Episode Seven: Meet BJ Pendill, Founding Member of Guys Who Give Morgan County

 

Transcription:

Kim Cole
Hi everyone, thanks for joining us. I’m Kim Cole, President of the Community Foundation Morgan County and I’m here today with a very special guest, BJ Pendill.

BJ Pendill 
How are you doing? 

Kim Cole
Hi, thanks for being with us, BJ. BJ is a local business owner in Mooresville. He’s a financial planner for Raymond James. And he’s also a corporate sponsor of the Community Foundation. In addition, we steward a fund for him and his wife. And he’s a founding member of Guys Who Give. So again, thank you for joining us. And even more so, thank you for hosting us in your fabulous office space. For those viewers that don’t know, BJ bought a rather historic building in Mooresville a few years ago and renovated it. And it’s quite the buzz. When I took this position last year, one of the first things I heard after having to meet him was ‘Have you seen his office? So, tell us about that BJ.’ 

BJ Pendill  
Well, thanks for coming, happy to have you, uh, yeah. The building project, uh, acquired the building a couple years ago and always had a dream and a vision to have a building in downtown Mooresville, and this particular one was, uh, yeah, just fortunate to acquire and through a lot of work and just kind of a whole revamp of the building we brought back what I think is kind of the historic feel of a building in downtown Mooresville. And that’s a fun place to come to work every day. And our clients love it. And, yeah, we want to find ways to give it back to the community any way we can. 

Kim Cole
It’s absolutely gorgeous. I’m sure it is a wonderful place to come to work for you and your employees and for your clients to visit. And with that, we, of course, partnered with you and appreciate the corporate sponsorship. Just tell our viewers a little bit of why you decided to partner with us. 

BJ Pendill  
Sure, absolutely. With the foundation, I’ve been familiar with it over the years. And you see all the good work that’s being done through the foundation, you know, with local nonprofits that are getting supported through donations. And as you mentioned, like our fund and other families that have funds at the foundation. So became pretty familiar with all the good work that is done. And in this particular year, I wanted to, you know, through our conversation. Jump in and let our business be among some others to support the foundation and a pretty motivating year with the Lilly matching grants that you have so you know, one dollar turns into three dollars, and that was certainly motivating. But just again knowing that there’s a lot of organizations in the county that have been touched by the foundation and the county is better off because of the good work being done. 

 

Kim Cole
Certainly, and we appreciate the support, as BJ said, all corporate sponsorships as well as any other donation into our unrestricted account is triple matched by Lilly Endowment’s Gift 8 program. So, a $100 donation becomes $300. That goes into our unrestricted account which funds our grants. Those go out directly to our not-for-profits. This year our grant budget is $73,000. If we meet our donation goal for Gift 8, that will nearly double that budget for 2026. So, we appreciate your support in that regard. And another exciting program that we’re starting this year is the Guys Who Give Morgan County. And you’ve already joined. I appreciate that. I appreciate that you’re a founding member. And for viewers that are not aware, we have started two giving circles, a women’s group and a men’s group. 100 Women Who Care convened in March, on March the 6th. 81 founding members for the women. So, we granted over $8,000. That was tripled. So, $24,000 went to Stability First. That was a very successful opening night. Guys Who Give is May 1st. So, I believe the last time I looked at the membership numbers, we were around 30 men. I know you’ve been out heavily recruiting. Tell me why you decided to join.

 

BJ Pendill  
Sure 

Kim Cole
Yeah besides the fact that I started harassing you.

BJ Pendill  
Yes, a good a good ask at the beginning for sure but uh no when I when you shared the vision of this particular kind of fundraising generosity effort it uh it struck me as a really interesting way to get like-minded people, like a large group of like-minded people in the county together to fellowship, to exercise their generosity, and just to, again, do things together. You know, move the county forward and to bless an organization. And I do believe as a Christian, we’re called to serve and to give. And I do believe one person can make a difference. But the math guy in me always comes out, and I know one person can do an awful lot. Two people can do. Twice as much, but if you can get 50 to 100 people on that same page to you know be on that common mission then a lot can be achieved and so it’s been fun to be a part of it’s been fun to share it with some others that I think would be inspired by the opportunity. And yeah, if you’re listening today, if I haven’t called on you, please consider joining the group. I think it’s a fantastic way to make sure the county that we have today is better off in the future and I’d encourage everyone to get involved. 

Kim Cole
I appreciate that it is um definitely a reasonable dollar amount throwing in a hundred dollars to join for membership and then a hundred dollars every quarter, it’s a reasonable amount, and it’s fun. We had a great time at the women’s meeting so I’m really excited to see if the men can break the 81 members for the first meeting and we’ll see what happens. 

BJ Pendill  
Yeah, absolutely and the competitive guy does come out at me where we’ve kind of joked around with some of the founding women, that we can get over 81, not to disturb what they’ve done, but I think a good competition and a little bit of friendly push from each other can achieve really great things. 

Kim Cole
Healthy competition is a good thing. Well, thank you, BJ. You’ve been fantastic as a guest. We appreciate your involvement in the Community Foundation and the community as a whole and look forward to seeing you at the meeting. 

BJ Pendill  
Appreciate it. 

Kim Cole
Thank you.