Brothers Ben (deceased in 2004) and Milton Baran were lifelong associates of the Southwestern Bag Company, a family-owned business started in 1927 by their immigrant parents, Max and Anna Baran. Ben, together with his late wife, Sarah, created a fund at The Foundation in 1976 to memorialize his in-laws, Jacob and Zlata Colloff. Subsequently, Ben and Milton established an endowment fund in memory of their parents. The brothers told their story in 2003.
"As very spiritual people, we're committed to being part of the community. We'd much rather pray in a synagogue with a congregation than at home alone. So we joined The Foundation family because it represents our 'congregation of tzedakah,' and is a very fitting place to perpetuate our parents' names. Also, because so many charities appealed to us each year for their current needs, we wanted to create a permanent source of funding for them. That became our endowment fund. Today, it mainly supports the United Jewish Fund, Jewish Free Loan Association, Jewish education, Israel, and the Jewish poor, elderly and hungry.
Our endowment fund at The Foundation is most probably the single biggest accomplishment that we ever made together in our lives. We disciplined ourselves with a set goal, and every year put whatever we could afford into it. Today, it's quite a significant endowment fund that gives us a much greater purpose in life.
The Foundation helped perpetuate our family's involvement in this process even beyond our lives. Future generations will automatically be involved with representatives of The Foundation in making distributions from our fund. It ties us with generations yet unborn.
Trust means everything in our relationship with The Foundation, because we're literally giving The Foundation an enormous 'paycheck' and saying, 'Do right by us.' But we've never been concerned about trust, because when you give money to The Foundation, it's watched over by an extremely competent and highly skilled professional staff, and outstanding community leaders. They're guarding the assets with only one interest-the benefit of the community today and for the future."
Ben and Milton Baran