Cueto Prietto Fund

Local physician Dr. Jose Cueto learned about the Sacramento Region Community Foundation while vacationing with friends, Amador and Rosalie Bustos. Their conversation about giving led Dr. Cueto and his wife, Anita Prietto, to open their first donor advised fund, the Cueto Prietto Fund, in 2007. Two years later, the couple followed that endowment with the Prietto Cueto Fund, an expendable Donor Advised Fund, granting out more than $150,000.

“Anita and I come from large generous families,” Dr. Cueto explains, “and philanthropy is in our genetic makeup. I have childhood memories of my father offering medical care to the poor and not asking to get paid… and of friends and family members who had come on hard times, living at our house and eating at our table. We learned early that helping those less fortunate needs to be an important part of our lives.”

The family added a connection to the Foundation in 2009 with the Andrew Ray Katnik Memorial Fund. Dr. Katnik was a well-known Sacramento anesthesiologist and the husband of Dr. Cueto’s sister Ana. When he passed away at the young age of 50, Andy’s large circle of friends honored him with a permanent tribute. “Andy was gregarious,” says Ana Katnik. “He knew everyone, and he was loved by many.”

The family established the Andrew Ray Katnik Memorial Scholarship at Loretto High School, where the Katniks’ and Cuetos’ daughters attended. When Loretto closed its doors, Dr. Cueto became the driving force in transferring the fund to the Sacramento Region Community Foundation where he established an endowment that will exist forever. “Moving the Andrew Ray Katnik Memorial Fund to the Foundation was a blessing,” he says, “and it ensures that Andy’s legacy of helping young people without means to have a Catholic education can continue.”

He adds, “The Foundation has become one of the important partners in helping us with our charitable donations. We trust the Foundation to handle our funds responsibly, and we have peace of mind with that relationship.”