Invest For Kids, Making an "Impact" on Kids All Over Chicago

“Our philosophy is to focus on smaller organizations where we believe we can make an ‘impact gift,'” says Invest For Kids co-founder Ron Levin.

Created as an investable ideas conference dedicated to benefiting children's charities throughout the Chicago area,

held its third-annual conference in November. “This year's event was a big success,” Ben Kovler, who co-founded Invest For Kids with Levin, told Benzinga this week. “We had close to 800 people there and raised just under $1.1 million. We hope and expect to get to $1.1 million, as some money comes in at the end.” Levin told us that he and Kovler “spend a significant amount of time doing due diligence on the charitable recipients.” “We receive about 40-50 solicitations each year and have a fairly thorough process for vetting the seven organizations we ultimately select,” Levin explained. “A critical part of this process is visiting each organization and meeting with their executive director and staff. We believe the quality of each organization's team is critically important to their success.” Levin said that their philosophy is to focus on smaller organizations where he and Kovler can make an “impact gift.” “Typically these organizations have budgets between $1-2 million, and to date, we've been able to give each one of these about $150,000, which represents 10-15% of their budget,” said Levin. “In an environment where budgets are under pressure, our donation can really move the needle for these organizations. It's been very gratifying to see the positive impact Invest For Kids has made on 19 groups to date.” “We're always asked about the areas in which we're focused,” Levin continued. “It's actually quite broad, and we have intentionally chosen not to strictly define our focus. We simply want to help organizations which help kids in the Chicago area. The only thing we have defined is our personal commitment. Ben and I have paid all costs associated with the event for the past three years and intend to do so into the future. This has enabled 100% of the roughly $3 million that we've raised to go directly to the charitable organizations.”

“In our first year we had 500 people and sold out,” said Kovler. “We raised about $800,000. Then last year we moved up to a little bit of a larger venue, the Harris Theater, which is where it was this year. We had over 700 people and raised just over one million dollars.” But make no mistake: Invest For Kids isn't just about supporting local charities in Chicago. “The thing that makes this event so unique is that while investors come because they like the idea of a charitable event, we think that 90% of the people are coming to hear the investible ideas that are being presented,” said Kovler. “Each speaker talks for about 15 minutes on a specific investible idea. So they might get up there and talk about a specific stock to buy and walk through a very fundamental and detailed analysis about why they think that stock is going up if it's long, or down if it's a short. So the people leave with very tangible advice, and many of these guys are portfolio managers, or analysts, or investors themselves, so they get a worksheet – an idea flow – to work through, sort of a target list.” That, Kovler said, is why he believes Invest For Kids has become so successful. “Attendees gain a lot for being there,” he said. “We feel good about supporting the local charities. But it's not an annual dinner. It's not a golf outing. It's not a walk-a-thon. They're actually getting something for coming.”

Immediately after wrapping Invest For Kids 2011, Kovler and Levin began planning for the fourth-annual event, which is scheduled to take place in the fall of 2012. “We basically start right away as we start brainstorming, thinking, ‘What can we tweak? How can we improve it? How can we make it better?'” Kovler explained. “But the bulk of the prep starts next year.”

If you missed this year's event but would like to show your support, Kovler said that you can still donate to Invest For Kids. “That money would go directly to these charities, which we have done a lot of work screening in an effort to pick what we believe are very well qualified groups that are having a large impact on the children,” he said. “We do have a number of people that make a donation that don't come to the event.”