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by Stephen Parezo

From left, Fiducial financial advisor Gary Snyder presents a $250 check to marketing director Amy Allen and principal Anne Wiles of Saints Joan of Arc and Patrick School in Kokomo, IN. Fiducial makes a contribution to Indianapolis area private schools for every new mortgage or home refinance closed by them.

October 24, 2005—Gary Snyder thought it was an idea whose time had come. After getting his plan approved, the Indianapolis-based Fiducial financial advisor intended to approach local private schools with a proposal that could benefit both parties.

Snyder came up with the concept of contacting several schools that are largely self-sufficient when it comes to generating funds for their institutions. He first met with Saints Joan of Arc and Patrick School in Kokomo, IN., where administrators embraced his idea that involves Fiducial making a contribution to the school for every new mortgage or home refinance closed by them.

“I knew the school was looking for ways to raise money,” he said. “I have children that go to school there so I thought if we could use the school to get our fliers out. In return, this would be a nice way to make a small contribution to the school.”

This is just one of the ways in which Fiducial is reaching out to the community. As part of Fiducial’s “Adopt A School” program, company offices have adopted schools in their area and are working to promote increased involvement in the educational systems and support for future business leaders. Some of these types of activities include hiring student interns who may want to go into the accounting/finance field, holding education seminars for parents, making career day presentations and finding creative ways such as the above to help schools with fundraising efforts in a win-win situation.  

With many investors looking tentatively at the markets these days, companies offering financial products are exploring innovative ways to increase revenue.

“The investment side right now is kind of a wait-and-see attitude with the economy and oil prices so I don’t see a lot of people jumping into it right now,” said Snyder who has 10 years of experience in financial services, holding Series 7 and Series 65 licenses. “But if you have good asset allocation and a financial plan it really doesn’t matter when you get into the market.”

As it turned out, the school was “more than happy to do it.” The school recently sent fliers home with students. Prospective clients can be either a faculty member, student family or a referral from a student family. Once the deal is closed, the contribution is made to the school.

Encouraging response

So far, Snyder says the response has been encouraging just from Saint Joan’s alone.

“We closed one more mortgage, were working on another one and had two other applications we had to turn down,” he said. “At the end of this month we’ll have four other schools included in the program.”

Other participating schools include Theodore Guerin High School, St. Mary’s and St. Lawrence Schools in Lafayette, IN.

“These are private schools but they have a program where they send home an order form and you buy gift certificates to local stores who donate a certain percentage back to the school,” Snyder explained.

Earlier this month, Snyder presented a $250 check to principal Anne Wiles and marketing director Amy Allen of Sts. Joan of Arc and Patrick School. A photo of the presentation later appeared in The Catholic Moment, a weekly newspaper in the diocese of Lafayette that goes out to over 10,000 homes.

“This is another way of marketing yourself,” he said. “A lot of these schools when they have special events allow us to put up a table when people come in and any business that comes from that we’ll make a donation.”

Stephen Parezo is the Media Manager for Fiducial.

Whatever your small business needs, your Fiducial tax and financial professional can analyze your situation and recommend an appropriate action plan. To locate a Fiducial office nearest you on fiducial.com, see the Zip Code Locator located in the upper right hand corner of the page. Do you have a particular topic that we should be writing about that can help your business? Please send your suggestions to: stephen.parezo@fiducial.com.

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