The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of the USA

The Elks Lodges have one mission and that is to make their communities stronger. Through their foundation, the Elks have received $183.6 million in contributions and bequests which goes into an endowment fund. Using the interest from the fund, they Elks Foundation has contributed in excess of $300 million to various charitable projects.

One of their major projects is the Community Investments Program which uses various grants programs - The Gratitude Grants, Promise Grants and Impact Grants. The Elks make direct investments in their local communities. The total grant allotment is expected to be $500,000,

The Elks has a variety of college scholarships that they give out through the local lodges. They work through the guidance counselors at local high schools. They give out 500 4 year Most Valuable Student Scholarships worth from $1,000 per year to $15,000 per year. For children and/or grandchildren of Elks members, they have the Legacy Awards Four-year scholarship. This one is for $4,000 and is merit based. They also have a scholarship for children of deceased or disabled Elks.

The Elks have programs to help the children in their community. They operate the largest drug awareness program in the country. The National Veterans Service Commission gets the youth of the community involved in helping sick and disabled veterans. The Elks have volunteers working at 172 VA medical centers. The Elks Soccer Shoot Program is one of the fastest growing and most popular youth programs in the country. The program is open to children off all ages and operates at the local, district and state level. The junior golf program uses both public golf courses and those at the Elk lodges themselves and works with both the PGA and the USGA to get the youth interested to where they want to compete. The Dictionary Project has a goal of distributing as many dictionaries to third grade students across the county as they can. To date, they have distributed 7 million dictionaries to third graders in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The Antlers Program was started in the 1930's as a way for young people to become involved with the Elks lodges. The program waned during the 1960's but is now making a comeback. The aim of the antlers program is to instill in the youth the spirit of American Patriotism, respect for parents and love of home, the fundamentals of good citizenship, the desire to aid in a worthy cause, to establish foundation of character;promote the welfare and enhance the happiness of its Members and to respect the conviction of others in the matters of worship and religion is true Americanism. Membership is one to everyone between the ages of 12 and 21and is a US citizen