The Pearl Foundation

For 22 years, Pat and I have dealt with all of the regular order fulfillment, labelling, shipping, contracts, correspondence, missing orders, and any other problems. During most of that period we’ve also paid 100% of the website costs –creation, maintenance, webmasters, domain fees etc. We’ve covered the cost of merchandise manufacturing and storage, accounting and legal fees, insurance, specialized legal and financial advice, taxes returns, and any other costs. We’ve done it with our whole hearts, knowing that giving back is part of being a good citizen of the world.

A great deal of thanks goes to volunteers like Joan Maute (running the eBay store these past years, dealing with PayPal), Jeff Evans (album creations and distribution, from song selection and cover art to mastering), Tina Abato and Nancy Picconi (early fulfillment and storage, website building, on-tour sales), Judy Somers (correspondence), and Debra Hyslop (tour manager, who oversaw on-tour merchandise money and contributions collected, spending extra hours every night knowing it would benefit the Foundation). And of course, to the people who’ve so generously contributed their hard-earned dollars!!

Over the past 22 years, we’ve endowed more than $1,275,000.00 in scholarship funds, helped more than 150 students fulfill their life dreams. We’ve done all this without grants, hired staff, or advertising. It has been an amazing ride, but after all these successful years, it’s time for us to step down and close the doors.

The need for educational support is still huge; these past few years have been especially challenging as students and schools try to cope with universal changes in daily and academic life. We intend to honor our original commitment by continuing to contribute privately to these schools, and we encourage you to do the same.

Thank you,

Janis Ian & Patricia Snyder