honoring Evie's gift

The Lehman Foundation this year turns 35 years old. At Christmas Evie gave $300 to the philanthropic enterprise and pushed the fund over the $7,000.00 mark. My two brothers and I signed a thank-you card and presented it to Evie. Our combined contributions to the Foundation rarely amounted to more than one hundred dollars a year. Contributions to nonprofit causes always came from the earnings and much of the earnings were transferred to the capital base. So we saw our contributions double and earn enough to make grants annually.

"foundation" meets

That is, the Lehman Foundation met at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia today. That's it--Mel, left, me and Milton.

The minutes of our annual meeting are not public, but I think I could divulge that in the 32 years of its existence, this is the first year the balance fell. Not as far as Wall Street, but by a few points.

This is also the first year we split our benevolences two ways. One to a population concern group and one to a prison reform group.

You have to understand that we are talking about three brothers who want a day out. Some brothers go fishing. We pretend we are a foundation. The money is real--a little bit more real than Monopoly money.

The Phillies were tossing around a baseball and practicing for a world series game as we met. It was purely an after-thought to me that baseball was not mentioned once. We ate lunch and held our annual session in the food court.

not my Lehmans

You gotta love a brother who sends you this email when the markets are scary and the mighty Lehman Bros. is looking for a buyer:

"There's Lehman Bros (as in Wall St.), and there is Lehman Brothers (as in the powerful Foundation)--and we know which group counts more in the Eternal scheme of things!--Milt"

The "powerful foundation" is our little philanthropic hobby, dealing in nickels and dimes. Thanks, brother.

Milton and me at subway

After meeting at the parking lot at noon, Milton and I drove west on the Old Harrisburg Pike to the Subway on Dillerville Road. I'm proud of my new t-shirt from Iowa, thanks to Ryan.


After setting the camera on the trash bin for a timed photo, a clerk offered to snap the picture. I think her thick glasses pushed us off center. We tried again, but got the exact same shot. So here it is.


We had just finished an informal discussion of what to do with the funds in the Lehman Foundation in these times of low returns on capital.