About Kermit Eady,
Founder & President of Eady Associates

Kermit Eady is the Founder and former President/CEO of the Black United Fund of New York. BUFNY was founded in 1979 as a mechanism to organize the human and financial resources of Black and minority people to participate in their growth, development, and empowerment, by utilizing the operational principles of self-help, mutual aid, volunteerism, and venture philanthropy. Prior to developing BUFNY, Mr. Eady worked for 15 years in the fields of Social Work and Education, holding such positions as Assistant Professor at Medgar Evers College, Director of Admissions and Recruitment at the Norfolk State University Graduate School of Social Work, and Manager with the City of New York. As the leader of BUFNY, Mr. Eady organized and broke through corporate barriers to gain access to workplace charitable solicitation. His efforts led the self-help organization to a high level of participation in payroll deduction systems at such corporations as IBM, New York Telephone (Verizon), AT&T and Bell Laboratories (Lucent Technologies). He also organized access to payroll deduction systems in City, State, County and Federal agencies of New York: the New York City Combined Municipal Campaign (CMC) and Board of Education, City University of New York (CUNY) system, New York City Housing and Transit Authorities, Carver Bank, Inner City Broadcasting Corporation, Greater Harlem Nursing Home, Edwin Gould Children Services, Health and Hospitals Corporation, E. G. Bowman Company, Tri-borough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, New York State Employee Federated Appeal (SEFA), Westchester and Nassau Counties, Bronx-Lebanon Hospital, North General Hospital in Harlem, and others. Millions of people all over the country now benefit and have greater freedom of choice due to Mr. Eady’s pioneering efforts through the thousands of charitable organizations that followed his lead into the payroll deduction marketplaces. Hundreds of thousands of employees have also benefited in expanded workplace options for giving. Consequently, millions of dollars are now being given to non-traditional, as well as mainstream organizations. From 1989 through 1991, Mr. Eady led BUFNY to become the first organization other than United Way, to manage the Combined Federal Campaign in New York City and set record-breaking results by raising over $6 million for over 1,500 charities. Under Mr. Eady’s leadership, BUFNY maintained its commitment to the empowerment of Black people and other communities by providing financial and technical assistance in excess of $15 million to over 2,000 community-based organizations. BUFNY helped save over $540,000 in Black-owned land in the Sea Islands of South Carolina, and developed housing for low and moderate-income families in response to the urging of contributors and their support of the expansion of BUFNY’s commitment to economic development.

Housing Development @ BUFNY

“Gut Rehabbed” over four hundred units of affordable housing in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens with some apartments renting for as little as $600 per month. For first-time homeowners, twelve two family homes were renovated in Queens, NY. Other projects were also planned for Albany/Troy, Westchester and Nassau Counties, and other areas of New York State. Mr. Eady led BUFNY’s economic development expansion with the opening of the first Harvest Information & Technology Center in June 1997, in Harlem. The second center, located in Brooklyn’s MetroTech Center, was added in 2001. The Harvest Centers provided copy, computer and internet communication services, in addition to a wealth of business and personal information and document preparation services. After 9/11, BUFNY established the only Black victim relief fund in the U.S.A., and raised over $65,000. By mid-2003, Mr. Eady successfully negotiated the acquisition of radio station WCKL 560-AM in upstate Catskill, NY to help deliver the much-needed message of empowerment to Black and other communities. This acquisition placed BUFNY in a unique and advantageous position among non-profit organizations in New York State. The Black United Fund of New York was founded over 25 years ago with only $8,000 in capital. It was a well-positioned, proven economic development institution, whose assets and program services grew to over $100 million. The unique 25-year experiment in community empowerment and self-reliance using the principle of self-help that Mr. Eady led with the Black United Fund of New York stands as a powerful testament to commitment, dedication and vision for community empowerment and nation building —now and the future.