Community Update - Legacy Endowment: the Heart of North County

One of the pleasures the board and staff of Legacy Endowment enjoy over and over again is the look of satisfaction and delight on the faces of potential donors and beneficiaries alike when we have successfully conveyed the power behind the pooling of resources for the community good that goes on here at Legacy.

For many, words like “endowment” and “foundation” conjure images of stuffy suits and stiff-backed chairs, but the fact is, Legacy is too much about heart and helping to be called “stuffy.”

This past year, in the aftermath of the Rice fire, many people came to know Legacy (and its board) in its role of community leader in North San Diego County. Sleeves rolled up, we partnered effectively with the “After the Ashes” committee as well as the Fallbrook Chamber to raise and distribute more than $117,000 in much-needed funds to victims of our most recent firestorm. To all of you who volunteered and donated so mightily to make that happen, we thank you! Speedily and efficiently those moneys reached thoroughly evaluated victims, with Legacy making sure every ‘i’ was dotted and every ‘t’ crossed.

With an operating budget of only one percent of its overall ($10,000,000) size, Legacy works hard to create the time and manpower to share its story with more of you in North County. And Wil Gower helped to change that last month when he held Legacy’s first ambassador orientation meeting. Eleven community-minded locals volunteered to serve as Legacy Ambassadors to help carry the message of how Legacy enriches our North County communities as well as individual donors.

Here is just a sampling of what, in the past year alone, our dedicated board and staff have accomplished. Among many other missions, we:

• Extended countless 501(c)3 benefits to various non-exempt businesses, nonprofit organizations and individuals who wanted to see their donations earn income as well as benefit the local community

• Added more than $1 million in special purpose funds to build new buildings, restore rehabilitation centers, provide therapy for developmentally challenged individuals and other worthy causes

• Established and managed new charitable remainder trusts, endowments and donor-advised funds

• Guided numerous local charities and donors in structuring their philanthropy

And in the meantime, we awarded more than $362,000 in grants to support North County organizations that we all appreciate, including the FUHS Scholarship Fund, Boys & Girls Club, St. Madeline’s Sophie Center, Elisabeth Hospice, Burnham Institute Cancer Center, Handicapped Assistance Fund, Cabin by the Lake and numerous senior citizen causes, among others.

Thanks to our current donors, these funds and more are pooled to grow and work together, providing benefit to their originators and to our North County charities.

At Legacy Endowment, it is our job to provide donors and their professional advisors with the technical assistance they need to plan their charitable giving. You are familiar with the old saying “If you have a job to do, give it to the busiest people you know.” Well, in North San Diego County, that is Legacy.

It is our goal to grow Legacy Endowment to $50,000,000 by 2012 in order to continue aiding our donors in their good works. Our donors don’t so much give “to” Legacy but “through” Legacy.

Now is the time for you – an individual, family or organization – to be a part of the action by asking that all-important question of Legacy: “What would be the best way to turn my dreams of giving into reality?”