LIFE & LEGACY raises estimated $4 million-plus in future gifts

Supporters of the LIFE & LEGACY project in Louisville listen to a speaker during a recent thank you brunch at the Muhammad Ali Center. See the photo gallery, page 17. (Community photos by Tara Cocco)

Jewish Louisville raised an estimated $4.5 million in future gifts through the LIFE & LEGACY program during its just-completed first year of operation here, securing 235 pledged gifts that will help ensure the future of the community.
LIFE & LEGACY is a national program, created and funded in part by the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, that encourages legacy giving to sustain Jewish organizations and congregations. Those entities can also receive bonus payments for their initial18 pledges and a second bonus for securing 25 legacy pledges in a year.
Nine Louisville organizations took part in the program this past year, April 1, 2017, to March 31, 2018, each reaching the 18-pledge threshold.
In addition to the Grinspoon Foundation, the Jewish Community of Louisville (JCL) and the Jewish Heritage Fund for Excellence jointly fund the program here.
The JCL celebrated the first year LIFE & LEGACY in Louisville with a donor appreciation brunch on Sunday, March 25, at the Muhammad Ali Center. Teddy Abrams, musical director of the Louisville Orchestra, performed for the donors and spoke about the orchestra’s legacy and how he was inspired to compose the musical work The Greatest: Muhammad Ali, which the orchestra performed for the first time last November.
Dena Kaufman, who represented the Grinspoon Foundation, congratulated Jewish Louisville on its success, and Shelly Gilman, LIFE & LEGACY chair in Louisville, extolled the value of legacy giving.
Gilman said remembering loved ones no longer here is a cherished value in Judaism, and worshippers in synagogues are reminded to be “grateful for the gift of their lives and the cherished memories, which they have left with us.”
“The best things in life aren’t things,” he said. “Instead our best things are our values and our spirit. I pray that, by our actions, we will have inspired our children and our grandchildren to leave a legacy of their own precious values to their children.”
The nine LIFE & LEGACY-participating entities in Louisville are Adath Jeshurun, Jewish Federation of Louisville, The J, Jewish Family & Career Services, Jewish Learning Center-Chabad, Keneseth Israel, Louisville Beit Sefer Yachad, The Temple and Temple Shalom.
Nationwide, 52 Jewish communities have participated in LIFE & LEGACY for five years. So far, they have secured $672 million in pledged gifts and have already received $59 million in actual funds.

(Jennifer Tuvlin is the LIFE & LEGACY coordinator in Louisville.)

Want to give?
Contact Tuvlin at 502-238-2744 or jtuvlin@jewishlouisville.org to discuss how to make a legacy gift benefitting Jewish Louisville.

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