The History of the PFA Foundation by President Robert Shira
	In 1985, the Board of Trustees of the PFA Academy authorized the establishment of a Foundation that would support the programs of the Academy and develop funds to support a Grant/Project Program that would benefit the dental profession. These funds were to come from donations of the PFA members, bequests, planned giving, memorials, and honor contributions as well as grants from other professional and private sources. Dr. Clifford Loader, a past PFA President, with legal assistance, developed the Constitution and ByLaws for the Foundation, which was incorporated under the laws of the State of California. This was accomplished on 23 May 1986. These legal documents established that the Foundation would be a separate corporation governed by a Board of Directors consisting of past PFA Presidents who were willing and able to serve. The ByLaws were subsequently revised to permit the Academy President and the Academy President-elect to serve as Foundation Trustees. The revision also provided that the Foundation Board of Trustees be no larger than 14 members, including the Academy President and Academy President-elect. Later, an Executive Director was authorized and a committee structure was established, which consisted of an Executive Committee, the Budget and Finance Committee, the Grants Committee, and the Constitution and ByLaws Committee. A detailed protocol for the submission of grants and projects was detailed to insure a complete evaluation of each request. This process provided for the development of recommendations for approval, deferment, or rejection of submitted requests for presentation to the Foundation Trustees. The full Board of Trustees would make the final decision. The goals and guidelines for the Grants/Projects Programs were drawn up to cover the type of grant requests and project applications that the Foundation would consider for funding. An information brochure covering this information was developed for distribution to individuals and organizations seeking funding. Publicity in many forms, through dental publications and meetings, described our process. In time, applications were received. During World War II, Dr. Robert Shira was stationed at Gorgas Hospital in the Panama Canal Zone. While there, he assisted the dentists in the adjoining areas to found a dental association called the Federation Odontologia Central America and Panama (FOCAP). Through this group, Dr. Shira became acquainted with a dentist from Costa Rica named Frenando Brenes Espinach. This developed into a long-lasting friendship. Dr. Shira kept in touch with Dr. Espinach through the succeeding years. Dr. Clifford Loader, past PFA President and Editor, in his many travels throughout Latin America representing the Academy, also became friendly with Dr. Espinach. Dr. Loader would stay at his house in Costa Rica, and Dr. Espinach often visited Dr. Loader’s house in California.		Dr. Espinach became impressed with the Academy and served a term as Region VII Trustee for Latin America on the Academy Board. In 1984, Dr. Espinach received the Elmer Best Award from the Academy President Robert Shira before a large crowd in the Opera House in San Jose, Costa Rica. The U.S. Ambassador to Costa Rica presented Dr. Espinach with an autographed photograph of President Ronald Reagan. This entire ceremony of being honored in his own country by the Academy and the U.S. President made such a lasting impression on Dr. Espinach that he included the Foundation in his will. When he died in 1992, outliving most of the other heirs, the Foundation was richer by several million dollars. The Foundation itself had been established years earlier, but the members’ contributions went entirely to funding student scholarships. It was at that time that the Foundation Trustees decided to stop funding any projects to allow the Foundation to build up a principal of at least $100,000, the interest of which would be spent on scholarships and grants. With the legacy of Dr. Espinach, that time came quickly. Dr. Espinach had named four beneficiaries in his will. The first, his brother Carlos Brenes Espinach, preceded him in death. The second, Dr. Espinach’s longtime housekeeper Nelly Chaves Araya, accepted a lump sum payment of $218,000 rather than small amounts until her death, with the rest going to the Foundation. The third beneficiary, a classmate, Dr. Newton Allen of Selma, Alabama, followed suit by accepting $450,000 to settle his part of the will. The fourth heir was the PFA Foundation. After settling all the bills and liquidating what assets could be done, the cash amount of the will came to over $5 million. These funds were then transferred to the United States for investing. Currently, the amount is over $6 million. The Foundation today is involved in three major areas of funding. The first is the Dental Student Scholarship Program. The funding of these scholarships was based on the planned $100,000 apportioned by the percentage of Academy membership in each country. Two thirds of the membership comes from the United States, so two thirds of the money was allocated to the 54 dental schools in the United States. The one third that was designated to the other countries would have been too small to distribute each year to all the other dental schools, so an amount equal to each individual U.S. Scholarship was established on a rotational basis (by membership) to the other countries for student scholarships. And since it was impossible to ascertain which dental schools were legitimate and which were merely preceptorships, the Section Chair of that country would decide which dental schools were to receive the scholarships.

	The History of the PFA Foundation		continued
	This program was instituted in 1996 and is to continue indefinitely. In 1999, the Foundation Board raised the gross amount for scholarships to $120,000 annually with each scholarship being $1500. The second program area is the Foundation Grants/ Projects Program. The first award authorized by the Board was to the PFA Connecticut Section, under the leadership of Dr. Robert Friedman, which developed a program to provide mouthguards for the 1995 Special Olympics held in their state. The program was highly successful and has been duplicated in other states since then. As word of the Foundation’s program became better known in the dental community, requests for support were received and soon exceeded the available funds. The requests were quite varied, so the Board had to establish priorities for funding. These are: • Awards to support dental programs of the PFA. Since 1996, this totals $153,200 • Awards to support PFA Section programs. Since 1996, this amounts to $100,000 • Awards to support service projects that provide dental care to the public • Awards to support educational programs, continuing education courses, and faculty development • Awards to support clinical research • Awards to support miscellaneous programs that have merit which do not fall in any of the other categories In 1998, the Grants Committee proposed a special award known as the Humanitarian Award. This would fund an additional $5000 to the best-applied program for the year. In 1999, the first award went to the MEND Program (Meet Every Need with Dignity) of San Fernando Valley in California. They were presented with an appropriate certificate in a formal presentation. The third area of activity is funding PFA programs and projects in Costa Rica. Since the legacy originated in that country, it was felt by the Board that substantial programs should be funded there. Immediately after receiving the funds from the Espinach estate, the PFA Section in Costa Rica and the Rotary Club of San Jose submitted a request for $100,000 to construct a dental clinic to serve the poorer part of the city in Dr. Espinach’s name. The Board thought this was an excellent means of honoring Dr. Espinach, so the request was approved and several Fellows donated equipment for the clinic, which was shipped down to San Jose. In December of 1993, Foundation President Robert Shira and Academy Secretary/Treasurer Richard Kozal attended the dedication of the clinic site. Costa Rica’s First Lady attended the ceremonies as well. But after that event, construction was delayed and the Rotary Club withdrew from the agreement. The clinic was never built and the PFA shipped equipment was donated to Fundacion Piedad, which operated several dental health clinics in the country. The Foundation then contacted the University of Costa Rica School of Dentistry to discuss a fitting means to honor Dr. Espinach. They suggested developing, constructing, and operating a state of the art Multimedia and Computer Teaching Center at the dental school. The Foundation Board made a commitment of $104,500 over five years to bring this dream to fruition through the Stage Front Presentations Company of Savannah, Georgia. The new Multimedia Center was dedicated last spring. Foundation Vice President Carl Lundgren toured the facility just before its formal dedication and wrote a report of its magnitude for the May/June 2000 issue of Dental World. One of the provisions of Dr. Espinach’s will was a directive that the Foundation establishes and administers certain awards to outstanding dental leaders. The Board felt that Costa Rica would be an ideal venue for these presentations. The Board authorized a yearly grant of $7500 as a bi-annual award.		The 1998-1999 award was scheduled for November of 1998, however the Costa Rica Section postponed it until February of 1999. The 2000-2001 award was held last March, with the presenting clinician being Dr. Bascones of Spain. This award, by the will’s provision, is entitled the Loader-Espinach Award and is a continual program. The Foundation has other reoccurring expenses in addition to the three basic areas of activity. A part-time Executive Director was needed to manage the Foundation office and handle the various Foundation programs. Printing, office supplies and equipment, computer, etc., are part of the administrative costs. Then there are the legal fees for managing the remaining property in Costa Rica and accountant fees for auditing the books. Trustee Liability insurance and “honesty bonds” are also required. Then there are tax considerations. A public foundation requires that one third of its income be funded through contributions. Since our Foundation receives the majority of its funding from the invested assets, it only qualifies as a private foundation. As such, taxes must be paid on the income. The bigger the membership contributions for the year, the less taxes are needed to be paid and the more grants can be approved. The Foundation originally met twice a year at the same time as did the Academy. However, in the past three years the Board decided to meet only once during the PFA/ADA Meetings to save the expenses of two meetings a year while still achieving completion of all the business needed. The Foundation’s second priority in funding is to PFA Sections. The Board wanted the Sections to become more involved in the Grants/Projects Program in their areas. They can develop their own program to serve the dental needs of their Section and get the notoriety for the Pierre Fauchard Academy by doing so. This would give the local Fellows an opportunity to be involved directly. A simplified grant application form was developed and an award of $5000 for each approved application was approved. Several Sections have made use of this “fast track” form, such as Connecticut, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Minnesota, Kentucky, Maryland, Wyoming, and Iowa. To date, over $100,000 has been awarded to the Sections. The Foundation would like more Sections to be aware of this and file for funding their local projects. Another area in which the Sections can be involved is in the dissemination of information regarding the Foundation’s programs. And after the grants have been made, the resultant news release about which groups are funded is prepared by the Grants/Projects Program Chairman. We need to have this distributed to the local dental publications in your area to get the publicity. The recognition will result in more and better projects to fund from the Foundation. The Foundation would like the Sections to be more involved in the Dental Scholarship Program at the presentation ceremony. The Foundation is your Foundation. We need you to be aware of what we are doing and why. Any ideas and suggestions you have to make the Foundation more effective are welcomed. In the past, through such suggestions, the Foundation has been able to fund many worthwhile programs. With your help, together, through your Foundation, we have a great opportunity to significantly contribute to the dental profession. We can only reach our full potential with more Section involvement. On behalf of the Foundation and the Academy, I want to thank you all for what you have done and for what you will continue to do in the future.

	From the desk of the PFA President… Malcolm David Campbell
	Mark your calendar to arrive in Kansas City on 10 October 2001. Your Academy will be sponsoring an absolutely superb course on communication. Our speaker is one of the foremost presenters I have ever heard. We have just finalized our arrangements with him. You and your spouse will remember this as one of the most meaningful and life-changing meetings you have ever attended. Please strongly, soundly, solidly, rigidly, firmly, and resolutely urge, nag, and support your Section Chairs and spouses to attend this particular presentation. Your dental staff would also benefit from this speaker.		In addition, on the morning of Friday, 12 October, a Section Chair Meeting will be held where there will be adequate time and space reserved for participants to exchange ideas about what has worked and not worked for their particular group. There will also be an opportunity for the Chairs to determine what they feel the Academy can do best to support their efforts. That afternoon, there will be a report made to the Board of Trustees regarding the group’s conclusions and recommendations. Section Chairs attending these meetings will be eligible for a meeting stipend.