How Lisa Eccles turned a part-time job into her life's work

SALT LAKE CITY — In 1989, fresh out of the University of Utah with her art history degree, figuring she'd now travel the world and maybe find work at a museum somewhere exotic, Lisa Eccles agreed to a part-time job with the charitable foundation started by her Uncle George S. and Aunt Lolie Eccles, a position she thought would last "maybe six months, a year tops."

Then she discovered something unexpected: how good it felt to write checks to people and causes that really needed the help.

Thirty-six years later, she's still writing them.

Today, the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation's presence is felt in every corner of the Beehive State; a synonym, as is the Eccles surname, for service and giving. But in 1989, when Lisa Eccles started, it was largely an unknown entity. Foundations in general were relatively new, especially here in Utah, including this one.

They gave her a desk, a letter opener and a telephone in the First Security Bank building on Main Street in downtown Salt Lake and that was more or less it. There were no manuals on how to run a foundation she could consult, no courses at the university, no mentors to ask basic questions such as, "We've got this money, now how do we give it away and hang onto it at the same time?"

"They called me executive director, they didn't call me a secretary, which was nice," remembers Lisa, "but that's really what I was."

She was the foundation's sole employee, advising a three-person board of directors that included her father, Spence Eccles, about grant proposals from assorted nonprofits seeking financial aid for their projects.

When the board approved a grant, it was Lisa Eccles' job to make sure the t's were crossed and i's dotted so the nonprofits could get their funding.

"We didn't have a check-writing program back then," she says, "so I remember writing the checks by hand, which was really one of those moments when I went, Wow, I can't believe I have this opportunity to write this check with so many zeroes.

"It was such a profound moment for me, sitting in my office, by myself, thinking what a joy, knowing these funds were going to help our community — even though I didn't know the end user specifically, I knew we were making a difference."

That's what turned a part-time job into a life's work.

After three years, the position became full time; a few years after that, Lisa, the woman who started out not knowing anything about foundations and could now give a TED talk on the subject, was asked to join what up to then had been an all-male board.

Her hand has been on the rudder ever since, elevating a foundation that awarded $4.9 million in grants to 80 projects the year she started to one that now gives out in excess of $27 million annually to an average of 400 projects.

And that's not counting outlier gifts like the $70 million given four years ago to the University of Utah's medical school (combining with another Eccles foundation for a total contribution of $110 million) or the $75 million given just last month to build a hospital in West Valley City — the largest single grant in George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation history.

All total, since 1982, the foundation has dispersed just shy of $1 billion to thousands of worthy causes across the length and breadth of Utah, ranging from the arts to education to health to sports to social services to preservation and conservation. At the same time, its endowment has increased to $1 billion.

Growing consistently in both directions, there's no better gauge for a foundation's health.

All of which explains why the Salt Lake Chamber has chosen Lisa Eccles, president, COO and director of Uncle George and Aunt Lolie's foundation, as this year's recipient of its annual Giant in our City award.

She is the 46th honoree, joining a long line of community-building giants that includes the likes of Larry H. and Gail Miller, Jon Huntsman, James Sorenson, Kem Gardner and two other Eccles, her father Spence Eccles and her uncle George Eccles.

"I was shocked and amazed," she says of her reaction when learning about the award, "There are so many others who are so much more deserving. And really, I realize the reason I'm getting this recognition is because I've been here so long."

And that she has no one other than herself to blame for that.

"In the beginning I was basically just answering the phone and opening the mail," she says, reflecting on how lightning fast the past 3½ decades have come and gone, "But then day by day I built my knowledge by doing and experiencing, and I could see the difference we could make for the good of Utah. It really all goes back to the legacy of David Eccles (her great-grandfather who was Utah's first multimillionaire) and his example of caring and giving back. He passed that on, with my dad being the patriarch of the next generation. We all watched as Dad took the responsibility so seriously. He guided by example, not by saying you need to do this, but by showing what an honor it is to serve and carry on the philanthropy and the vision of those who came before.

"I honestly didn't intend to stay so long, but then it became my passion and I never wanted to leave."

Related topics