Like Howard County itself, our donors represent diverse backgrounds and interests. But they all share the same goals: to create a legacy and enrich the community where they work and live.
How do they give back to the community they love? Here are just a few of their stories.
The Women’s Giving Circle Donor-Advised Fund
‘There’s a place for all women, from all incomes and at all stages of our lives.’
Ask Yolanda Bruno, and she’ll tell you amazing things can happen when friends pool their creativity, their passion for a social cause, and their money. Five years ago, the Women’s Giving Circle of Howard County was no more than a dream shared by Bruno and her friends Jean Moon and Linda Odum. Today, it has more than 400 donors, and its Columbia Foundation donor-advised fund has received over $400,000 in contributions and pledges.
A Giving Circle is a pooled fund that makes awards and is managed by the fund's donors. By pooling the time, talent and resources of people who share a common interest in a social cause or issue, giving circles can be a powerful way to impact social change.
The Women’s Giving Circle of Howard County focuses on charitable efforts that benefit women and girls. Among its grant recipients are Grassroots and the Domestic Violence Center, which got money to help restore the loss of funding in transportation services for homeless women and women who are victims of domestic violence. In addition, WGC provided funding for Partners for Empowerment’s Day for Girls and for Muffins for Moms at Laurel Woods Elementary School to assist their efforts to support foreign born and other mothers who are isolated in their community.
In addition, the Women’s Giving Circle has established a scholarship fund at Howard Community College for women who are seeking education or training to help them find a job or improve their employment prospects. Thirteen women have been helped so far.
The Gyan and Prem Khanna Memorial Donor-Advised Fund
‘I know our fund is making a difference in someone’s life.’
Vik Khanna will always remember how his father, Prem, struggled with depression and bipolar disorder. “They pretty much ruined his life,” Khanna says.
Because of his father’s disability, Khanna’s mother, Gyan, was his family’s primary breadwinner when he was growing up. When his father passed away in 1996, Gyan sold her home and moved to Columbia to be near her son.
That’s when the two of them began thinking about ways to help people who suffer from depression. At first, they considered using the proceeds from the sale of Gyan’s home to start a private foundation.
“But starting a foundation can be very difficult,” Khanna says. “There are so many IRS regulations and requirements. We discovered we could achieve the same results with The Columbia Foundation without all the legal headaches.”
In early 1998, Khanna and his mother established the donor-advised Prem Khanna Memorial Fund to help local agencies provide antidepressants and other prescriptions to people unable to afford medication. Every year since then, the fund has distributed approximately $1,300 to Humanim, an organization that works with people who have mental illness and other brain-related disorders.
Gyan passed away in 2000, and Khanna, and his wife, Terese, renamed the fund The Gyan and Prem Khanna Memorial Fund in her honor. They make annual contributions to the fund, which they consider their primary charity. He sends out reminders at the end of each year to family members and friends who donate. “I want to grow the fund to $100,000,” he says.
He likes the idea of supporting local nonprofits. “I like to think someone I might pass in the Mall is living a better life because of our fund,” he says. “By keeping that money here in the county, someone we’ve helped could walk right by me at the Mall.”
Columbia Builders’ Unrestricted Fund
‘People I Know and Trust’
Columbia Builders president Jim Greenfield may be an expert when it comes to homebuilding. But, he believes, the decisions about which local nonprofits to support “are best left to the pros.” That’s why he chose an unrestricted fund with The Columbia Foundation.
Not that he doesn’t have other charities that are close to his heart. He is a long time supporter of The Arc of Howard County, and he also supports the schools from which his children graduated.
“Those are causes that mean something to me,” he says. “So I give to them directly. But by giving to The Columbia Foundation, I can also give back to the entire community.”
Contributing to the Foundation is “a natural” for someone in business, Greenfield says. “The maximum dollars possible go to the causes the Foundation supports. But it’s more than that. The Foundation is run by business people from around town who I know and trust."
Greenfield started The Columbia Builders Fund in 1987 in response to an endowment campaign directed to local homebuilders. He built a house and asked his subcontractors to cut their prices to reduce his overhead. Because he took no profit on the sale of the
house, he was able to start his fund with over $50,000 in net proceeds. Today, it’s valued at over $220,000. In 2004, it generated $9,378 in income that the Foundation used for its grant budget.
Greenfield says he considers The Columbia Foundation part of the social fabric of the community. And as a business owner, he appreciates the Foundation trustees’ and staff’s expertise. “They have the knowledge to judge the grant requests,” he says, “and make awards where they’re needed most.”
The Lucas Livingston Memorial Designated Fund
‘When our friends contribute to the fund, it’s the best gift they can give us.’
When Gordon Livingston, M.D., and Clare King think about parents coming from out of town to be with their sick children at John’s Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore, their hearts ache. “Imagine if you couldn’t afford to stay by your child in this situation,” Livingston says. “The families are battling on two fronts: their child’s disease and their dwindling finances. ‘Unfair’ doesn’t begin to describe it.”
Livingston and King lost their six-year-old son, Lucas, to leukemia after a long stay at
Johns Hopkins Children’s Center. They established the Lucas Livingston Memorial Fund in his honor and decided the fund’s annual income would be used to help parents whose children are patients at the center. The fund pays for families to stay at a nearby hotel while their children undergo treatment.
Every year since they established the fund, Livingston, King and their family and friends remember Lucas through contributions to mark anniversaries, birthdays and other special occasions.
“When our friends contribute to the fund, it’s the best gift they can give us,” Livingston says. “And for families living through the hell of childhood cancer, it might just be the second-best gift they can get.”