Pioneer Partnership
Legacy Gift Program

The Centerville-Washington Township Historical Society has begun a new initiative to build its endowment through a planned and deferred giving program.  Interest earned on the endowment helps preserve the community's history and fund the Society's programs.

The Society has joined with the Dayton Foundation's Legacy Partnership Program.  The Dayton Foundation provides the staff expertise for the project that has been undertaken by a Society committee made up of members of the community, the Society board, and staff.

Frederick C. Smith, one of the Dayton area's most prominent philanthropists, is the committee's Honorary Chairman.

"Pioneer Partnership" is the name the committee has selected for its program.  Its members are pioneers in the fundraising effort and its donors are in a partnership with the society.  The program is designed to help the Society secure legacy gift commitments and will provide a long-term, consistent emphasis on endowment building.

Pioneer Partnership:

    •Provides a structured and disciplined approach to endowment building.
    •Is an approach with a proven track record of securing legacy gifts to non-profits.
    •Supports the Society's endowment building efforts.
    •Gives the Society access to The Dayton Foundation's experience in planned and deferred giving.
    •Helps grow the Society's resources for the future.

Planned giving techniques include remembering the Society in your will, life insurance, retirement funds, charitable gift annuities, and others.

Members of the Pioneer Partnership help perpetuate the good work of the Society for future generations through their gifts and commitments to the Society's Endowment fund.

Individuals and couples qualify to become members of the Pioneer Partnership in one or more of the following ways:

    •Making an outright gift to the endowment fund of money, securities, property or other marketable assets.
    •Creating a charitable gift annuity, charitable remainder trust, or life estate gift to benefit the endowment fund.
    •Naming the endowment fund as a beneficiary of a new or existing life insurance policy or retirement plan.
    •Naming the endowment fund to receive a bequest in a will or living trust.

"In the past," Executive Director Mary Kay Mabe said, "the Society has thought about this kind of a fundraising effort, but until The Dayton Foundation began this program we didn't know how to proceed.  We are delighted to have the Pioneer Partnership in our development program.  It will benefit the Society for years to come."

For several years, the Society has had an endowment fund with the Centerville-Washington Foundation, affiliated with The Dayton Foundation.  Interest from the endowment may be used to support Society activities.

In addition to Fred Smith, the list of members of the Pioneer Partnership committee includes Sue Hufnagle, president of the Society's board of trustees; Brad Thorp, the Society's assistant treasurer; Deb Teeters, owner of Centerville's Joli's Boutique; Nancy Stork, of the University of Dayton; Mary Kay Mabe, the Society's Executive Director; and Bob Daley, ex officio member of the board.

For more information about the program, call Mary Kay Mabe at 291-2223.