University Recognizes Founders’ Planned Giving Society

By Peter H. Congleton

Margery Gardow, pictured here at the Founders’ Planned Giving Society fall luncheon, is a former part-time instructor in the University’s English Language Institute. She is also the wife of Ernie Gardow, professor emeritus and former chair of mechanical engineering. The Gardows have provided generously for the University in their estate plans.

An annual fall gathering brings people to campus who all share a common stake in the future of the University of Hartford. This group of professors, physicians, lawyers, musicians, bankers, entrepreneurs, artists, teachers, and retirees is the Founders’ Planned Giving Society.

On Sept. 26, the University hosted a luncheon at The 1877 Club in honor of these farsighted individuals. After President Walter Harrison spoke to the assemblage, Deans Joseph Voelker (A&S) and Louis Manzione (CETA), and Associate Dean Frederick Sweitzer (ENHP) gave a presentation on the University’s venture into the field of digital health, in which several schools and colleges at Hartford will help solve the problems of providing health care to a growing population of elderly. They also introduced a new mentoring program for undergraduates.

Members of the Founders’ Planned Giving Society have provided for, or planned a gift through, their estates that fits their own sets of personal circumstances and charitable objectives. The dollar amounts of these gift plans may vary widely, but the gratitude with which the University acknowledges each member of the Founders’ Society is constant and absolute.

In its characteristic style, the society encourages and celebrates the “planning” just as much as the “giving.” Occasionally, the University receives bequests and other estate gifts that had not been previously anticipated. For those gift plans that are known in advance, however, the Founders’ Society will often suggest life income arrangements, such as charitable gift annuities and charitable remainder trusts, as well as testamentary gifts, such as bequests, beneficiary designations from retirement plans, and life insurance policies. Charitable lead trusts and donor-advised funds are also represented among the thoughtful and valuable gift plans devised by Founders’ Society members.

If you have made plans for a gift to the University through your estate, the Founders’ Planned Giving Society would be delighted to welcome you as a member. If you would like to learn more about your own gift-planning potential, please contact Director of Planned Giving Peter H. Congleton, in confidence, at 860.768.2415, or visit www.hartford.edu/giving/plannedgiving.