Focusing on the Little Guy
By Levi Welton
What motivates a man who gives more than $15 million to charity every year, is close friends with both Hillary and Bill Clinton, and — at 83 years old — shows no sign of slowing down?I had to find out, so in a rare interview with Barry Segal, a man of significant means, I uncovered the philosophy that drives his philanthropy.
Despite having shrugged off a heart attack just three weeks earlier, Segal shook my hand with the grip of a much younger man. His office at the Segal Family Foundation headquarters in Warren, New Jersey was much simpler than I had expected it to be. It consisted of a computer, a simple desk, some chairs, and lots of framed photos of his family. The entryway was tucked into the corner of a much larger office bustling with people, open workstations, a tropical fish tank, and trendy wall paintings reminiscent of the popular “We Work” motif. While our conversation started off somewhat tentatively (I think he was sizing me up), the more I asked about his charitable endeavors, the more comfortable he became.
Segal started Bradco Supply, a distributor of building materials, with a single warehouse in Avenel, New Jersey, in 1966. By the time he sold the company in 2008, Bradco had 150 branches across the U.S. with annual sales of roughly $1.9 billion dollars. “When he cashed out, he immediately wanted to get involved in philanthropy,” says Martin Segal, Barry’s youngest son and Chairman of the Board at the Segal Family Foundation. “Incidentally, our board now includes three generations of Segal family members who are following in [Dad’s] footsteps.”
Segal’s foundation is rated “five stars” by GreatNonProfits.org and is known for its efficient management with a focus on improving the wellbeing of communities in Sub-Saharan Africa. But I give him a personal “five-stars” after learning of his reason for opening Bradco in New Jersey. He’d spent 15 years working for his father at H. Verby Company, a roofing supply business based in Jamaica, Queens. “I didn’t want there to be any competition between my supply business and his,” Segal told me as he leaned back in his chair. “So, I opened my company in a different state, and pursued different customers.” I learned that Segal spent the first few years of his Bradco life making the forty mile drive each way from Woodmere, on Long Island, out to Avenel. All to respect his dad!
The elder Segal would eventually join him at Bradco, and father and son began purchasing real estate for the company. “I realized that when we bought a building and fixed it up, we were increasing the value for the owner.” Segal paused, and then smiled, “So I figured: why not buy our own properties, fix them up using our supplies, and take home the entire profit?”
It is this “more bang for your buck” mindset, says Andy Bryant, Executive Director of Segal Family Foundation, that drives all of Barry Segal’s philanthropic, business, and social advocacy battles. Whether it’s helping to build hospitals for those in dire need with the African Mission Healthcare Foundation or fighting socio-economic inequality with ideas as local as his “Fares aren’t Fair” plan (which would make tolls equal across the board for people who can’t afford an EZ pass in New Jersey) Segal doesn’t shy away from a challenge. He has a reputation as a man who won’t sit still when he sees a problem that isn’t being solved effectively.
In fact, writing letters when he feels something is important enough to say has become a signature quirk of his. He once wrote to a local police chief telling him the behavior of one of his officers was “ludicrous.” Another time he wrote to Warren Buffet, who had just bought Johns Manville, advising the legendary multi-billionaire to fire some employees of his who “don’t have a clue about the roofing business.” (Buffet listened to his advice.) In 2016, he began a letter to Bill Clinton with “You might think I’m crazy,” then proceeded to offer to run the entire Clinton Global Initiative, pro bono, in order to help Hillary Clinton win the presidential election.
What really impressed me was discovering the letter he wrote the IRS in 2017 explaining that he didn’t want to receive Social Security payments. Officials there said he had to accept it. Unrelenting, Segal would make his point by donating a substantial sum of money to the Federal government as his way of relieving the national debt.
As I got to know Barry Segal better, I realized that no matter what battle he’s fighting, big or small, he approaches it with the same attitude, and code. If he sees something that he deems unfair — and that he feels needs to be changed — he’ll do something about it. In the words of the philosopher Hillel, “In a place devoid of men, strive to be a man.”
Segal was at an event with Bill Clinton when the president invited him on a trip to Rwanda. While there, Segal observed the extreme poverty and numerous health crises afflicting the besieged African nation; he observed that organizations there charged with working to solve these problems didn’t know each other. When he returned home, he launched the Segal Family Foundation in an effort to prevent further crises in Sub-Saharan Africa and to create spaces where organizations could connect with each other.
On an airline flight a few years ago, he was seated next to a woman whose young son was severely autistic. Instead of requesting a seat change, or complaining in some way, he comforted the woman, and the two discussed the young boy’s health challenge. The incident struck a chord with Segal and, over the next few months, he delved into autism research, then established Focus for Health, an entity that advocates for vulnerable children with susceptibility to autism following exposure to environmental toxins.
In the middle of our meeting, Segal mentioned another topic that’s bothering him. He feels that sexual abuse of minors by religious authorities must stop; going one step further, he suggests that those who aid and protect abusers are themselves criminals — and that the U.S. Justice Department must treat those “enablers” as such. He’s going full-steam ahead with this new vision, and has already reached out to numerous politicians, community leaders, and activists who share a similar sentiment.
Segal operates with a philosophy dedicated to some great historical figures. Because I am a rabbi, his style reminds me of a comment from the late Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902–1994), the Lubavitcher Rebbe, who was once asked, “What’s the most important mitzvah (good deed) we should do?” Schneerson smiled and quoted from the Talmudic phrase: Chatof ve’echol, which is translated as “Grab and eat!” “We are approaching the Messianic era,” the Rebbe had said. “We simply have to seize any opportunity that comes our way to do a mitzvah, whether it’s easy or difficult.”
As our conversation came to a close, I wanted to find out more about his unique brand of philanthropy. Unlike other donors who travel to poor places, meet a lot of people, then then write large checks and walk away, Segal and his foundation have a simple mantra: “Local solutions are the best solutions.” He doesn’t just send money thinking it will wash away a problem; he stays involved.
LW: Why is there so much focus on the “little guy” in your organization?
BS: I basically look for the best people with the best ideas who actually know the area we want to help. Not just some suit in an office thousands of miles away. I feel strongly that the lowest socioeconomic areas have to be treated better, and the best people to invest in are the people on the ground. So instead of giving million-dollar grants, we give grants ranging from $1,000 to $100,000 to our “partners” who live in the area and have great ideas and where a little money can be a major catalyst for the growth of their ideas. We are currently funding hundreds of partners who focus on everything from women’s empowerment, clean drinking water, health education, and more.
LW: Is it true that your non-profit is ranked as the fourth non-profit after The Gates Foundation, Rockefeller, and Ford Foundations for giving the most unrestricted grants?
BS: Yes. We ask for one annual report a year while many foundations ask for more. This frees up their time to actually do the work they need to do. We keep an open mind as we listen to our partners’ feedback and then adjust as needed. The results speak for themselves.
Dr. John Fielder, President of the African Mission Healthcare Foundation, is one of these partners that Segal spoke about with such passion. Trained in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Fielder moved his entire family to Kenya in 2002 to run multiple mission hospitals that serve hundreds of thousands of people there. He’s the type of partner that Segal and his team look for as Fielder literally lives on site, and thus is best suited to be the eyes and ears for what is most needed. Recently, the Segal family gave AMHF $100,000, which will go to construct housing for family medicine trainees in Malawi and for faculty doctors in Uganda.
As I drove home that night and thought about what I had learned from Segal, I recalled something Dr. Fielder had shared with me. A devout Evangelical Christian, he had emailed me to share an inspiring quote he had found. It was from the Hassidic mystic Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk, who once remarked, “I could revive the dead, but I have more difficulty reviving the living.” Fielder told me that he knew the remark was made with a spiritual intent in mind, but he found it applicable when also caring for very sick patients, like those in Africa with advanced AIDS.
As the cars flashed by me on the highway, a thought occurred. Segal had confided in me, “I don’t know if [all my efforts] will accomplish anything, but a lot of my battles are ongoing, and things need to change.” He obviously knew that his efforts have already saved hundreds of thousands of lives, but I think he was trying to tell me something entirely different. Like the Hassidic mystic, he was hoping that his efforts would inspire others to also “become alive” when they see a problem that needs to be solved.
Whether that means joining forces with other non-profits to find more efficient solutions to global problems, working with young activists who speak out when they see injustice, or even inspiring someone reading this article, Barry Segal knows his charity can help “revive the dead” — though he hopes his message will also inspire the living.
