The Morning Blend
Welcome
Complete Media Kit
SIERRA VISTA — Karen Justice has noticed more of her clients seem to be interested in leaving something to charity when planning their estates.
Justice, president of Justice Financial, an investment advisory firm, said the interest has actually surprised her.
“I am surprised more and more people today ask me ‘You know, I would like to leave some money for such and such,’ ” Justice said, though she said she doesn’t leave it to the clients to bring up leaving money to charity. “If they don’t initiate it, I always bring it up because everybody cares about something.”
And typically, Justice said, people seem to want to donate locally, herself included.
 Stacey Barlow, a Nancy J. Brua Animal Care Center customer service representative, works while shelter mascot Cassi, 14, does her job Friday in Sierra Vista. (Mark Levy-Herald/Review) |
“All my trusts, everything will be in Cochise County,” she said. “I grew up here.”
There are plenty of choices locally to donate to, regardless of a person’s interest, and non-profits locally sometimes depend on the money.
For the Nancy J. Brua Animal Care Center, for example, as little a donation as a bag of food can extend the stay of an animal. And a donation from an estate that totaled about $1 million helped the center to build a new shelter that had been on hold for years.
“That donation was huge,” said center supervisor Tammie Cline. “A building that had been on the standstill for 10 years and wasn’t moving, and would have still been in that dreary position (without the donation).”
The donation helped pay for 28 percent of the building cost, which is named after the donor who left the money.
At the Cochise College Foundation, donations help support student success.
From scholarships to department funding to donations for capital expenditures, there are several ways a donor’s money can be used.
“We have a donor who annually gives money to the library at the Sierra Vista campus,” Merkel said, that money has helped pay to improve the conference room, among other things.
Merkel said there are about $200,000 in funds held by the foundation. “It’s an exciting thing, really,” Merkel said. “The way that people give to help somebody achieve what they can be.”
“Education is like the gift that keeps on giving,” she added. “If you can help someone achieve that, you’ve really done something.”
For people who are medically-minded, one local charity would be the Sierra Vista Regional Health Center Foundation.
Eva Dickerson, foundation manager, said donated money has helped purchase “larger ticket items” for the center. Most recently, for example, the foundation used its money to purchase a digital mammogram system, which cost more than $600,000.
Digital mammogram systems provide much clearer images, Dickerson said. “The results and the feedback we’re getting from the women that are getting that are getting the digital mammograms are something else,” she said.
And the purchase also is providing a great service to the county.
“We’re the only digital mammogram facility in the county,” Dickerson said. “Right now they’re already six to seven weeks out on scheduling.”
The next purchase the foundation will make is for portable cardiac monitors, which cost about $11,000 each. Dickerson said the units will allow the hospital to move patients out of the intensive care unit, which is where the current monitors are located, who are there for monitoring and do not need intensive care.
The purchases the center makes, Dickerson said, come from recommendations by hospital administration and the board of trustees.
“They let us know what they’re interested in having the foundation raise the money for,” she said.
The foundation has not yet received many estate donations, something Dickerson said she hopes to change.
“We’re working to develop that program,” Dickerson said, adding that she feels the donations are well spent. “Every dime that they bequeath to us goes toward helping the hospital with equipment and all that because we didn’t pay taxes on it, we’re tax exempt.”
People who want to donate for a particular cause, rather than a particular charity, can work with the Cochise Community Foundation.
“The community foundation is donor-driven,” said Carol Sanger, regional director for Arizona Community Foundation, of which Cochise Community Foundation is an affiliate. “We work with donors to endow Cochise (County), but we want to endow their passion.”
“Nonprofit organizations are one of our customers too, and we work very hard to help support nonprofit organizations,” Sanger added, pointing out, however, that some nonprofits do not have the long-term success that would be necessary for long-term planning for someone doing their estate planning.
“In 10-15 years, (the organization) may not be in that position, but the donor may want to be sure that their money is doing what it was supposed to do … whatever the organization is that is doing that, we can make sure that the donor money is always going to that particular need.”
In the 10 years the foundation has been in place, it has made grants to the community that total about $600,000, Sanger said, and has an endowment of about $4.5 million.
Sanger said she loves doing the work she does because it can help the success rate of local nonprofits.
“Essentially I believe in the work that the organization is doing,” she said. “We need every nonprofit in Cochise County, and this is a way for me to try and secure resources for these nonprofits: Educating people on how to leave a legacy for the community that has educated them.”
On the Net
• Cochise College Foundation: cochise.edu/information/ccfoundation/index.asp
• Cochise Community Foundation: azfoundation.org/
• Sierra Vista Regional Health Center Foundation: svrhc.org/foundation.htm
• Nancy J. Brua Animal Care Center: ci.sierra-vista.az.us/
Herald/Review reporter Katie Evans can be reached at 515-4611 or by e-mail at katie.evans@svherald.com.
