PHILANTHROPY CITATION – 2006 small business awards

Rob Davis is looking for hedge funds with heart.

Davis, the creator of Hedge Funds Care, formed the non-profit in 1998 with the mission of combating child abuse. The charity raises funds from the financial community and provides grants to organizations that prevent child abuse. Since inception, the nonprofit has raised over $20 million and awarded 324 grants.

Three factors combined to prompt Davis, who works in the hedge fund industry, to create Hedge Funds Care. First, he wanted to rebut negative, late 1990s media coverage of the hedge fund industry. The second factor, a book of quotations – a timely gift from one of his five children – motivated him to take action, rather than only rail against the press coverage. Lastly, he felt personally inspired to fight child abuse. Davis had seen the devastating consequences of child abuse in his first year out of college when he worked as a schoolteacher on Long Island. He identified child abuse as an under-resourced and rarely discussed problem that could be reduced with attention and funds.

“I knew I could get passionate talking about the subject of child abuse to people,” Davis said.

Although Hedge Funds Care began with one annual fundraising dinner in New York City, the organization has now expanded to San Francisco, Chicago, Atlanta, Boston, Denver, Toronto, London, and the Cayman Islands. Fundraising events are held year-round. “People in the hedge fund industry rally around this cause,” said Doris Schwartz, the non-profit’s executive director.

Grants are awarded after applications are scrutinized by both the Hedge Funds Care grant selection committee and an academic consultant hired by the nonprofit in each location. Kathryn Conroy, assistant dean and director of field education at Columbia University School of Social Work, oversees grants in the New York metropolitan area.

“Because its target population is absolutely clear, and its interventions of preventing and treating are very focused, Hedge Funds Care has great accountability for the funds it receives and disperses and their impact,” Conroy wrote in an e-mail.

Last year, funds raised in New York City were distributed to 31 community-based nonprofit organizations, including Children’s Village, Fund for Public Health, Greenwich House, and New Alternatives for Children.

“I call them ‘angels’,” Davis said, about the people who work in the child abuse prevention community. He said it’s very difficult to describe the feeling he has when he visits the places and sees the children where Hedge Funds Care has made grants. But he is clear about the personal satisfaction he has derived from founding Hedge Funds Care. His children, now ages 22 to 42, have attended most of the nonprofit’s events with him. “They see me up there as the founder and organizer of the New York events. They see me as the one who made this happen. What price is there for your kids to see you in this light?”