Live On | LIFE & LEGACY Update

In 2012, the Harold Grinspoon Foundation (HGF) launched LIFE & LEGACY, an initiative to provide training, support and monetary incentives to Jewish organizations across the country that want to build permanent endowments. This past July, HGF announced an incredible achievement: eight years after its creation, LIFE & LEGACY has reached $1 billion in legacy-gift commitments.

Since 2018, Rose Community Foundation has partnered with HGF’s LIFE & LEGACY program to strengthen nonprofit Jewish organizations in the Greater Denver region. This national partnership empowers Rose Community Foundation to expand its support for nonprofits looking to build their endowments.

“While Rose Community Foundation has long supported endowment building for Jewish nonprofits, partnering with HGF reenergized our existing Live On program,” explains Amelia Fink, Director of Nonprofit Funds & Endowments. The new initiative – Live On | LIFE & LEGACY – has helped support 28 organizations in growing endowment funds that will bolster their long-term financial sustainability. “When the funding landscape changes, having that reliable distribution can be critical,” adds Fink. “Organizations can depend on those funds for generations.”

In just over two years, participating nonprofits in Greater Denver have secured over 750 new legacy commitments with an estimated value of approximately $40 million. This comes in addition to the nearly 1,000 legacy gifts secured during the preceding decade through the Foundation’s Live On program.

Through the partnership, Rose Community Foundation and the Harold Grinspoon Foundation provide Live On | LIFE & LEGACY program participants with hands-on coaching and trainings on topics such as donor solicitation and stewardship, marketing and gift acceptance policies. The initiative also offers incentive grants throughout the four-year program to encourage organizations to secure legacy gifts in order to grow their endowment funds over time.

“Participating in the Live On | LIFE & LEGACY program has made our organization stronger, bolder and more stable than ever before,” shares Lisa Benoit, Development Director at Judaism Your Way.

“We are incredibly grateful for Live On | LIFE & LEGACY,” adds Sara Skerpan, Development Director at the Boulder JCC. “Maintaining a focus on both annual fundraising and legacy and endowment commitments can be challenging, and the program has helped us to strategically focus on both.”

The initiative has proven especially important during the COVID-19 pandemic, as many nonprofits face an unusually challenging operating and fundraising environment.

“Endowments provide stability and flexibility during times like these,” Fink says. “More than ever, we feel a responsibility to help our Jewish nonprofit community continue to grow these funds as they prepare for whatever the future may bring.”


To learn more about Live On | LIFE & LEGACY or establishing an endowment fund at Rose Community Foundation, please contact Amelia Fink at 303.398.7452 or afink@rcfdenver.org.


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