Helen Nash believed that everyone deserves a second chance — or a third chance, or infinite chances to succeed. A passionate supporter of education, she wasn’t concerned with traditional measures of success. Rather, she championed students overcoming the odds and making the best out of difficult circumstances, especially young adults juggling jobs and family, but still pursuing their educational goals.
As a tangible measure of her support, Helen made a provision in her estate plan to assist adult-age students who complete their G.E.D.s or high school diplomas and continue to colleges or trade schools. When she passed away in 2011, her legacy gift funded the Helen Nash Scholarship, which has since assisted 29 students in advancing their educations in Yolo County.
Helen’s story is one illustration of the power of “legacy giving,” a phrase that means planning today to leave a gift after your lifetime, creating a future source of support for the causes you care about. In our work, we find that people decide to give in this way for a variety of reasons — for example, they have no heirs and want to ensure causes are supported beyond their lives, or they have heirs and want philanthropy to remain a family value.
Whatever their reasons, legacy giving empowers many, like Helen, to make enduring contributions to good causes, and partnering with the Foundation for legacy planning makes the process simple and fulfilling — which my husband and I can personally attest, as we’ve named our Foundation fund the beneficiary of a gift through our estate.
We are following in the footsteps of Helen and others who saw the value of leaving charitable legacies — people like Dave Ramsay whose legacy gift of his Charitable Remainder Trust established a charitable fund that now provides income for organizations that perpetuate his passion for music. And people like James and Virginia Benson, whose legacy gift established a charitable fund that now supports nonprofits serving seniors in Placer County.
At the Foundation, it is our privilege to work with people like these, people who plan during their lifetimes to make an impact even after they’re gone. To learn more, including how you can support your charitable fund with a legacy gift or create a stand-alone Legacy Fund, please contact us.