 Helpful Articles
from David Vollrath,
Union County Foundation Executive Director
The Foundation encourages you to work closely with your professional advisor(s)
as you develop your estate plan and consider your present and future charitable goals. |
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The Positive Momentum of Charity
By David Vollrath, Executive Director Union County Foundation
One of the very best parts of this job is having a ringside seat as charitable people make good things happen for
their fellow human beings. Sometimes you find yourself in the middle of a charitable act that has a certain positive
momentum. A momentum that assures success in spite of odds favoring its failure. Case in point. Very recently our
office received a call from the Union County Department of Jobs and Family Services (UCDJFS). It seems UCDJFS had
become aware of a very generous donor who wanted to donate a nice vehicle to benefit an 18 year old foster child
who was in desperate need of a vehicle. The foster child (let’s call him Ben) had recently graduated from high
school, is working full time locally, and hopes to soon begin attending college classes in Columbus. I would be
willing to bet that for anyone that is reading this column, those simple activities of working and going to school
are assumed to be achievable, and actually taken for granted by most families. What became alarmingly clear to
me is that not all young people have families, and that what most of us consider a given, is only a possibility
for some. In this case the key to turning possibility into reality was as simple as helping get a car from the
hands of a willing donor into the hands of a needing and much deserving young man.
According to the formal policies of the Foundation there was no provision for us to facilitate such a transaction,
after all, rules are rules and that message was delicately relayed to UCDJS. But remember this charitable act had
“positive momentum” and in retrospect did not have a chance for anything but success. It was going to take a lot
more than a lack of existing policy to keep this act of charity from occurring. I’ve seen it before and I should
have recognized it from the beginning…. when good people (the donor, the foster family and Ben, and the UCDJFS
staff) work hard to do good things then you better just step aside and understand that good things are going to
happen. In this case the Foundation’s leadership unhesitantly instructed me to facilitate the gift of the car from
the donor, to the Foundation, and in turn to Ben. Through the cooperation of a lot of people Ben is now the very
proud owner of a dependable vehicle. You couldn’t find any young man more deserving. But more important than Ben’s
ownership of the car is his chance to continue owning his dream. A dream that most of our kids consider an entitlement.
Thomas Paine is credited with saying “lead, follow, or get out of the way.” Sometimes it’s a hard thing to understand
the need to just get out of the way when an act of charity has… positive momentum.
If you would like to consider how you or your business or your family might initiate an act of meaningful charity
we would be pleased to talk with you. The Union County Foundation encourages you to work with your professional
advisors as you consider your present and future charitable goals. The Foundation is equipped to help you achieve
these goals by providing: planned giving and estate planning resource information, charitable gift annuities/life
income plans, and a broad array of charitable choices. Please call us at 937-642-9618, email info@unioncountyfoundation.org,
or stop by our Marysville office at 126 N. Main St. We are committed to helping you…. “preserve your footprint
in time.” |
