Founded In 1919, the Dallas Athletic Club (DAC) has a rich heritage and a well-earned reputation for quality, not only among its club members, but also among its staff. The Dallas Athletic Club Scholarship Fund at CFT is now celebrating its fifth year of awarding scholarships and is one of the ways in which the club seeks to invest in its staff members and their families.
In 2015, the DAC Board of Directors met to discuss how they might better care for their employees. The Board was determined to create a scholarship fund that would help support staff and their immediate family members going off to school or continuing their education.
“The staff at DAC is unique in that it is multigenerational,” said Brent Burkhart, general manager at DAC. “A number of young people work at the DAC before heading off to college. Some staff members spend their entire careers working at DAC and now have children going off to college.”
After an extensive vetting process, the DAC Board of Directors chose to partner with CFT for the management and disbursement of the Dallas Athletic Club Scholarship Fund, a decision that Burkhart calls the best decision they have made.
In 2016, the DAC hosted its first golf tournament fundraiser for the scholarship fund, and the first round of scholarships was awarded.
Since its inauguration, the DAC has awarded four to six scholarships every year and has pivoted from hosting golf tournaments to writing letters directly to the club members with a call to action requesting support. Because of this change, the scholarship fund has more than doubled, and they see almost 100% participation from their 1,300 club members.
“It’s been incredible to see the meaningful connections between our club members and scholarship recipients. We set out to care for our staff, but we have found that being part of someone else’s success is even more impactful for us. Our members feel personally connected to our staff because of this scholarship fund,” said Burkhart.
To learn more about our scholarship program, visit CFTexas.org/Scholarships
