About Us
OUR MISSION
Helping to fund small organizations that make a big difference
Our mission is to support small tax exempt organizations that have limited resources, are well run, are passionate in their endeavors, and provide a basic service to those in need. Since our beginning, we have met wonderful people, operating with very limited budgets while providing essential services for those in need in their communities. We have been impressed with their tireless efforts and their dedication to completing their missions and we have been happy to support their efforts. Many of these are led by giving individuals whose efforts are without compensation. There only reward is the satisfaction of helping others.
Our Founder and Grantor
Howard E. Stark
Born and raised in Cleveland with five siblings, Howard E. Stark graduated from John Adams High School before settling in New York. He managed to get an entry level job in the New Business Department of Lehman Brothers. The executives at Lehman Brothers became fond of him but he became bored with a 9 to 5 job in a department that “never made a deal”. He quit his job and joined a phonograph record company which went bankrupt the following year. He was broke, out of a job and thinking about what he wouid do next. He borrowed $400 on his Ford to keep him afloat. He had an idea that he wanted to be a business broker and started looking into various industries. After meeting with the FCC chairman and the attorneys who practiced before the FCC he decided to become a broker of radio stations. This was in 1946. While enjoying modest success in the radio broker business he decided to expand and represent the television industry that was in its infancy at that time. The television stations were losing money but as the number of television sets increased, so did the viewing audiences What followed was an increase in advertising rates, an increase in profitability and a huge increase in the value of televisions stations. He has been credited with single-handedly creating what is now a rnulti»billion dollar television and radio station brokerage industry. Over his fifty year career, he was instrumental in virtually every strategic ownership transaction in the industry. Remarkably, he accomplished this with a staff that consisted only of one personal assistant. When she retired after 25 years, he never replaced her. His client list scanned a generation of media giants including Walt Disney Company , RKO, Metromedia, Knight Ridder, Viacom, Taft Broadcasting, Allbritton Communications, Gannett, The Tribune Company, and dozens more. In 1962, he was called upon to broker the nations first public television station, WNET.
He lived in New York his entire life after leaving Cleveland. He did business in the United States and Europe and he became a world traveler. He was a sophisticated business executive, yet privately he was a modest man. His modesty and generosity were only exceeded by his style and wit. He was a magnificent person whose family, friends and the world were better because of him.
Before he passed away in 2007 he wrote a note to his brothers and sisters ”Please think of me as going on a long vacation. My spirit will be with you, so let’s all be happy and remember we are all mortal beings and none of us leave this earth alive. We must make room for the new generations to come. All my love forever.”
During his lifetime he quietly supported many organizations never seeking recognition or acknowledgment. In order to continue his legacy of giving, when he could no longer do it himself, he establish the Howard E. Stark Foundation. As in his lifetime, those who are helped by his generosity will not know from whom it came, but the world is, and will continue to be, a slightly better place because of him.
Howard was a simple man who preferred not to be recognized for his donations. For this reason, we want to make the process as simple as possible. No organizations grant application will be turned away. We take the time to review all applications and supporting documentation and decide if it is the right fit for all of us.