to hear clearly for the first time since her birth. Diagnosed with Cornelia De Lange Syndrome, standard hearing aids were ineffective for June. The future was uncertain for June and her family, who hadn't been able to get insurance coverage for different hearing devices. The Daniels Fund grant gave the Child Development Center of Natrona County the financial flexibility it needed to purchase highly specialized equipment like the Baha devices vital for June.

When Bonnie's husband Ned began showing signs of dementia, she knew she wanted to take care of him, but didn't know how best to do so or where to turn for help. She called the Alzheimer's Association of Utah's 24/7 Helpline and was able to get questions answered and get connected to a local support group for help. Thanks to the Alzheimer's Association, a Daniels Fund grantee, Bonnie learned skills to make her a better caretaker for Ned and take care of some of her own needs so she could stay healthy for her family. Ned has since passed away and now Bonnie is paying it forward as an avid volunteer for the association, connecting others to the same resources that were so valuable to her and her family in their time of need.

Bill Daniels loved the free enterprise system, but was troubled by how little effort went into preparing people to access its potential. He believed education in the free enterprise system should start early, so he opened Young Americans Bank, the world's first and only bank just for kids, in 1987.

As Bill directed, the Daniels Fund provides funding to subsidize the bank's operations to this day. That support translates into valuable education for its 18,673 account holders, with 2,362 new accounts opened in 2021 alone. The bank is teaching kids not only how to save, but also to manage checking accounts, debit cards, loans, and credit cards. With this financial education comes valuable lessons about entrepreneurship and the power of free enterprise. Bill Daniels supported many causes, but there were only two charitable ventures that he personally launched: Young Americans Bank and the Daniels Fund. He intended both to last forever.

With the support of ACE Scholarships, Arrupe Jesuit, and the Daniels Scholarship Program, Jimmy Pham achieved the American dream.

After Jimmy's father died when he was just 8, Jimmy's mother moved the family to the United States and worked two jobs in pursuit of the American dream. With the support of two Daniels Fund grantees — ACE Scholarships and Arrupe Jesuit High School — and the Daniels Scholarship Program, Jimmy achieved that dream. He now works as an aerospace engineer and earns enough money to allow his mom to retire.

Jade Rivera, the founder of Albuquerque Collegiate, has big dreams for her students. In a state that ranks 50th in high school graduation, Jade and her colleagues are a lifeline of hope for some of New Mexico's most impoverished families. Armed with best practices from the highest-performing charters across the country and a firm belief that education can alter destinies, Jade opened Albuquerque Collegiate in 2018 with the support of the Daniels Fund. Today, the team at Albuquerque Collegiate is setting its students on the path to college, more than doubling the state's average proficiency rating in reading for kindergarten to second grade. The team fully believes in possibilities for all students and is guided by the best strategies and ideas from across America so that its students can compete locally and nationally. They hold high academic and behavioral expectations and provide support to help students overcome barriers and ultimately achieve their dreams.

A struggle with addiction that lasted years led Jessica into unemployment and homelessness. Desperate to turn her life around, she came to Springs Rescue Mission for food and a helping hand. Jessica dreamed of a day when homelessness and hunger would be behind her — a day when she would be in a position to give back and help others like herself. Gradually, with the support of the Rescue Mission, she worked her way out of homelessness. In 2021, she joined the fight against homelessness as a chef feeding the hungry in the Springs Rescue Mission's Samaritan's Kitchen. Jessica is finally able to pass the same kind of help and hope that changed her life on to others. "I love getting to know this community and to give back like this," Jessica said. "It's amazing to see how people find hope here — the transformation that happens in this place is real."