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As Glen Jensen and Craig Bradley started brainstorming about a company that would help people’s health and finances through innovative products, their discussions had to include the company’s philanthropic efforts. They couldn’t help it. Giving back was in their genes. Their dream company soon became Agel, and its philanthropic arm is AgelCares.
Agel Executive Vice President of Business Development and of AgelCares Mica Moseley explains that the foundation isn’t an afterthought. It’s part of the company’s DNA.
“When Glen and Craig first planned the company that became Agel, they said we can’t do this without having a way to give back and a foundation that will touch many people’s lives,” he says. Moseley joined Agel in late 2008 and says he’s honored to be heading up the foundation. “I’ve never been so excited about something. It’s not about one person. It’s about the world. For us, the purpose is to improve the lives of families by providing needed medical and nutritional intervention and to improve life-sustaining skills.”
“From the inception of the company, we talked about how important it is to give back,” says Agel Founder and CEO Jensen. “The world has blessed us. Agel has blessed us. In return, we give back a portion of that blessing to the world. It’s about changing people’s lives—not just feeding them for a day, but teaching them to feed themselves.”
The blessing that Jensen wants to give back is a big one. Through the foundation, Agel has committed to raising $1 million by the end of this year to support life-changing projects.
As he reflects on the good that AgelCares has done, he notes that last year the foundation helped restore sight to around 1,500 people—mostly kids.
“It has to make you happy to realize that now there are that many kids who can see because of the AgelCares Foundation,” he says. “The gift of sight is invaluable.”
The foundation’s international perspective matches Agel’s global reach. The company launched in 10 countries simultaneously in 2005 and now operates in more than 50. The reach of AgelCares’ programs is just as wide. It has made micro-loans in India; provided training and equipment to doctors in developing countries to do surgeries on eyes, cleft palates and clubfeet, primarily for children; and is currently developing programs in Mexico, Thailand and South America. It often partners with existing organizations to maximize impact and ensure efficiency. Through those connections, it is able to multiply the effect of every dollar it donates.
For example, in September 2007, the AgelCares Foundation partnered with the Deseret International Foundation to make a lasting difference in the lives of millions. The Deseret Foundation enables local medical communities to reach out to people in need and assists the communities with items they don’t have: supplies, equipment, facilities, screening, campaign infrastructure and, where needed, training. Worldwide, every dollar donated to the Deseret Foundation produces more than $100 in medical services to people in need.
The AgelCares Foundation presented more than $18,000 to the Mabuhay Deseret Foundation in Manila, Philippines. While such a gift wouldn’t go very far in the United States, in the Philippines, its value is dramatically increased. The funds purchased much-needed portable equipment, and now, Filipino children who were unable to travel to the cities for surgeries are able to receive cleft lip/palate, clubfeet and eye surgeries in their own areas. The new portable equipment will last five to six years and will bless many lives.
To help families in India, the foundation donated $15,000 to Rising Star Outreach in India through that foundation’s headquarters in Atlanta, Ga. Rising Star is a micro-loan fund that helps families in developing countries get started with their own businesses.
The micro-loans are truly micro—starting with as little as $100. With this financial support and careful tutoring from the outreach program, these new businesses have grown quickly to become self-sustaining enterprises. As these new businesses pay back the initial loan plus a small amount of interest, the fund becomes perpetual, and Rising Star repeats the cycle with other new businesses.
This program has already benefited multiple families in India, including lepers, raising them from a repressed environment to an ongoing, sustainable new lifestyle with real income from their own efforts.
Programs are also active in the United States. Massage therapist and Agel Team Member Jann Henry wanted to do something more to help her patients at the Brook Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. She started to donate Agel products to military veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and who were her patients at the medical center.
AgelCares soon heard about Henry’s project and offered to help. Foundation officers learned that the products were having a measurable impact on the recovery process, so they quickly determined to adopt Henry’s project as an ongoing program of the AgelCares Foundation.
Agel now donates boxes of Agel EXO, Agel UMI, Agel FLX, Agel PRO, Agel MIN and Agel OHM for use in the Brook Medical Center.
Henry’s experience exemplifies how AgelCares often chooses the projects it supports.
“Our team members live in those areas. They know the needs better than anyone, and they send in proposals,” Moseley says. “We have an in-depth process to consider funding. We have to visit with people, understand the needs and determine the impact we can have. Then the AgelCares board of directors, which includes people both inside and outside of Agel, makes funding decisions based on the greatest need.”
Just as the foundation directs funds into many locations, donations can come from around the world, too. The company partners with its team members to put on fundraising events.
“Because we’re a health-and-wellness organization, we like to do 5Ks or an AgelCares Walk of Hope,” Moseley says. “On a chosen Saturday, we might do 30 or 40 5Ks throughout the world. The events help with financial donations and also with team building.”
At each event, the Agel products themselves help fund the AgelCares Foundation. Agel’s revolutionary gel-suspension supplements are packaged in convenient, single-use, rip-and-sip packets. Users and team members simply save the tops they rip off and turn them in at events. The company recycles the tops and then makes a donation to the AgelCares Foundation. It also makes donations based on the sale of its skincare line. And Agel ensures that people from all walks of life all over the world can participate by making its products certified kosher and halal.
“For every product used, someone can feel good about helping someone else,” Moseley says. “We tell people, ‘Don’t throw that package top away. It’s going to help a child.’ ”
Agel also supports team members when they have charitable endeavors of their own. For example, one group started the Brio Dream Foundation to support an orphanage in Brazil. Another team-member-led project provided a mechanized wheelchair for a boy with cerebral palsy. And yet another helps feed orphans in Thailand. And AgelCares pitches in to support those projects, as well.
The foundation has big plans for the future. It’s working to put future initiatives in locations where Agel has large team memberships, so more people can donate time and service, as well as money.
“We believe passionately that giving back should be part of every team member’s experience with Agel,” Moseley says. “Giving back isn’t something you do once you’ve made it. It’s what you do to make it. That’s critical. So we’re constantly looking for ways to help team members get involved.”
One of the foundation’s key goals is to develop clinics in locations around the world where the surgeries it helps fund can be performed. In addition, it plans to build an Agel House of Hope at the clinics—a place where families of patients can stay before and after surgeries. And they hope to take a group of team members to the construction site to help build the facility and do an outreach program for children in the community. The first clinic will be built in Brazil.
“People from outlying villages will travel long distances to these clinics for surgeries,” Moseley says. “Having a place to come pre- and post-surgery will allow the family to be together during that stressful time.”
Although an eye operation or a cleft palate surgery seems to benefit only the person who receives it, it actually becomes life-changing for many people.
Agel Founder and Chairman Jensen says, “We can change and impact the lives of people in future generations dramatically by improving the life of someone today. It’s about teaching them to take care of themselves and their families. It’s about posterity. Through the AgelCares Foundation, we’ll be improving the lives of generations to come.”
