THE PLACES YOU LOVE 2014 ANNUAL REPORT THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF EASTERN CONNECTICUT 2014 Annual Report of The Community Foundation of Eastern Connecticut Local giving, local grant making. For good. For ever. 2 EXPANDING OUR VISION: 24 WOMEN & GIRLS FUNDS A message from the President and the Chair of the Board of Trustees 26 STARTING YOUR OWN FUND 4 OUR DONORS: 31 THE LEGACY SOCIETY Three stories of people who make a difference Alice and Bernard Chalecki 33 PEOPLE WHO CARE: Our 2014 Donors Sidney and Sandy Van Zandt Robert E. Davidson Fund 46 GIFTS IN KIND AND TRIBUTES 8 OUR NONPROFIT PARTNERS: 48 FINANCIAL REPORT Three of the many organizations that put philanthropy into action 49 PROFESSIONAL ADVISORS, BOARD Madonna Place AND STAFF The Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center Windham Region No Freeze Project Serving the towns of Ashford, Bozrah, Brooklyn, Canterbury, Chaplin, Colchester, Columbia, Coventry, Eastford, East 12 YOUR GENEROSITY AT WORK Lyme, Franklin, Griswold, Groton, Hampton, Killingly, Discretionary Grants Lebanon, Ledyard, Lisbon, Lyme, Mansfield, Montville, New Donor Advised Grants London, North Stonington, Norwich, Old Lyme, Plainfield, Donor Advised Funds Pomfret, Preston, Putnam, Salem, Scotland, Sprague, Field of Interest Funds Stafford, Sterling, Stonington, Thompson, Union, Voluntown, Designated Funds Waterford, Willington, Windham, and Woodstock. Unrestricted Funds Scholarship Funds Agency Endowments Future Funds and Sustainability Funds ON THE COVER: New London Harbor, Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center and Putnam’s Cargill Falls AT RIGHT: Roseland Lake, Last Green Valley National Heritage Corridor EDITOR: Lisa Brownell DESIGNER: Susan Lindberg PRINTER: Paladin Printing MANY OF US WHO LIVE IN EASTERN The CONNECTICUT have deep connections to its people and places. Perhaps you first came to the region seeking places an education, a career, or an opportunity to serve your country. You may have been born here and have a you love family history in this corner of New England. No matter the individual circumstances, it is only natural to want to give back to the community that you call home. The shape Community Foundation of Eastern Connecticut stands ready to help you do that. who you As one of the region’s largest permanent sources of grant funding, we also offer common meeting are ground and leadership on important issues. We provide philanthropic guidance and can help you to learn more and who about the causes you care about. We also offer the chance to join others with similar interests to learn and give together for greater impact. Most important, we listen you will to you and to our nonprofit partners; we also pay close attention to what’s happening in our 42 communities. become. For this annual report, we asked our friends and neighbors to send us their own words and images that show “the places you love” in the towns, cities, and countryside that the Foundation serves. We are delighted to share some of these throughout this publication. Seeing these special places reminds us of the values we have in common and why we must continue to strive for a healthy, thriving, and sustainable eastern Connecticut. Expanding our Vision: A message from the President and the Chair of the Board of Trustees THE YEAR 2014, one of the most successful in the partners, advisors, and community leaders. Above all history of our Community Foundation, began with a else, we are grateful to our donors whose generosity is challenge. On a frigid January day, when windswept at the heart of all we do. snow obscured the view from the windows, our Board It is a privilege to serve with such dedicated and of Trustees, several trustees emeriti, and our staff generous individuals as we all work for the common gathered in the Lyman Allyn Art Museum to begin the good. Together we can make a healthier, thriving, and task of strategic planning. more sustainable world for everyone who lives in the Our plan had to be as creative as a work of art and places we love. solid as the four columns of local granite that support the museum. Before we could find new ways to put philanthropy into action, we wanted to listen to our partners — both donors and beneficiaries — and Maryam Elahi assess how the Foundation could invest in their future President and Chief Executive Officer needs, rights, and interests. In the months ahead, the Strategic Planning Committee and an advisory group of stakeholders from around the region devoted their time and energy to the planning effort. Susan Pochal The new knowledge we gained about donor services Chair, Board of Trustees and grant making has empowered us to build upon our past priorities and strengths. As a result of a major bequest from Mr. Peter Letz, we have been able to 2 adopt additional priorities as well. In July 2015, our Board of Trustees approved the new Strategic Plan. We are proud of the work that emerged from months of thoughtful, broad-based discussions and evaluation. Like the points of the compass in our logo, the plan’s four main directives will guide our actions for the coming years. We will work to empower youth, promote basic needs and rights, preserve the environment, and advance animal welfare. The report in your hands traces the Foundation’s major achievements in a single year, 2014, yet it comes at a time when our vision is focused on the future. Here are some of the highlights of 2014: n Our donors generously contributed $10,354,325, which included 22 new named funds, a record level of giving, and double the amount received the previous year. n The Foundation made a record $4,023,103 in grants and scholarships, up 15% over the prior year. n We achieved 6.2% in investment returns, contributing to a five-year annualized return of 9.6%. The numbers do not tell the whole story though. We also measure success by the effectiveness of our stewardship, our efforts to expand our knowledge, and the strength of our relationships with our nonprofit OUR HISTORY IS KEY TO OUR FUTURE THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION HAS BEEN HELPING PEOPLE TO HELP OTHERS FOR 32 YEARS. ESTABLISHED IN 1983, IT BEGAN WHEN LIKE-MINDED PEOPLE HAD A VISION OF BUILDING A PERMANENT ENDOWMENT FOR CHARITABLE GIVING. The Letz Fund: A $10 million legacy from a man THEY WANTED TO MAKE GREAT THINGS HAPPEN WHERE THEY LIVE. who loved the natural world IN THE 1980S, COMMUNITY IN FALL OF 2013, the Community Foundation received astonishing FOUNDATIONS WERE RELATIVE news. The Foundation was about to receive by far the largest single gift in NEWCOMERS TO THE PHILANTHROPIC its history: an anticipated $10 million estate distribution to create the LANDSCAPE, BUT TODAY OUR Peter Grayson Letz Fund for Animals and the Environment. FOUNDATION IS ONE OF MORE THAN When someone chooses to live life entirely on his or her own terms, not following a conventional path, that individual often remains a bit of a mystery 800 STRONG ACROSS THE NATION. COLLECTIVELY, THEIR ASSETS to the rest of the world. That was the case when Peter Letz, then 60, died from 3 cancer at a hospice center in the fall of 2011. Very few of his fellow residents in EXCEED $71 BILLION; THEY ARE THE rural North Stonington would have guessed that their unassuming neighbor, RECIPIENTS OF MORE THAN $8 BILLION who lived in a 1920 Cape and often worked in maintenance jobs, would leave millions to help the region he called home all of his life. IN GIFTS AND HAVE MADE MORE And yet, to the few who knew him well, it was no mystery that Letz THAN $5.5 BILLION IN GRANTS AND loved nature and animals. He enjoyed nature photography and went out of his SCHOLARSHIPS. way to rescue injured or abandoned animals, even bringing a baby raccoon to UPON THE 2010 MERGER OF the Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center on one occasion and contributing to the organization. His parents, the late George and Beverly Letz of Groton, were THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF long-term donors to the Community Foundation. They had established two SOUTHEASTERN CONNECTICUT (NEW scholarship funds, one for graduates of Fitch Senior High School in Groton and LONDON AND SURROUNDING REGION) a second for Wheeler High School in North Stonington. It was natural for WITH THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION their son to seek the estate-planning assistance of attorney Suzanne Kitchings, who had worked with his parents. Kitchings and David Zuckerbraun, then a OF THE TRI-COUNTY AREA (NORWICH trust officer and attorney with The Washington Trust Company, helped the AND NORTH), WE BECAME THE Community Foundation better understand Peter Letz’s hopes in making this COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF EASTERN generous bequest. CONNECTICUT. WE NOW SERVE 42 Peter Letz’s legacy will benefit animals, both domestic pets and wildlife. It also will support the preservation of the environment and environmental TOWNS IN WHAT IS THE LARGEST education in New London County. This year, the Community Foundation GEOGRAPHIC AREA OF THE STATE’S held focus groups and worked with local animal welfare groups and a 21 COMMUNITY FOUNDATIONS. SINCE committee of experts to develop a long-term plan for this fund. This 2010, WE’VE DOUBLED IN ASSETS (TO permanently endowed fund will generate approximately $400,000 in grant dollars each year to support Peter Letz’s dreams. $64 MILLION) AND INCREASED GRANT MAKING TO OVER $4 MILLION YEARLY. OUR DONORS A helping hand to future healers: Bernard and Alice Chalecki THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF EASTERN MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS DEVOTE THEIR LIVES to helping others, yet they themselves must often shoulder the high costs CONNECTICUT BRINGS TOGETHER of attaining a medical degree or certification. Now, a new scholarship HUNDREDS OF DONORS TO BUILD A BETTER fund will offer help to those aspiring to be doctors, nurses, and other trained medical professionals.