Meet
Stu Malakoff
Board Member
Stu Malakoff, CFP®, CDFA®, CPFA, CRPC®
Board Member
609-933-7085
Friends of the Children Central Oregon
PO Box 6028
Bend, OR 97708
Bio
I’m a native New Yorker, and moved to Bend in 2018 with my wife, Vicky. I wanted to be involved in an impactful non-profit and – after researching several local organizations – joined the Friends of the Children Central Oregon Board in 2019. I was honored to serve as their Board Chair from 2020-2023 and continue to be an active Board member, with seats on the Finance, Audit & Operations committee and the Nominations & Governance committee. A car enthusiast, I am also the Vice President of the High Desert Region Porsche Club.
My professional career started as a generalist corporate banker in Manhattan after graduating from the University of Rochester with an Economics degree. Six years later I graduated with honors from Columbia Business School with an MBA and began to specialize in lending to and advising Fortune 1000 companies in the Media and Telecomm industries. After 9/11, I wanted to work closer to my young family and became a financial advisor with Morgan Stanley. Eighteen years later in 2020, I founded Bend Wealth Advisors, which has quickly grown to an 8-person wealth management firm serving clients throughout the United States. When I'm not in the office, you can find me hiking with my Goldendoodle, Maggie. I've also been known to play guitar and bass (well, as Vicky would say, anything with strings) and venture into the world of aviation photography.
Company
Friends of the Children Central Oregon (FotCCO) is an independent non-profit that selects and invites youth who face multiple systemic obstacles to be paired with a paid, professional mentor called a Friend. In alignment with the national Friends of the Children model, of which we are one of about 30 chapters throughout the country, we hire and train Friends to support our youth from as early as age 4 all the way through high school graduation…12+ years of mentorship, no matter what. Our program is designed to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty. We are in the midst of an ambitious expansion, guided by a 5 year strategic plan which I helped author, and intend to double the number of youth we serve throughout Central Oregon by the end of 2028.
Remarkable Difference
The Friends model is the only long-term professional mentoring program in the United States. Each child we serve gets a dedicated, one-on-one Friend who listens to their hopes and dreams, and serves as a reliable, positive role model. Friends empower our youth to set – and achieve – their goals. Friends also create meaningful experiences that empower youth to build life skills and make healthy choices while exploring the child's diverse talents and interests. According to the Harvard Business School Association of Oregon, the Friends model generates a $3.4 million societal benefit due to mentoring each FotCCO graduate.