Bob Buuck is an entrepreneur at heart. In 1972, he co-founded American Medical Systems (AMS), a medical device company specializing in implants for urology, which he sold to Pfizer in 1985. In 1994, he co-founded Iotek, a drug delivery company.

The value of Buuck’s stock holdings grew significantly, to the point where Bob and his wife, Gail, found themselves with more wealth than they’d ever expected to have. The Buuck family decided to use their wealth to help others, and in 1994 established the Buuck Family Foundation. The foundation focuses primarily on supporting education (financial aid and scholarship programs), social and community programs that help break the cycle of poverty, and programs that serve the physically challenged. "We saw a foundation as the best way to bring some structure and formality to our gifting," Bob says.

The same entrepreneurial drive that Buuck brought to his companies also drives his philanthropy. Since he came from humble beginnings himself, working hard to put himself through college, he is particularly interested in funding organizations whose clients are actively involved in helping themselves. "We are drawn to organizations where the recipients of charity have to put something back into the community," he says.

Just as he’s enjoyed being intimately involved in his new business ventures, Bob also likes to have some firsthand involvement, to the extent possible, with the organizations he funds. He spent many months helping reshape an entrepreneurial studies center at a local university, for example, before donating funds to help with the center’s expansion. "We didn’t just passively write a check," he says.

Buuck says he didn’t want to wait until he died to leave a significant portion of his assets to charity — he wanted to be involved with it now. "We used to think that in our will we’d leave some money to a few good organizations and that would be nice," he says. "But we decided that we wanted to be able to enjoy our giving and see the benefit of our gifts during our lifetime. Why do it after you’re dead, when you can’t appreciate it and help shape its direction and impact?"

Bob says he and Gail have found the process of establishing and running a foundation both rewarding and challenging. "It’s taken more time than we had originally anticipated," he says. "We’re finding it an engaging process to channel our gifts wisely."