The Trusted Adviser
January 2014 | Volume 7 · Number 1

UPDATE FROM ATG ADMINISTRATION:

ATG Pays it Forward in 2013, Feeling Strong for 2014

Corporate Year-End Giving

Against the backdrop of landmark changes to our industry (see "A Year-End Review of 2013," December 2013 ATG Trusted Adviser), ATG is poised to begin 2014 in a position of financial strength, our eye on the community, and a mood of celebration. ATG remains fully committed to providing you the support services you need to comply with ALTA Best Practices and the CFPB rule when implemented later this year. I assure you that these issues will remain in the forefront as we begin 2014 — but I also assure you that there are exciting, more lighthearted things on the horizon, too.

Later in 2014, we will celebrate a milestone that most companies never see: our 50th anniversary. We look forward to special events and promotions that honor our founders, our members, and our employees. In keeping with a 50-year tradition includes a culture of generosity and civic responsibility, take a look at some of the ways ATG and two of ATG's most valued members are reaching out to organizations in the community that help people in need.

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ATG President Peter Birnbaum (left) and Top Member Denis Pierce visited the construction site of the Jesse White Community Center on W 412 Chicago Avenue in the old Cabrini Green area. ATG, Pierce, and another of ATG’s top members, Ernie Codilis, recently donated funds to build the technology lab at the Community Center. The Jesse White Community Center is partnered with the Chicago Park District to provide an array of educational and recreational programs for some of Chicago’s most disadvantaged youth, as well as its senior citizens. The Center will also provide a home for the Jesse White Tumblers, a program that has assisted more than 12,000 of Chicago’s youth to date, using athletic training, educational tutoring, and higher education opportunities.

The donations made by ATG and its two top-issuing members, Ernie Codilis and Denis Pierce, were divided among the following organizations:

  • The Cara Program | Prepares and inspires motivated individuals to break the cycle of homelessness and poverty.
  • Chicago Bar Foundation | Ensures that everyone in the Chicago area, particularly those who are low-income and disadvantaged and in need of protection, has equal access to justice.
  • Jesse White Foundation | Provides a positive alternative for inner-city kids through the tumbling team, scholars program, and tutoring program. Our 2013 donation supports a technology lab being built in the foundation's new facility.
  • Mercy Home | Provides kids in crisis with the support and guidance they need to realize their own potential and make positive decisions.

In addition, ATG donated to the following two organizations:

  • Big Brothers | Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago | Makes meaningful, monitored matches between adult volunteers (Bigs) and at-risk children (Littles).
  • Cubs Care | Helps those less fortunate improve their lives and strengthen children and families. Makes grants to qualified nonprofit organizations with programs that concentrate on youth sports, child and youth education, health, and wellness.

ATG also made separate scholarship donations to: IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law and University of Illinois College of Law. The University of Illinois donation supports the Ward F. McDonald Scholarship, established by ATG in 2010 (see photo, below).

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ATG donated $50,000 to the Ward F. McDonald Scholarship at the University of Illinois College of Law. Shown here are Ward F. McDonald (current ATG Chairman of the Board), Jerry Gorman (ATG Senior Vice President - Downstate Operations), and Dean Bruce Smith (University of Illinois College of Law). In addition to being a practicing lawyer at Meyer Capel in Champaign, Mr. McDonald is an adjunct professor at the College of Law. ATG established the Ward F. McDonald Scholarship in 2010.

[Last update: 1-31-14]

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