The Amazing Story of the Alan Spanier Foundation

How a beagle, an improbable friendship, and smart stock picking are changing the lives of thousands of New York kids.

Since its founding, the Satell Institute has championed free enterprise as a force for good. It’s free enterprise that creates 80 percent of all jobs, and free enterprise that generates the wealth necessary to improve communities.

That wealth flows to organizations in different ways. Oftentimes businesses give directly to nonprofits as part of their commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility. In other cases successful individuals strategically support causes that are important to them.

And then there’s the unlikely story of the Alan Spanier Foundation, a new Satell Institute member that earlier this year made a game-changing gift to youth organization New York SCORES.

“It’s very serendipitous, the whole thing,” marvels Ruairi Curtin, the New York businessman who chairs the foundation. (He’s pictured above, with Alan Spanier.)

The tale of how the Alan Spanier Foundation came to make such an impact is indeed an improbable one, involving a colorful, occasionally cranky older man; a beagle; a warm-hearted younger man; and some Apple stock. It’s also a lesson about the wealth that’s created by free enterprise and the good that wealth can do — core principles of the Satell Institute.

Serendipity, Part One
The story begins with Curtin, who emigrated to America from Ireland two decades ago and now owns eight successful bar/restaurants in New York City. Several years ago he moved to a new apartment in New York, where one day he met an older gentleman in the elevator.

“His name was Alan, and he had a beagle called Elvis,” Curtin recalls of his first encounter with the man who turned out to be Alan Spanier. “I could sense that Alan was maybe a bit lonely. He used the beagle as a way of meeting people.” After a few random conversations, Curtin — whose parents had impressed upon him the importance of being generous to other people — made a suggestion: let’s get together for coffee.

“Ah, that’s what they all say,” he remembers Alan replying, cynically. Curtin shrugged. Well, I’ll be at Starbucks on Friday at 8 a.m., he told Alan. It’s your decision if you want to come.

Alan did come, and that one get together turned into a regular Friday morning coffee date that lasted for several years. “We would talk about anything and everything,” Curtin says. That included their families and their shared interest in business. While Alan had made his living as a photographer, early in his career he’d been a stockbroker, and in retirement he was enjoying playing the market. “Eccentric man,” Curtin says. “Lovely man, but eccentric.”

At one of their coffees, Alan told Curtin he was thinking about starting his own foundation. Curtin was encouraging, but didn’t give the idea much thought. Alan lived extremely modestly. How much money could he have to give away? In any event, COVID hit, and the foundation idea seemed to fade.

Then one day a couple of years ago, Curtin got word: Alan, in his mid-80s, had passed away, suddenly. Alan’s affairs turned out to be a bit messy, and Curtin helped Alan’s housekeeper — who’d been put in charge of his estate — get things organized, including introducing her to an attorney. About a year after Alan died, Curtin got a call from that attorney.

Not only had Alan created his own foundation, the attorney told him, but he’d left Curtin in charge of it. Oh, and as Curtin would learn over the next few months, its value wasn’t a few thousand dollars.

It was $4 million.

Serendipity, Part Two
“I would say he made the vast majority of his money trading Apple,” Curtin says when asked how Alan had accumulated so much wealth. He explains that Alan was particularly adept at calls and options. “I think he started with $50,000 about 10 years ago, and by the time he died that was worth millions.”

Curtin agreed to co-lead the foundation. But how to give the money away?

Alan wanted the funds to benefit youth — in part, Curtin believes, because Alan didn’t think he’d been a good father to his own kids. As it happened, Curtin already served on the board of a nonprofit called STREETS International, which provides training and mentorship to impoverished young people interested in culinary careers. The organization received a significant early gift from the Alan Spanier Foundation.

Then serendipity hit again. One day in one of his bars, Curtin ran into an acquaintance named John Riordan. They chatted, and John mentioned that he worked for America SCORES, a nonprofit that uses soccer, poetry and service learning to inspire kids to lead impactful lives. Curtin listened, told John the story of Alan Spanier, and said the foundation might be able to make a small gift to America SCORES’ New York outlet, New York SCORES.

But the more Curtin learned about the organization, which operates programs in Harlem, Brooklyn, Washington Heights and the Bronx, the more intrigued he became. “I realized this is so, so closely aligned with Alan’s wishes,” he says. “We got to the point where I said, what would it take to start a whole new program in Queens? I’ve got two bars in Queens. I live in Astoria. I consider myself a Queens boy.”

New York SCORES put together an impressive presentation, and the Alan Spanier Foundation made its multi-year gift. “We’re starting an entirely new program in Queens,” Curtin says, “which is completely funded by Alan’s money, which all started with an encounter in an elevator with his little beagle.”

The Spirit of Satell
It was through New York SCORES that Curtin was introduced to the Satell Institute. He got its mission — and ability to make a difference — instantly. “I think what Satell does is amazing,” he says, pointing to the relationships SI cultivates between corporations and foundations and the nonprofits that do such important work in communities. Curtin will be at an upcoming SI event in New York, where he’ll talk about the impact of both New York SCORES and the Alan Spanier Foundation.

He’s proud that the name of Alan Spanier — his eccentric friend — will live on.

As for his own role, Curtin credits the example set by his parents back in Ireland. “I grew up with very charitable parents. I remember there was this one lady that my mother used to bring out to do her shopping every week. And this woman was a nightmare.

“Alan could be a nightmare as well,” he laughs. “But he considered me his best friend. I knew he just wanted companionship. My mom always said, it’s important to do good deeds. So that was my good deed.”

It’s a reminder of how intertwined events and lives can be. A friendly encounter in an elevator. A good deed. Savvy stock picking. Now thousands of kids are benefitting from all those forces coming together.