As the leader of a successful family-owned business in Central New York, Andy Breuer, president of Hueber-Breuer Construction, feels that his responsibilities extend beyond business operations and meeting the demands of his customers. Giving back to the community is also at the forefront of his mind.
Andy serves as a strong advocate and a steward for our community’s growth and its greatest needs. “Our company has a long history in Central New York,” he said. “This community has been good to us and good to our employees, and we want to ensure it remains a great place to raise families for years to come.”
With philanthropy and community involvement in mind, the Breuer Family created a donor-advised fund at the Community Foundation in 1991. Andy’s father, Jim, recognized how valuable the fund would be to invest in the community. Jim found that this option allowed his children and now grandchildren to become engaged as joint and successor advisors to the fund, unifying their family giving now and in the future.
As Andy now manages the company’s community involvement efforts, he appreciates the ease and accessibility provided by the fund. Every fall, he meets with his financial advisor to go over his investment plan and his capacity to make charitable contributions for the year ahead. As he and his family members weigh requests from various local nonprofit organizations throughout the year, Andy simply emails our staff to request the grants that are to be distributed from his fund.
Just in the last five years, the Hueber-Breuer Fund has supported more than 50 local charitable organizations serving various causes related to human services, public and societal benefit, arts, culture and humanities, education, and the environment.
“Our family’s giving through our fund at the Community Foundation is helping to shape the quality of life in this community,” said Andy.
“I hope by instilling these values and being affiliated with a reputable organization like the Community Foundation, we are indirectly inspiring others to invest in the future of our community.”
Andy and his wife, Amy, also use their donor-advised fund to introduce philanthropy to their young children by allowing them to choose a nonprofit each year to receive a grant from their fund. His two siblings and their respective children also do the same.
Andy envisions his family’s giving will be used collectively as a vehicle to support worthy causes throughout the community for generations to come: “I hope that more families in our community are thinking about the impact of giving multi-generationally.”
