The goal of GIFT is to encourage individuals, non-profits, and corporations to use the power of compound interest to double charity around the world.

Anyone can get involved – with small, or larger amounts of money. All non-profit purposes fit within the scope of GIFT. This includes the major charitable categories: education, arts, culture and humanities, health, environment, economic development and youth leadership, as well as any non-profit purpose you champion.

The two founding principals are Sam Beard, Chairman, and John Janas, President. GIFT began as a project of the National Development Council which was founded in 1972. NDC is a 501 c 3 public foundation and is one of America’s leading economic development organizations.

For more information, please contact:

John Janas
President
GIFT
Suite 710
708 Third Avenue
New York, NY 10017
212-682-1106
jjanas@globalinvestmentfoundation.org

                    Sam Beard

Sam Beard has dedicated his working life to public service. Through different national non-profit organizations that he runs, Sam Beard has initiated and then chaired programs for each of the last seven Presidents of the United States - Presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush.

In 1965, he began as Staff Associate to U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy working to revitalize Bedford-Stuyvesant, a low-income community in Brooklyn, New York.

In 1969, Mr. Beard founded and remains Chairman of the National Development Council (NDC), a national non-profit organization dedicated to redeveloping urban and rural low-income communities. NDC has initiated and run four Presidential job creation programs for Presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter and Reagan, and has been responsible for over $100 billion of revitalization financing. NDC trains over 3,000 economic development professionals annually in all 50 states. There are six major federal economic development tools in the United States, and NDC has pioneered and helped to create two of them.

In 1972, Mr. Beard established the American Institute for Public Service and the Jefferson Awards to create a Nobel Prize for public service. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and U.S. Senator Robert Taft, Jr. were the founding co-chairs. The Institute recognizes both ordinary people who do extraordinary things and individuals whose public service has had a broad national impact. Over 155 newspapers, television and radio stations herald local "Unsung Heroes" - the nation's largest media partnership fostering volunteerism. (The estimated value of the print and air space exceeds $75 million.)

In 1992, working with President George Bush, Mr. Beard originated the President's Student Service Awards to attract thousands of young Americans into service. In 1997, at the Presidents' Summit on Volunteerism in Philadelphia, Presidents Bush, Carter, Clinton and Ford, along with Mrs. Reagan and Colin Powell, adopted these awards and set the national goal of attracting two million young Americans to do 100 hours of service. At the urging of Mr. Beard, in January 2003 President George W. Bush held the first major presidential press conference highlighting the youth service awards. He appointed a Presidential Council, co-chaired by U.S. Senators Bob Dole and John Glenn.

Beginning in 1992, Mr. Beard began work to save and reform America's Social Security system. Mr. Beard believes that the Social Security debate must be focused on saving our retirement safety net and on the need to create savings and wealth for all Americans. He wrote a book, Restoring Hope In America - The Social Security Solution (ICS Press 1995). In 1994, Mr. Beard founded and became President of Economic Security 2000, with leadership from U.S. Senators Alan Simpson, Rick Santorum, Bob Kerrey and Pat Moynihan. To seek these reforms, Mr. Beard worked with the Clinton Administration 1997 - 2000. In 2001, Mr. Beard was appointed to serve on President George W. Bush's Social Security Commission. He continues to work with the White House on reform.

Mr. Beard is a graduate of Yale University and earned a M.A. in history from Columbia University. He is married, the father of three children and resides in Wilmington, Delaware.

                    John Janas

John Janas is an executive with extensive start-up, turnaround and international media experience. He has provided multinational corporations, venture capital groups, and private entities with senior management leadership in operations, finance and sales/marketing media strategies.

Janas started his entrepreneurial career when he worked his way through Boston College Law School by creating a business which employed fellow students to unload freight cars for local railroad companies.

After graduating from law school and passing the bar exam, he was commissioned as a captain in the Judge Advocate General Corps and served as a military lawyer in the U.S. Army in the late sixties. During part of his tour, he was stationed in Frankfurt, Germany giving him his first experience working in an international environment.

Upon honorable discharge from the military, Janas was interested in applying his legal skills in the business world and accepted an offer to become general counsel of XTRA, Inc., a transportation leasing company based in Boston. Over the next five years, he subsequently became responsible for the international leasing operations for the company establishing depots in Europe and North Africa.

When Janas was recruited by Allied Van Lines in Chicago in the mid seventies, his experience expanded as he rose to general counsel with additional responsibility for the company's insurance subsidiary corporation. He was then appointed head of Allied's operating division which transported high value equipment for commercial enterprises.

Rollins, Inc., an Atlanta-based diversified company, recruited Janas to run corporate administration including the legal, insurance and human resources departments. Within two years of joining Rollins, Janas was given a promotion which began his career in the media business. As president of the Rollins Media Group, he was responsible for the television, radio, cable television and outdoor advertising divisions which included an operation in Mexico.

Janas left Rollins in the l980's to pursue his entrepreneurial interests in emerging media by participating in the dynamic growth of the cable television business. He was president of three newly-launched networks including The Weather Channel, Bravo and American Movie Classics. He led each of those companies successfully through accelerated growth and improved profitability.

In l988, he established Janas International Enterprises, Inc. (JIE), and the company's clients have included Merrill Lynch Capital Fund, Time Warner and CNN International as well as European joint media ventures such as N-TV and NBC Germany.

In the l990's, as Managing Director, Time Warner International, Janas was based in Berlin and London and was responsible for implementing the European new media strategy to create joint ventures with international partners to launch national and regional programming services throughout Europe.

Throughout his career, John Janas has been committed to giving back to help others, and he now spends the majority of his time consulting in the nonprofit sector as well as mentoring young entrepreneurs and volunteering for community service.