Meet Maxine Clark & Bob Fox

1+1 Really Can Equal 10,000

Maxine and Bob approach their philanthropic interests in immigration, incarceration, and education with the same zeal that characterized their careers founding and running their own companies.

“ When an issue captures our attention, we work with others to study it, explore solutions, and take action,” says Maxine. “ It’s how we handled our charitable giving plan, and it’s how we discovered the St. Louis Community Foundation.”

“Philanthropy is contagious,” says Bob. “We wanted to work with the Community Foundation because it brings together people who are committed both to giving and to St. Louis.” As they worked on their giving plan, Maxine and Bob were also in the midst of trying to creatively address the local challenge of pairing kids with summer camps. “

Camps had space available,” says Bob. “ But parents didn’t know where to look to find a program that met their needs.”

Blueprint4Summer.com emerged from Maxine’s and Bob’s efforts. It is a smartphone app and an online database of over 3,500 regional summer camp sessions that parents can use to search by location, schedule, gender, and other criteria, using a mobile device, tablet, or desktop computer.

“Awareness among parents, schools, and camps is key to the website’s success,” says Maxine.

“After seeing their promotion of Give STL Day, I knew the Community Foundation could help with ideas, and they did.”

In its first year, 72,000 searches using Blueprint4 Summer were conducted, with 35 percent of the users calling St. Louis City and North County home. Both Maxine and Bob hear from parents about how the website helped connect kids to camps. Today, they are planning to introduce the initiative to other communities. “We’ve got the infrastructure, all that is needed is local information,” says Bob.

“Problem, solution, action – it’s what we do best. The Community Foundation does what they do best – improve charitable outcomes by applying their experience and knowledge.”