By Jim Mueth
JFLV Director of Planned Giving & Endowments

Year 3 of the LIFE & LEGACY program is now in the books for our 10 participating organizations. LIFE & LEGACY which is a program of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation has the goal of generating legacy gifts in our community. Although the rise of the pandemic provided a challenge for our 10 participating organizations, we were able to close out a successful year on June 30.  

Through the first two years, our teams' primary focus had been to have legacy conversations with the goal of generating commitments. Although this remains of vital importance to maintain momentum, the goal for Year 3 became to formalize the commitments that had already been received. In order to formalize a commitment, the donor can make a provision in his or her will, retirement account, life insurance policy or cash donation. Volunteers from participating organizations have been contacting their donors to discuss the option that will work best for the donor. Through diligence, our local organizations were able to formalize 55% of the commitments received.     

LIFE & LEGACY provides two levels of benefit to our community. Primary is the impressive number of legacy gifts that have been generated so far. Currently 323 donors have committed to $8.24 million in estimated gifts through 520 commitments! A second benefit is achieved through incentives provided by the Grinspoon Foundation. Our organizations can earn anywhere between $4,500 to $7,500 of unrestricted funds by reaching annual goals. To date our organizations have earned a total in excess of $100,000.  

The community will celebrate these achievements with a virtual Community Celebration on Sept. 9 to thank our donors and our participating organizations. For more information regarding LIFE & LEGACY or the Community Celebration, contact Jim Mueth at the Jewish Federation at jim@jflv.org.