November 2003

Joseph Edgar Robert, Jr. likes a good fight and he likes being in the winner’s circle, especially if the other winners are children. Joe Robert, founder, chairman, and CEO of J.E. Robert Companies and one of VPP’s founding investors, wanted to be a fighter pilot when he was growing up in Silver Spring, MD. His Tysons Corner offices are adorned with several large birds of prey and a number of model airplanes, all poised for flight. But Joe says his eyes were not suitable for flying, so he became an amateur boxer instead. He has used the sport to create a glide path for scores of children in the Washington, DC area.

Nearly two decades ago he took his eldest son, now a US Marine, to learn how to box at the Charles Houston Recreation Center in a poor section of Alexandria, VA, where he would meet children from a different background. The wary African American boys at the center warmed up when they discovered that the white man in the ring could throw a good punch. Joe has supported the Alexandria Boxing Club ever since. But when Joe offered the kids college scholarships if they finished high school, there was only one taker. Most of the youngsters never graduated. That prompted Joe to learn about the complex issues that prevent so many low-income children from succeeding in life, and launched his other career as a philanthropist and founder of Fight for Children.

In 1990, Joe built on his childhood experience of staging boxing matches in his backyard and brought together a few Soviet fighters and his friend’s home stereo system at a local hotel for the first Fight Night fundraiser. “I lost $70,000, but the people loved it! The event has been sold out ever since,” Joe says. This week, at the Washington Hilton, more than 2,000 executives, entertainers, and politicians will attend the 14th annual Fight Night boxing extravaganza to watch several professional boxing matches. A number of boxing legends including Joe Frazier, Evander Holyfield, and Leon and Michael Spinks will be among the guests. The event will benefit local children’s health care organizations and mentoring programs. Over the years, Fight Night has raised more than $16 million, enabling the organization to give away $7.5 million to children’s causes in the region.

In 1998, Joe launched another party not to be missed—School Night—to raise funds to support local early childhood and literacy efforts, and to provide scholarships to help children attend private schools in the area. Since then, thousands of guests have partied with great entertainers like Patty LaBelle, Stevie Wonder, and Lionel Richie to raise a total of $23.6 million, with more than $17.5 million going to support youth education.

Joe’s own education often came by the seat of his pants, he admits. He was bounced out of St. John’s High School several times, and lasted only a year at St. Mary’s College. He bought real estate books and taught himself the business, joining his father briefly in a venture selling failed condominium projects. He hated it. Joe stumbled onto two mentors—a mortgage banker and the former chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank. As a result of lessons learned from these men, Joe decided to try his hand at buying and reselling failing real estate loans. He was intrigued by “the challenge of analyzing and pricing risk in complex real estate portfolios.” He turned what many people call the “turnaround, or workout business,” into a $40 billion international real estate and asset management enterprise.

The business has been a great adventure, but Joe says his real passion is “for kids who had a bad break.” That passion made him a natural ally of VPP. Mutual friends introduced Joe to VPP Chairman Mario Morino. Their common interest in leveraging resources to benefit children has benefited both of their organizations.

Recently, Joe and Fight for Children have entered another fight of sorts—helping to ensure that children in Washington, DC have access to quality K-12 education. The organization’s District of Columbia K-12 Education Initiative was created to strengthen and expand school options for children in the city, bring new financial resources and partnerships to the education arena, and provide parents with information and resources to make informed education choices. Fight for Children joined the White House, the Department of Education, and others to advocate a “three sector strategy” to bring reform to public, private, and public charter schools in the District. They lobbied hard to include new money for DC public schools and charter schools in the legislative package that is being hotly debated in the US House and Senate because of its school voucher component. Joe and Fight for Children’s Executive Director Rita Harmon believe that public, private, and charter schools each have models that can benefit more children than they do today. Says Rita, “Let’s apply the best thinking from all of these models, and Washington, DC can be an example of innovation in education for the nation.” For more information about Fight for Children’s District of Columbia K-12 Education Initiative, contact Kaleem Caire.