Austin American Statesman: Feb. 10, 2007 - Melanie Moore was working out of her living room when A Glimmer of Hope Foundation came along.
The Austin woman — who started Badgerdog Literary Publishing in 2003 to bring creative-writing workshops to local schools — was struggling to get her nonprofit off the ground. But no one would give her any money.
"When you're a startup, it's really like crawling across broken glass on your hands and knees," Moore said. "Nobody would look at us because we were new."
Then Glimmer gave her a $25,000 grant. And suddenly, other donors came calling.
"Glimmer gave us our start," Moore said.
Three years a go, A Glimmer of Hope promised an influx of cash to help youth in East and South Austin. The pledge: $5 million over 10 years for fledgling nonprofits still getting off the ground.
Since then, Glimmer has given more than $1.6 million to 56 local projects such as soccer clubs, reading programs and dance classes. The foundation specializes in startup grants of up to $25,000.
That's not big money in the philanthropy world.
The Susan and Michael Dell Foundation, for example, has doled out more than than $150 million to Central Texas projects since 2000. The Topfer Family Foundation has given $18 million since 2001.
But Glimmer does something many foundations seem reluctant to do: It bets on the underdog.
It gives money and guidance to small, grass-roots nonprofits that most funders ignore. It looks for charities without big budgets, including some that have never won a grant before.
Glimmer officials estimate its grant projects have helped more than 20,000 local children.
Not all Glimmer grantees have measured up.
Of the 56 projects Glimmer has funded, eight no longer receive money.
Some groups changed their mission and no longer serve low-income youth. Others did not entice money from other sources, a requirement for additional Glimmer grants.
But if all goes well, Glimmer's charities start to thrive, and other charitable groups start to notice, said Glimmer co-founder Donna Berber.
"What we get thrilled about is when we provide the seed capital and then others come in to support them," Berber said.
That's what happened to Badgerdog.
Today, the charity is out of Moore's living room and in a real office. It has a $437,000 annual budget — including grants from the Silverton, KDK-Harman and Austin Community foundations — and will soon be in 18 Central Texas schools.
It's a program that 16-year old Krystella Rangel says changed her life.
"I've learned I have great talent," said Krystella, who goes to Badgerdog classes at Travis High School twice a week. "I never knew that. And I'm not shy anymore. Before, I couldn't talk in front of people."
None of that would have happened without Glimmer, Moore said.
"It sounds so corny, but in addition to the money, they gave us hope," she said. "They believed in us."
Seeds of hope
Philip and Donna Berber, the Westlake couple that created A Glimmer of Hope seven years ago, met in a London disco in 1982.
Philip was from Dublin. Donna was from London.
Listening to them tell the story of their meeting is like watching a well-rehearsed game of comedy pingpong.
"I'm standing there chatting with some gorgeous fellow," Donna begins.
"It was her girlfriends," Philip corrects.
"I turn around, and there's bloody beer on me!"
"Which she tipped on herself."
"Which he threw on me to get my attention!"
"And the rest," Philip concludes, "is history."
They married in June 1985.
The following month, Donna went to the Live Aid concert at London's Wembley Stadium, which raised money for famine relief in Ethiopia.
"That changed my life," said Donna, 47.
She promised herself that if she ever had a lot of money, she'd do something to help people in Africa.
In 1991, the sale of Financia, the Berber's financial software company, brought the family to Houston. In 1995, they moved to Austin and started CyBerCorp, an online trading company.
In 2000, the Berbers sold CyBerCorp to Charles Schwab Corp. for $488 million.
The couple pledged to put 4 million shares of Schwab stock in an endowment for international charity work. At the time of the pledge, that was worth $100 million.
To offset a drop in the value of Schwab stock, the Berbers would eventually contribute almost 5 million shares to the foundation as well as $585,000 in cash. Today, the endowment is worth $64 million.
Since then, the foundation has doled out more than $20 million in grants in Ethiopia and the United Kingdom.
Its money has dug wells, built health clinics, and expanded schools in Africa. It's backed soccer programs for youth, job training for the homeless and volunteer efforts in England.
In 2003, they started the Austin arm of the nonprofit.
The concept, Philip Berber said, was to connect with "community angels," people already working in their neighborhoods with little or no money.
Though those people may not have some of the trappings of a mature nonprofit — high-powered boards of directors, official budgets, offices, staffs, computers, long-range plans — the Berbers say they have other assets like passion, initiative and a true concern for their neighbors.
"These people have the right heart, the right mission, the right idea," Donna Berber said. "Let's give them a chance."
"We've never invested in a program or project," added Philip Berber, 48. "We're investing in people. We're trying to find the gaps out there."
That idea doesn't go far with some foundations, said Peter Frumkin, director of the RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service at the University of Texas in Austin.
Foundations are often skittish about funding new nonprofits, he said. They want charities with a history of success, the kind of nonprofit that looks good to critical boards of directors.
Hands-on grantors
Glimmer was the first major grantor to 28 of the 56 projects it has supported so far, a nearly unheard-of number in philanthropy circles.
"I think that's an extremely high, impressive ratio," Frumkin said. "That's outstanding. It's very unusual."
What's also unusual, according to people who work with Glimmer, is how hands-on the Berbers are with their foundation. They help pick the grant recipients, visit the nonprofits, talk to the clients.
"The reality is I've never met the founders of any other foundation I'm working with," Moore said. "I've met Philip and Donna. They know me by name. That is powerful."
Another big difference between Glimmer and other foundations: no rejection letters. Ever.
"They're crushing," Philip Berber said. "Everyone gets a personal phone call. It's about how we can help them. We want to be partners."
Gloria Perez-Walker, whose grass-roots nonprofit Latina Mami offers support groups, classes and a clothes closet for Latina mothers, knows all about the challenge of trying to prove herself to established donors.
"They want boards of directors with big important people," she said. "My board of directors are women with babies in diapers who are changing them on the table during a meeting."
That's the kind of group the Berbers say they like, one with ground-level community support. Latina Mami was one of the first Austin groups the foundation funded.
Back then, the nonprofit helped 1,000 women a year. Today, due to its growing grant base, it serves almost 5,000.
But giving a nonprofit a chance doesn't always mean giving it what it wants.
Latina Mami initially asked Glimmer to fund a pregnancy-related program. Instead, Glimmer gave Perez-Walker, whose office did not have an indoor bathroom, a telephone or air conditioning, $25,000 for a new office and supplies.
"They gave us the stability we needed," Walker said.
Family affairs
After seven years in the philanthropy world,a conversation with the Berbers about charity still involves lots of words like "passion" and "thrilling," lots of big hand gestures and big smiles.
And they've passed that enthusiasm down to their children.
Their son Ryan, 20, has donated money to Caritas and People's Community Clinic. He helped start an after-school tutoring program at the Boys and Girls Club. And someday, he says, he wants to take charge of the foundation, a foundation he says suits his parents perfectly.
"Dad always needs to do something and it always has to be something nobody's ever done before," Ryan said. "My mom wants to be a mother to everyone in the world."
In addition to startups, Glimmer has given money to more established groups, such as Communities in Schools and the Boys and Girls Club, to launch programs in underserved areas.
The Texas Cooperative Extension's 4-H Capital program, for example, recently expanded its school-based science and technology program into the Dove Springs neighborhood with Glimmer's money.
Glimmer tracks success through some of the same reporting measures all foundations use, such as the number of people served per program.
But Glimmer measures success in other ways, such as how many other groups a nonprofit is collaborating with or how much additional money it has secured from other donors. If they do well, they qualify for additional Glimmer money.
Latina Mami is still in the fold. And Perez-Walker credits Glimmer with changing the way other foundations see startup charities.
"Other funders are slowly starting to come around," she said. "And it's because of A Glimmer of Hope."
By Andrea Ball.