The foundation's mission[3] is "to provide today's young people with the skills to navigate the dangers of alcohol, binge drinking, peer pressure and hazing."

On the evening of September 16, 2004, Lynn Gordon Bailey Jr. ("Gordie"), an 18-year-old freshman at the University of Colorado's Leeds School of Business,[5] and 26 other Chi Psi pledges were blindfolded and dressed in coats and ties for "bid night."

He was placed on a couch to "sleep it off" at approximately 11:00 p.m. Later in the evening while Bailey was unconscious, the fraternity members used permanent markers[6] to write demeaning words and pictures on his body.

The fraternity also agreed to use Bailey's story in all pledge education about hazing, as well as to require that all chapters recruit a live-in adult supervisor.

The Gordie Foundation, with director Pete Schuermann, produced a documentary film entitled HAZE[11] that explores the college environment that leads to alcohol-related deaths like Bailey's.