Frances Hollis Brain Foundation provides for human needs, while bolstering family ties

When David Brain established the Frances Hollis Brain Foundation, his intention was to help people who had not been as lucky as he had.  He sought to help others get the “step-up” they needed to improve their own lives. Established after selling a company that provides dental care as an employee benefit, the founder's intentions were broad, but impassioned.

“My father spent his whole life in the insurance field, and late in his career, devised a means to provide low-cost quality dental care using a managed care model.  The company prospered; and by the time he sold it, managed care had become a very hot idea.” David's daughter Nancy explains.

Translating Intent into Strategy

“My father is a very hard worker, who feels there are a lot of people who work hard, but aren’t as fortunate as he was,” explains Nancy Brain, who with her sister, Diane Bryant, administers the family foundation.  Together, Nancy and Diane have translated their father’s desire to provide people with a “step up” to a giving strategy focused on organizations that provide for “basic human needs.” 

By focusing on human needs, the foundation's support has run the gamut from service organizations like Literacy Volunteers and Habitat for Humanity to making bets on new initiatives, aimed at helping disadvantaged people.

The Frances Hollis Brain foundation, which has an endowment of $11.5 million, awards approximately $550,000 dollars annually to non-profits in Maine, Georgia, Ohio and Kentucky – the states where family members live. 

A Family Mission

In addition to wanting to help people improve their lives, David Brain hoped the foundation would teach his own family about the importance of community and of giving back. 

“It has been wonderful for our family relationship,” Nancy says. “It has allowed us to stay in very close contact while working together on something that is important.” 

Nancy and Diane’s four children, who range in age from 17 to 28 years old, serve the Board in an advisory capacity, and recommend how a portion of the grant-making budget will be spent annually.  The "next generation" also attends Board meetings twice a year, and participates in giving decisions with their grandfather, mother and aunt. 

Increasingly, Diane and Nancy plan to involve the next generation more and more in the administration of the foundation. For example, the foundation is about to hire a financial advisor to manage the foundation’s investments, and the children will be involved in helping to make that decision.

All grants from the Frances Hollis Brain foundation start with an inquiry – either by phone or letter. “In each inquiry, we are looking to determine, what is the human need? These initial screenings allow us to determine whether or not an organization should submit a full proposal for review,” Nancy adds.

Giving Directly to Those with the Greatest Need

Many of the grants awarded by the Frances Hollis Brain Foundation go to support the organizations that provide direct services to low-income and disadvantaged people.

“Some might see these grants more as charity than philanthropy, but we think they are very important,” Nancy says. “We get a lot of satisfaction knowing that our grant dollars are doing things like helping adults learn to read--which not only impacts one person--but impacts their children’s futures.”

As a Small Foundation, "Leverage" is a Key Word

When making grants in Georgia, Ohio and Kentucky, Diane’s strategy is to help "leverage" the money the Frances Hollis Brain Foundation awards. A grant to Kentucky Habitat for Humanity illustrates her approach.

“The organization called initially seeking support for their statewide offices, and I told them our foundation likes to work more at the client, direct services level. I encouraged her to see if we could come up with an idea that would meet our requirements and help her organization,” Diane explains.

David Brain also stipulated that grants be made under a “Christian umbrella,” which the trustees translate into “any project that helps another human being.”

“We will fund a church that has a soup kitchen, for instance, but we don’t proselytize,” she explains.

For example, in the past, the Brain Foundation has supported ‘interfaith builds’ for Habitat for Humanity in Georgia. These grants have enabled Habitat for Humanity to bring together Muslins, Jews and Christians to build homes for low-income residents. After hearing this story, the Kentucky chapter decided to request funding for lumber that prisoners could use to build cabinets for homes Habitat for Humanity was building in the state.

The project was so successful and innovative; the organization just received an award from the State of Kentucky. “Our grant was only for $5,000, but by having the conversation and looking at how to leverage funds, we were able to make a much bigger impact than we would have if we had just given a grant to the state headquarters,” she adds.

Another example of successful leverage involves a creative collaboration with local funders in Maine and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.  The Brain Foundation awarded $60,000 to help fund the start up of the PIER Project at Maine Medical Center.

PIER has helped the Maine-based hospital cut the number of psychotic episodes experienced by patients by identifying the symptoms that occur just before someone has a psychotic episode, and educating patients about those symptoms. “By intervening before someone has a psychotic break,” Nancy explains, “the disease is significantly more manageable.”

This project has just received a $12 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, to be replicated nationwide.

A Continuing Process of Learning and Experimenting

As the executive director of another independent foundation with a mission to support nonprofit organizations in southern Maine, Nancy Brain has applied what she has learned from her own family foundation to her other role.

“My work with one foundation informs my work with the other.  This exposure has provided me with a broad perspective of the strengths and needs of the community.   I find it all very challenging and exciting.” Nancy adds.