History

Why a Separate Foundation?

The ABPP Foundation was established in 2010 as a charitable 501 (C) (3) organization. Though it has existed formally for 16 years, the story of its founding and early years has a longer history. This interview discusses these early years from the perspectives of two charter members of the ABPP Foundation, Drs. Charme Davidson and Ted Stachowiak.

As early as 2006, the then President of the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP) Alfred J. Finch, Jr., PhD, brought in the federal agency SCORE, to assess the efficacy of ABPP as a certifying body. SCORE is the Service Core of Retired Executives, and it helps nonprofits maximize their structures by sending former executives to work with small nonprofits through free mentoring and other forms of education. Among early conversations with SCORE was a focus on helping ABPP define ways to offer scholarships to candidates for board certification. Dr. Charme Davidson, who was the Counseling Psychology Board Representative to the Board of Trustees at that time, recalls that there was a basic dilemma for ABPP centering on the issue of granting psychologists scholarships: How to avoid a perceived conflict of interest between collecting money for board certification applications, and collecting money for scholarships for that same applicant pool.  She suggested establishing a separate Corporate 501(c) (3) with a sole task of raising money for scholarships and providing a delivery mechanism for such scholarships.  The SCORE executives agreed that ABPP itself did not have the appropriate mechanism for offering scholarships. Dr. David Cox, the Executive Director of ABPP and Dr. Finch wrote the application, and the Foundation was successfully created.

Building the Foundation

Once the ABPP Foundation was established in 2010, the next step was to create policies and procedures for the Foundation and to create a roster of potential board members. The ABPP Board of Trustees created a task force of trustees (among them Drs. Florence Kaslow, Chris Nezu and Charme Davidson) to complete this task. Davidson remembers that the original plan had been to have the ABPP Central Office collect money for the Foundation but to avoid the potential conflict of interest mentioned earlier, a Foundation administrator would be required. That administrator was hired in 2013, and the mission of the Foundation was meant to promote board certification by funding scholarships that covered fees from application through the oral examination.  Dr. Stachowiak was a founding donor who went on to serve on the Board of Directors for the Foundation in later years. Dr. Davidson was also one of the early donors and served as the Foundation administrator in 2015.  She remembers making appeals for donations to the Foundation through presentations at the Convocation held during the American Psychological Association’s Annual Convention.

Early Fundraising and the ECP Scholarship

Drs. Davidson and Stachowiak both describe early fundraising efforts as consisting of paid receptions during the APA Convention, contributions from board certified psychologists, and presentations by Board members at professional association meetings. One fundraising effort that stands out is the Early Career Scholarship (ECP). After ABPP created the early-career option, given that psychologists in early stages of their careers were likely to be constrained financially, the ECP Scholarship was established to reduce the financial barriers that could delay or prevent psychologists early in their careers from pursuing board certification. Initial funding was secured when the Academy of Counseling Psychology, one of the ABPP Specialties, dissolved itself as a separate entity and provided its funds as seed money for the ECP Scholarship. Dr. Stachowiak chaired the development of the ECP Scholarship, and it continues to be one of the most successful of the scholarship funds managed by the ABPP Foundation.

Looking Ahead

As founding members of the ABPP Foundation, Drs. Stachowiak and Davidson would like to see fundraising become more strategic in the future, with regular assessments of progress in terms of strengths and weaknesses of the Foundation, and ways to increase opportunities and minimize threats (regular SWOT analyses). These assessments could also include how each Foundation board member effectively contributes to the mission and culture of the organization.

As the Foundation moves through its second decade of existence, it has added three new funds in the last year or two, and now manages eight scholarships for specific specialties, for early career psychologists, and for training directors of doctoral and internship programs.

A gift to ABPP Foundation will help support these efforts and can be dedicated to the broad scholarship effort itself or to specific scholarships.  The list of scholarships is available on the Foundation website.