Red Circle Foundation: How It All Came About

I started Red Circle Foundation last year as a way for me to give back to the Special Operations community through my own professional achievements.

The Foundation had just been established when I found out that I had lost my best friend and SEAL teammate, Glen Doherty. It was through my experience dealing with Glen’s departure that I realized how RCF could make a difference. We would streamline our funding process so that we could give money within hours instead of the weeks and months that it takes for government agencies and other charities to step in. This would give us our niche and make a huge difference in peoples lives. Red Circle Foundation’s goal is to provide immediate financial assistance until other larger programs or charities can take over.

Our mission is to provide gap funding for Special Operations families in need. There are a lot of great charities that serve the Special Operations community, however, most take weeks to months before funds can be deployed to help people in need. This is where RCF comes in. We can act within minutes and provide immediate assistance to bridge this funding gap.

We are a Quick Reaction Force (QRF), and decisions are made within minutes.

Meet Our Executive Director

Because the Foundation is personal to me, and involves using own assets in some cases, I needed someone I could trust to run it who also had the time and capacity to make a full-time commitment. That person turned out to be my sister, Maryke, who serves as the Executive Director, and works a full time job with a major U.S. airline carrier.

It’s no secret that many charities run into trouble with executive compensation, and percentage given away versus raised, so trust was very important to me, which is why I chose Maryke.

She continues to do an amazing job, and through our volunteers and lean operations, we give away over  80-90% of what we bring in. We are in the process of posting our full financials for 2012, and plan to do this every year to maintain complete transparency.

Annual Gala

We need your help for our first Red Circle Foundation Annual Gala this year in San Diego, CA. See below for details, and sign up if you can  because we’d love to see you at the San Diego Air & Space Museum for a great night on July 26th. We have some incredible auction items, including an African Safari, flight in the SOFREP Yak-52, KSG shotgun, S&W .45, and other cool stuff. We hope to see you there! Please register today.

Thank you for all the support, your donations make a huge difference, and I continue to be humbled by all the great people that do so much for our service men and women.