Charitable Works Award:
This award is presented to women who devote considerable resources and energy to philanthropic causes.
Ellen Kratzer, managing director, Fiduciary Trust
At 8 years old, Ellen Kratzer first felt the tug of philanthropy, organizing a neighborhood fair and raising $30 for Childrens Aid.
Back in the early 1970s-and especially for an 8-year-old-that was a lot of money.
Kratzer gets her indomitable spirit of charity from her parents-her mother is involved in the Junior League and her father in various causes within their church. Kratzer wanted to follow their example, being fortunate to grow up in suburban Connecticut but not oblivious to the misfortunes of others in neighboring areas.
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She told Traders Magazine she was always involved in lot of charitable activities throughout her academic career-from high school through her graduation from Princeton in 1985. Upon commencement, Kratzer joined Chemical Banks international private banking division in Rockefeller Center serving its wealthy Middle Eastern clients. While there working with ultra-high-net-worth clients, she felt the need to get involved in the local community and aligned herself with the Junior League of New York. There, she served as a volunteer paralegal helping victims of domestic violence gain control of their lives and make a fresh start.
This gave balance to my life, Kratzer said. All day long I was talking to phenomenally wealthy clients from the Middle East and sitting 62 floors up. Taking that elevator ride down and going to the Legal Aid Society in its Harlem office balanced out that life.
The New York Junior League has been a balancing force in Kratzers life ever since. She remains actively involved with the organization, serving on its board, and was its president from 2000 to 2002. Once a small girl putting on a block fair back in Connecticut, she would eventually oversee 3,000 volunteers involved in 35 different community projects.
The Junior League is a wonderful organization, providing volunteer opportunities to help develop the potential of women, Kratzer said. It helped me develop leadership skills, both in myself and in other women, taught me how to manage groups of people and large budgets and to interact with a whole variety of community organizations.
Through her involvement in the New York Junior League, she has helped build an apartment building in Harlem for homeless people and educated incarcerated women in prison. Kratzer also has helped Brooklyn families affected by the events of Sept. 11, 2001, orchestrating a revamping of the leagues community program in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks and raising $300,000. All this from her office at Fiduciary Trust, a wholly owned subsidiary of Franklin Templeton, in Lower Manhattan.
Now Kratzer is preparing to serve as the president of the Association of Junior Leagues International, which serves more than 300 different communities across the world and has 155,000 volunteers spread across the U.S., U.K., Mexico and Canada.
She is also a former chair of the board of the U.S. Association for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Shes come a long way.
Id say many people get involved in charities because they want to give back, she said. But what is really amazing is that you often end up receiving so much more than you give.
