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March 18, 2025 15 mins

Jim Gordon sits down to discuss his 26 years of community impact through the Community Foundation and the Community Foundation Awards, which honor those who give their time, talent, and treasure.

• Jim Gordon, co-founder of GMCF and title sponsor of the CFAs, shares how the awards began
• The CFAs focus on celebrating volunteers who contribute time and talent alongside those who give financially
• Starting with four title sponsors (Kansas State Bank, Steel, and Pipe Supply, Trust Company of Manhattan, and Sink Gordon), the event now attracts 500-600 attendees
• The awards spotlight lesser-known community programs, introducing new volunteer opportunities to attendees
• Jim Gordon advises finding a charity you're passionate about and turning that passion into action
• His philosophy: "You can't wait to make a difference" – take opportunities as they come to serve the community


GMCF

CFAs

Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Philanthropy Today is brought to you by the Greater
Manhattan Community Foundation.
In this episode we feature arecently broadcast segment of
the GMCF Community Hour, asheard on NewsRadio KMAN.
You know we have looked back onthis program and through a lot
of the things that the CommunityFoundation has a wonderful

(00:21):
history to reflect upon and oneof the names that is just always
, not only at the very beginning, but has been a constant
through the 26 years of theGreater Manhattan Community
Foundation, and that is JimGordon, St Gordon and Associates
, co-founder of the GreaterManhattan Community Foundation,

(00:41):
all around good guy and asponsor, a primary sponsor here,
of the CFA's.
Good morning, sir.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Good morning, Dave.
It's always good to be here andto talk about community events
and specifically GMCF.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
I'm proud of you that you wore some green today.
You got your master's jacket on.
That's good.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
You have to wear just a little green, and this is the
only green in my closet.
Is that?
Yeah, that's about mine andmine's a gmcf shirt.
I do have another gmcf shirt.
I should get a gmcf shirt fromvernon.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
I think I've earned it.
What do you think?
You know they?
They should have a specialedition for you, for mark mark
knockadoffel and that j Morrisonguy.
Yeah, we should have a specialHall of Fame shirt for you.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
When you start getting into the Hall of Fame,
does that mean you're gettingolder?
I'm not sure on that.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
Well, I'm in a Hall of Fame, but I'm a young one for
that Hall of Fame.
There you go.
Yeah, it's just an honor, itdoesn't matter what the age is.
You know you've done so muchfor this community and, and you
know, we are so grateful to haveyou, and, and you know we talk
about Mark, and you know.
And then also another name thatcomes to mind is Roger Sink,

(01:56):
which I, you know, a legend inthis community in many respects
and I know you took a lot fromhim too.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
You bet there's been so many mentors in the community
, and that's something that GMCFcontinues to try to do is to
provide mentorship for youngervolunteers in the community, and
that's part of what thecommunity awards is all about.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
Yeah, yeah.
So let's talk a bit about thelocal philanthropy side.
You know we recognize a lot ofpeople, but often you know the
people that are the, the onesthat do the time, talent and
treasure and and there seems tobe at some times maybe an
overemphasis on the treasureside of things those that that

(02:42):
give.
But you know there are so manypeople and that's one of the
things I love about the CFAs isthat there are a lot of people
that don't have those resourcesavailable, but they have the
time and they have the talent.
That is even more so important.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
That's actually what sold me on the whole concept of
the CFAs when Vern brought thisto us the first year he was
hired, that he wanted to takeour annual meeting and move it
to be part of a bigger programand to have these community
awards.
And, as an accountant, whenpeople come in to do their taxes
, we go through charitablecontributions, which is a tax

(03:16):
deduction, and one of the thingswe notice just in talking with
our clients is the number ofpeople that are involved in
different charities, and it'snot just about the contributions
of dollars but thecontributions of time, and one
of the things is mileage, andyou know we have people that
spend a lot of time and developa lot of miles, and so I'd be

(03:39):
talking to clients about this,and so I really had never put
together how important it was tothe community until I started
seeing just how much people wereinvolved and really that
creates a fabric to the wholecommunity, bringing people
together.
And so when Vern brought theidea of not honoring just the

(03:59):
people who had the resources togive treasure, but also that
time and talent, that's whatreally sold me to become one of
the early sponsors.
Kaya State Bank Steel and PipeSupply Trust Company of
Manhattan and St Gordon were theoriginal title sponsors and
we've got more sponsors thathave joined us since then.

(04:21):
But I think all of us wereimpressed and we did this not so
much to get our name out ofsponsors, matter of fact,
something probably Vern doesn'tknow we all kind of agreed
behind the scenes that just incase this didn't take off, we'd
kind of keep our sponsorship lowkey that first year.
So that is one of those funnystories.

(04:44):
And now we're going to havefive or 600 people there at an
event really honoringvolunteerism and celebrating our
community.
So it's really a great eventand a great tribute to the whole
Manhattan community.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
And that's one of the things I like most about it,
and I've been the emcee of itevery year.
And you know, when he firsttalked to you about this, did he
tell you that he was, you know,inviting me to be the emcee,
and you still went with it.

Speaker 2 (05:14):
We did not know about that at the time.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
Okay, so some things are better left unsaid.
That's right, but it is such anhonor and not only to be a part
of it, but to have been a partof its growth and development
over the last 11 years, and it'sjust astounding.
It says so much about thepeople in our community.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
It really does that first year.
We were all impressed and itwas just a fraction of the size
it is now, but we were impressed.
I think Metal came in and didtheir videos that year and it
really gave it, along with yourMC work, gave it that classy
feel of an award show.

Speaker 1 (05:56):
And that was what Vern was doing.
I can't use the word classy.
I can't use the word classy asan adjective when you're talking
about me.
That's completely inappropriate.
Okay, all right, I'll acceptthat.

Speaker 2 (06:14):
Just a really professional job that everybody
did and how seriously it meansthat we take the time to thank
the people who are providingthat time and talent and the
treasure as well.
But it just really makes anevent that is somewhat unique to
Manhattan, I think, but alsokind of tells the type of

(06:39):
community that we have and thequality of the people that are
here the type of community thatwe have and the quality of the
people that are here.

Speaker 1 (06:49):
Was there anything?

Speaker 2 (06:50):
in particular that inspired you to become a title
sponsor for the CFAs.
Vern can twist a really goodarm.

Speaker 1 (06:53):
He's got a good handshake, doesn't he?

Speaker 2 (06:57):
He does.

Speaker 1 (06:58):
He does.

Speaker 2 (07:10):
He's a master manipulator.
As a matter of fact, when weoffered Vern the job, it was
before he accepted the job thathe started coming up with these
other ideas, and that's when youknow you've made a good choice
for somebody for a job is whenthey are implementing their
ideas and making the positioneven more important before they
ever officially start day one.
And he said now we want to dothis right away and we need
title sponsors.

(07:30):
And I think all four of us thatbecame title sponsors were on
the hiring committee, and so weautomatically got that.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
That's called salesmanship, isn't it?
That is, you have to make theask.
We automatically got that.

Speaker 2 (07:43):
That's called salesmanship, isn't it?
That is, that is, you have tomake the ask, but just then
thinking about just being ableto say thank you to those people
were what really made thedifference.

Speaker 1 (07:55):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, there's just, and it is just one
of these unique opportunities,I think, for people to continue
to have a sense of pride in thecommunity.
It's just one of those thingswhere you just you know you walk
in the door, you're excitedabout what's to come and you
know one of the things that youand I have heard over and over

(08:17):
is that when you walk out thatdoor, you've learned something
new about the community.
It may be something new about aperson, but it may be an
opportunity where people areaddressing a community need that
we may not have known about ifit weren't for that exposure at
the CFAs.

Speaker 2 (08:37):
You know, I've seen a lot of different charities over
the years and you never knowwhat people are interested in.
And the one of the things I'vestarted telling my, my kids and
now our staff is that you needto find a charity that you're
really passionate about and thenyou take that passion and turn

(08:57):
it into action so that you canmake a difference for that
charity.
You don't need to be involvedwith every charity in town, but
everybody has different thingsthat they're interested in.
You need to channel thatinterest into a passion that you
can do community good, andthat's the thing that is
spotlighted by the CFAs.

(09:17):
There are a lot of programsthat I hear about because of
clients who contributed to them,but every year there was a new
program I've not heard aboutthat will be highlighted at the
CFAs in one manner or anothereither a volunteer or one of the
charities that's beingrecognized, and it just is.
Really it adds to thatcommunity impact the spreading

(09:40):
of the knowledge of what isreally out there that you can
become involved in, because younever know when that light is
going to click and somebody'sgoing to say you know, that's a
program I really, for whateverreason, suits me as a volunteer.

Speaker 1 (09:56):
You know, I think about seeing Gordon and
Associates and you know, one ofthe things that just stands out
about me is that you are aleading community player and
that's you know.
One of the things that juststands out about me is that you
are a leading community player,and that's you know as a firm,
and I know that that issomething that has been accepted
deeply within all of those thatwork for you.

Speaker 2 (10:17):
We.
We really try to stress that uh, the firm cannot grow and
prosper and make a differencefor our clients if we're not
involved in the communityAnytime.
You have a professional staffthat comes with some privileges
but also some responsibilitiesthat as professionals, there are

(10:40):
a lot of charities out therethat need work.
We make a joke that theaccountant on the board always
gets to be the treasurer, whichis not always the most fun, but
at the same time, that's an thatwe also need to be successful

(11:05):
as community sponsors and andcommunity providing community
resources.

Speaker 1 (11:11):
So you know I'm going to, I'm going to do a quick
shout out to, I think, a youngcouple who is emblematic of what
we talk about community service, and that's your son Seth and
his wife Natalie, and what theyare doing in leadership
capacities and obviously youknow they learned a little bit,
probably from you, or maybe itwas from Roger, I don't know,

(11:33):
but I know that you provide thatmentorship, and what is it you
do within your firm to developthese people?
Is there anything specific thatyou utilize to develop your
staff and their families intobecoming leaders in the
community?

Speaker 2 (11:51):
Well, I thank you for that.
Seth and Natalie are a greatyoung couple and three wonderful
grandsons, including a newbornthat was born the day before the
big blizzard.

Speaker 1 (12:01):
Oh, really Okay.

Speaker 2 (12:03):
We got pictures from the hospital of people getting
stuck on college avenue, so uh,but uh, they are a great young
couple and and.
But throughout the uh,throughout the firm, we have
professionals like that.
That.
We really stress that communityservice and one of the things.

(12:27):
We go as far as to put that onour annual evaluation.
What community projects have youworked on?
Do you serve on any boards?
Do you have any leadershippositions on any of these things
?
And it's one of those things.
It's not something that can beyour entire job at our firm, but

(12:48):
if you're going to move up, youneed to be showing that you're
active in the community.
From a strictly businessstandpoint, anytime you widen
your connection of people thatyou associate with, that
increases the chances you'regoing to get those people as a
client, and so there is somebenefit, but mainly it's just

(13:11):
the community benefit ofbuilding that larger community
for us, If you could put intomaybe a sentence or two a
message that you would sharewith other individuals or
businesses, that you would sharewith other individuals or
businesses, organizations whyit's important to support local

(13:36):
philanthropy through events likethe CFAs.
One of the things I sometimestell people is you can't wait to
make a difference.
A lot of organizations andpeople procrastinate and think
that the time will come my timewill come to do any number of
things in life and as you're outthere, you just need to take

(14:02):
these opportunities that come upand be there for the community
and be there for our fellowcitizens, and so just being
active and doing that, I think,makes a real difference.

Speaker 1 (14:19):
Well, jim, thank you again for your sponsorship of
the CFAs and all the work thatyou and so many others have done
.
Through the Greater ManhattanCommunity Foundation, you have
helped create somethingextremely special that has made
this community a lot better, andalso the people within your
organization, making them betterleaders and contributors to our
community as well.

Speaker 2 (14:39):
Well, thank you, and thank you for your MC work and
all the behind the scenes work.
Just as I was driving in today,you were talking a little bit
and all the behind the sceneswork.
Just as I was driving in today,you were talking a little bit
about all the behind the scenesactivity that goes on to make
this program successful andpeople don't realize all that
time and effort that goes on andwe appreciate that and that has

(14:59):
been a real plus to make this aprofessional operation.

Speaker 1 (15:05):
We're going to have a lot of fun.
We'll see you next week.
Thank you, jim Gordon, here onbehalf of St Gordon's
accountants and advisors here,sponsor of the 2025 CFAs, which
is one week from tonight.
You can get your tickets atmcfksorg Back with Vern in just
a couple of moments here, as weapproach the final segment of

(15:26):
the GMCF Community Hour here onNewsRadio KMAN.
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