People of Rotary | Mark Feit
Written by Libby Valerio-Boster, Intern with UNL interviewing Rotary 14 members.
Mark Feit was raised in Beatrice, NE. But his connections to Lincoln and to Rotary started at birth. Feit was born in Lincoln General Hospital, the very hospital that Rotary helped found with their fundraising campaign. Little did he know that Rotary 14 would become one of his favorite groups in Lincoln.
After being born here, then returning to Beatrice, he moved back to Lincoln for college and graduated from the University of Nebraska with a degree in broadcast journalism. Radio was Feit’s career of choice after college and was in radio for 20 years. Eventually, the radio business got negative. He was having to fire people and realized that he didn’t want to work in environments where he had to make a lot of money for other people. Feit wanted to be able to reinvest in his employees and company. He took a leap and joined the nonprofit world. He was hired as the Development Director for the Alzheimer’s Association and spent the next three years there. After this experience, Feit was hired by CHAD (Combined Health Agencies Drive) Nebraska. He started this job in 2015 and has been there since. Feit says that he loves raising money for deserving nonprofits and thinks of fundraising as telling stories and building connections.
This very mission is what led Feit to Rotary. He first went to a Rotary meeting in 2013 to talk to the members about the Alzheimer’s Association. He remembers looking around the room and realizing that he needed to join this organization because all the important people could be sponsors for events. After saying this, he joked that he has not made a single dollar off Rotary sponsorships but he has made incredible personal and business connections and has had the opportunity to serve.
Feit says that Rotary 14 is truly an experience in which you get out what you put in. A person can do service work, socialize, go to lunch, and hear speakers. Feit personally has fond memories of serving at the Gathering Place, a soup kitchen south of downtown Lincoln. He describes it as an eye opening experience and one that helps to reset his mindset. When serving, he is reminded how lucky he is and sees that people in the Lincoln community do need help and are always so grateful for the meal. Feit is proud of Rotary 14 for their legacy of giving and their consistent commitment to making Lincoln and the world a better place.
Feit was inspired to join the nonprofit world by Scott Young. Young also started his career in radio and was one of the first people that Feit worked for. After his radio career, Young spent many years with the Food Bank of Lincoln and revolutionized how they help people. Feit followed a similar path from radio to nonprofit work. While following this unusual path, Feit has found his way to serve through CHAD and Rotary 14.
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