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Foundation Trustee Profile

The Horizon Foundation's Board of Trustees is composed of accomplished institutional leaders and is broadly representative of the community at large. Each month, we'll be featuring a member of the Board. For a complete listing of Horizon Foundation Trustees, click here.

This month's featured trustee is....

Steve Sachs

As a child living over his father's drugstore in Baltimore City in a very mixed neighborhood, Steve Sachs learned a lot about diversity and the common aspirations shared by most people. His family moved to Baltimore County when he was five, and Sachs attended the local public schools. One day when he was in high school, Sachs turned to his parents and said, "I think I can be better." He found his niche in Judge Robert Hammerman's Lancers Boys Club, an organization focusing on citizenship and value.

"We did lots of things to get involved with - not just developing ourselves, but understanding our importance and obligation to do something within the community," said Sachs. His participation in the club has stayed with him, and he makes an effort to give others the kind of motivation and helping hand that he received.

He later attended Park School and Duke University on scholarships, and so now donates money to both schools so other students can benefit from the same experience. "Everyone's been helped by someone," said Sachs. "No one does it just on their own."

The Rouse Expectation

Sachs moved to Howard County in 1973 to work for The Rouse Company, establishing many contacts through employment at Rouse and later as an outsource contractor. "There was an expectation at The Rouse Company," said Sachs. "You get involved with the community." After joining the local Rotary club in 1978, he learned the best way do that was to meet people.

"When you know people and you have issues, you find ways to network and solve problems," he said. He put this philosophy to work when St. Peter's Church brought a Vietnamese family of eight or 10 into the country. With the help of Roy Appletree, who was running Columbia Interfaith Housing, Sachs found the family a home.

Heavenly Franchise

The Heavenly Ham franchise came to Maryland when Sachs went to a Heavenly Ham store, enjoyed the food and decided this area could use a place like it. Business contacts whom Sachs and his partner had developed over the years invested $300,000 into a partnership and, in September 1985, Sachs opened his first store in Maryland, followed closely by five others in the Baltimore-metropolitan area. With the help of two partners, those stores are still thriving today.

Sachs is still looking for ways to help. Each year, he personally donates Heavenly Hams for the annual Christmas dinner at Paul's Place, an outreach program for those in need in Baltimore. Also, through Bob Strahl's Taste of Home, a nonprofit organization that sends care packages to Maryland troops overseas, Sachs sent 30 smoked turkeys for Christmas. "What [Strahl] has done is tremendous," said Sachs. "This is what one person can do."

Investing in People

Sachs grew up as a self-described "very liberal social activist" in the '60s. He protested the Vietnam War, which led to his religious and spiritual awakening and realization that people are going to sacrifice themselves for what they believe in. "Your ability to touch people," he said, "makes a difference. When you're gone, what else do you leave behind?"

While Sachs's social values have not changed, he is more fiscally conservative when it comes to getting things done and does not give money away for the sake of a good reputation.

"I invest in other people who are serving the community because, to me, [helping the community] is just a great thing to do. Whoever it is, if they're invested in something, and I know them and respect them, I'm going to try to support them. ... I just need to know they're putting their time and effort in."

Inspiration

According to Sachs, Jim Rouse's greatest legacy is not Columbia, but Enterprise (a foundation founded in 1982 by Rouse and his wife, Patti, which has become a leading provider of capital and expertise for affordable housing and community development). While Jim Rouse believed that government should provide resources for the development of affordable housing, he also believed in the power of people in the nonprofits in the local communities, and felt that the recipients of the assistance should take ownership of the process. Rouse believed the government should provide funds and then get out of the way.

Sachs believes that this is also a good recipe for delivering some types of social services within the county. In Howard County, businesses and business owners have been a great supporter of nonprofits. To the extent that government augments that funding, it allows the nonprofit organizations, which affect people more directly, to prosper.

Sachs said he would never run for office, county or otherwise, because "it's difficult in a four-year or eight-year [term] to make ... change really bold," he said. Instead, he finds it more effective to speak with politicians about the community.

Sachs believes his generation did not do a good job passing Rouse's principles on to their children. "There's a deficit in what I like to call 'social capital,'" he said. "If our country slides, [our self-serving attitude] is one of reasons we slide. ... Writing a check is the easiest thing I do. Giving your time and talents is the hardest and most rewarding thing."

Enrichment, Not Riches

A multi-tasker with a lot of energy, Sachs has been, and still is, involved with many boards in Howard County, including the Howard County Chamber of Commerce, Howard Community College and the Howard County Police Foundation.

An individual at The Rouse Company asked Sachs to be a member of the Columbia Festival of the Arts board, and Sachs joined though he did not know much about art. In his six years on the board, the board has refocused on its original mission and developed a vision for the next decade. 2008 is his last year, and he says he takes away a greater appreciation for the arts. "In business, we talk about getting outside the box, and I think [art] is a representation of the human ability to get outside of themselves and to be more than what [they think they] can be."

Additionally, Sachs is a trustee for The Horizon Foundation, a philanthropy established in 1998 as a result of the merger of Johns Hopkins Medicine with Howard County General Hospital that donates money and establishes partnerships with the purpose of improving community health and wellness. The Horizon Foundation brought a clinic to Howard County to "deal with the underserved and, to a degree, the uninsured," said Sachs. "It's the best board I serve on because we don't have to raise any money."

Being involved is important in any community, said Sachs. "All the people I serve with on boards are not doing it to make money - a great number of them are businesspeople, and they're doing it because they care about where they live."

Ashley Jacobs is a student at River Hill High School. She is an intern for The Business Monthly. This article has been reprinted with permission from The Business Monthly.