There are companies all over the world that look to make the communities in which they operate better places. But there are a select few where philanthropy becomes part of the company’s DNA. The Gene B. Glick Co. is one of them.
“When I work hard every day to help make a business successful, that’s a good feeling. I’ve felt that in many jobs,” says Ellie Lindhjem, service coordinator manager at Carriage House East, a Glick property in Indianapolis. “But when the company I work for is as philanthropically focused as Glick is, and I can see the impact the company has on the larger community, I feel a deeper sense of satisfaction than what I envisioned ‘work’ would ever feel like.”
That’s the feeling Glick’s founder, Eugene “Gene” Glick, was looking to cultivate. But in order to do such good in the world, he first had to build a successful business.
Single-Family Beginnings
Glick co-founded the Gene B. Glick Co. in Indianapolis in 1947 with his wife, Marilyn, not long after having served in World War II. He built the firm into the largest single-family home builder in Indiana by the early 1960s and built the company’s first apartment community in 1962.
By 1974, multifamily housing had become Glick’s sole focus, and now, 70 years after it began, the company is one of the largest privately held real estate management and development firms in the country, with more than 20,000 units in 12 states.
Its current portfolio consists of roughly 40% conventional and 60% affordable units. David Barrett, the company’s chairman, president, and CEO, says Glick is a long-term holder of its properties but will sell when a good deal pops up. Because of its diverse portfolio, Barrett adds, Glick fared decently well during the downturn and only sold a “handful” of properties in the past two years when the market was “white hot.”
Most of Glick’s properties are in secondary or tertiary markets, and, Barrett notes, most assets in the conventional portfolio are about 25 to 35 years old and could be described as Class B.
Glick doesn’t develop many properties anymore, choosing to focus on managing and owning now, but it is working on a 196-unit luxury building on the north side of Indianapolis. The project’s first units were delivered in April and the rest in September.
Though its development appetite might be modest, Glick has been buying properties this cycle. Barrett, whose wife is the grandchild of the two company founders, joined the firm in 2007. At the time, the company had about 17,000 units in 10 states.
All of the firm’s acquisitions in the past few years have been in the affordable space, says Chad Greiwe, Glick’s executive vice president. Greiwe expects that trend to continue for the “foreseeable future,” adding that the conventional market is too hot at the moment.
“The [conventional] market has blown up and it’s still blowing up,” he says. “We see our opportunity when things start to cool off a little bit on the conventional side; we really want to be selective and opportunistic about growing the conventional portfolio. Right now, we’re more aggressive on the affordable side.”
Since 2010, Glick has acquired 23 affordable properties, totaling 4,014 units.
Most of Glick’s affordable portfolio is Sec. 8. But no matter whether the units are market rate or affordable, Barrett says, Glick operates them the same way. “Just because people don’t have means doesn’t mean they’re not entitled to quality affordable housing,” he says of the founders’ philosophy.
That philosophy is a major reason why Indianapolis mayor Joe Hogsett is a big fan of Glick’s. “I don’t care what urban [area] you’re living in, affordable housing is just an issue everywhere you go,” he says. “And David Barrett and Gene B. Glick Co.’s leadership in that area has really enhanced making the full spectrum of housing available to as many residents of the city as can be.”
Gene and Marilyn Glick, who died in 2012 and 2013, respectively, still have a profound impact on the company, especially through its various philanthropic entities.
Philanthropic Focus
In 1982, Gene and Marilyn Glick established their philanthropic arm, now known as the Glick Philanthropies. Today, it holds more than $600 million in charitable assets in the various entities under its umbrella, each with a specific focus, such as the Glick Family Foundation, which makes grants, and Glick Gives, which matches qualified charitable contributions from Glick employees to not-for-profit organizations. A third entity, the Gene B. Glick Family Housing Foundation, owns a number of the affordable properties managed by the Gene B. Glick Co. and works to acquire, develop, and preserve quality affordable housing throughout the U.S.
And this year, to mark the company’s 70th anniversary, the Glick Family Foundation selected 70 employees at random and gave them $1,000 each to designate to the charity of their choice in an extension of the Glick Gives program. As a whole, Glick has more than 750 employees.
The bulk of Gene and Marilyn’s wealth went to the Glick Family Foundation, which, in turn, has been the primary funder behind the entities and initiatives of the Glick Philanthropies.
“We’ve had such a successful for-profit business that our founders could do this,” says Barrett, who also oversees the company’s philanthropic arm. “Gene and Marilyn had the foresight and values that really drive the company to say, ‘Hey, we really want to give back to the community.’ ”
As a whole, Barrett says, the company has donated about $150 million in its history. These days, though, it’s more strategic in doing so.
For the past two years, Glick Philanthropies has homed in on Indianapolis’ Far Eastside, which Barrett describes as one of the most impoverished neighborhoods in the city. Rather than making more one-off grants, the organization “wanted to develop a comprehensive strategic plan to really lift up the Far Eastside,” he says.
Glick, in conjunction with the Central Indiana Community Foundation, has been working on a collective impact plan that looks at societal problems, including housing, education, and intergenerational poverty, in the area.
The Far Eastside Success Initiative has special meaning for the company because Glick’s original headquarters were based there.
“In order to make an impact and be successful, we wanted to be thoughtful and deliberate about it; we wanted to not impose our plan on that community, but involve the community,” Barrett says, adding that local input has been sought throughout the process.
Although it’s in the early stages of the Far Eastside Success Initiative, Glick is starting to see results, according to Ryan Brady, Glick Philanthropies philanthropic adviser. On the education front, Glick Philanthropies and Gene B. Glick Co. are supporting the Phalen Leadership Academy at Francis Scott Key 103, an Indianapolis Public School elementary school. Last school year, the school’s percentage of students who demonstrated proficiency in math and English language arts rose 8.1% from the previous year, according to the Indiana Department of Education.
Brady says there’s still much work to be done at the school, but things are heading in the right direction.
“So many charitable efforts are well-meaning, but many times they’re trying to serve such a broad population that the support they provide is diffused a bit,” says Hogsett. “That’s why I commend the Glick Philanthropies for its focus on the Far Eastside of our city. It’s an area that’s in desperate need of the type of public–private partnership investment the Glick Philanthropies is so good at doing. With that laser focus, we can see the dial move not over 10 to 20 years but in one to two years.”
Glick Philanthropies has invested more than $6.4 million in the Far Eastside, and by the end of 2017, the company’s philanthropic entities will have invested $8 million. Glick is also the lead organization coordinating multiple community partners, including the local United Way, the city’s largest school district, Goodwill Industries, and other neighborhood-serving groups as they work to implement the comprehensive redevelopment plan. Glick has invested in three full-time social workers at its Far Eastside property to help residents climb the economic ladder.
That property, Carriage House East (CHE), has more than 600 units and is used by Glick as a conduit to bring services and programs into the community. To bolster its efforts, Glick is planning to spend at least $2 million on a community center at CHE that will offer services to residents like workforce development training and after-school programs. Glick is soliciting residents’ help in both designing the building and determining the types of resources it will offer. According to Brady, crews will break ground in February or March 2018, and the center will open next fall.
“I just don’t see [many] companies doing these types of things,” says Brady. “To be so intentional about not only spending that kind of money, but also thinking that process is just as important as the project.”
Hogsett says that in addition to the money Glick has donated in Indianapolis, the thousands of volunteer hours the company’s employees have contributed over the years have made a stark difference in the city’s most troubled neighborhoods. Of the Glick company and family legacy, Hogsett says: “Without their continued commitment, I would be talking to you today as the mayor of this city looking at a much different forecast for the continued evolution of those neighborhoods.”
Overall, the Far Eastside Success Initiative is still in the planning stages, but Glick is invested in the project for the long haul.
“If we can be the catalyst and we can get other interested stakeholders involved,” Barrett says, “we think we can really gain traction there and take a really hard-hit area of town and give it the lift up it needs.
“Philanthropy is just part of who we are.”
