NCBF Excellence Award
EXTRAORDINARY LEADER OF THE PACK
ANDREA STONE 2022 AWARDEE
Past President, National Conference Of Bar Foundations (2020 -2021)
Former Executive Director, Texas Bar Foundation (2009 - 2022)
The NCBF Excellence Award selection is Andrea Stone, recently retired as the Texas Bar Foundation Executive Director. Andrea’s bar organization career began with the Tulsa County Bar Association/Foundation. Andrea moved back to Texas and continued her bar service with the State Bar of Texas before shifting to the Texas Bar Foundation and becoming its Executive Director. Her leadership and expertise elevated the Bar Foundation to its current position as the largest charitably funded bar foundation in the nation.
Her participation and involvement in NCBF led her to exemplary service as a Committee member, a Board of Directors member, and Officer positions, including a stellar tenure as President.
As NCBF president, she modernized the membership enrollment process, the website, online resource access and archival process and rallied the NCBF board and volunteers to enroll over 80 bar foundations for NCBF, an all-time high.
Her NCBF leadership culminated with having the Texas Bar Foundation host the 2020 Mid-year Meeting in Austin, the last of those events for NCBF and generally recognized as one of the best NCBF Mid-year Meetings ever!
Andrea Stone - A Role Model For Foundation Leaders
Andrea's exemplary work at the Texas Bar Foundation grew the membership from 7,000 to over 10,000. Under her leadership, she helped grow the Texas Bar Foundation's endowment from $13 million to over $40 million while distributing over $1.2 million a year in grants. She moved the Texas Bar Foundation's offices to a more modern office in downtown Austin, restructured the bar's website, and increased and streamlined giving to the foundation. Andrea exemplified a one-on-one personal touch to her activities, traveling hundreds of thousands of miles in her tenure as Executive Director to towns and cities, both large and small, to personally meet with Texas Bar Foundation's Fellows. She has become a role model for foundation leaders nationwide.
TXBF HURRICANE HARVEY RELIEF FUND
In receiving the Excellence Award, Andrea Stone commented, "It is especially meaningful to receive this award at this time."
In August 2017, Texas was hit by Hurricane Harvey, causing one of the worst floods in recent memory. While news about the tragedy centered on Houston proper, Jefferson County was also greatly affected. Beaumont is the seat of Jefferson County, and many of the offices and homes of the lawyers doing pro bono work were completely wiped out.
As Executive Director of the Texas Bar Foundation, Andrea Stone set up one of the most successful fund drives for Hurricane Harvey victims in Texas. She reached out to her fellow bar leaders, and many members of the National Conference of Bar Foundations stepped up to the plate. It was this additional support from bar foundations across the country that allowed the Texas Bar Foundation to award one of the largest grants to the Jefferson County Bar Foundation to fund 49 lawyers with $100,000 for office supplies, clothes, and computers in order to continue their pro-bono work.
"No bar is ever too small or too large to make an impact for someone else."
~ Andrea Stone, NCBF Excellence Award Speech, August 2022
Below is the video of Andrea Stone thanking everyone for their support for the Hurricane Harvey Disaster Relief Fund and what it means to Texans statewide.