Couple Considers the Community They Love in a Planned Gift

Jack and Nancy are not strangers to the Cedar Rapids community. The pair met at Coe College as undergraduates, and quickly became involved in local organizations and initiatives. After finishing graduate degrees at the University of Iowa, they decided Cedar Rapids was an ideal place to settle. They’ve been giving back to the community ever since.

Now, years later, and after building successful careers and raising three sons, Jack and Nancy have established a planned gift with the Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation. While they’re quick to remind their boys that none of this will be happening anytime soon, when the time comes, the Evans’ estate will be divided into four equal parts, with 25% of their estate to become a fund at the Community Foundation.

Jack got the idea from a friend. “We were talking about estate planning,” he recalls. “And he tells me that he and his wife have decided to treat philanthropy as their fourth child.”

The idea immediately appealed to the Evans. “We know the value of gifts that live on in a community,” explains Nancy. “We want the needs of the future to be met. We don’t want to have to try to guess today what the community will need years from now.”

Those decisions will be left to the Evans’ sons: Matt, Will and Peter. With the guidance of the Community Foundation staff and board, the second generation will direct how the spendable amounts from the fund will be granted. Jack and Nancy are confident that their children will make thoughtful decisions.

“They were tickled when we told them,” Nancy says. “They think it’s really creative.”  She’s excited for them to be directing the future of the Evans family philanthropy because, while she knows they all share an affinity for many of the same organizations, she also knows they’ll bring their own interests, knowledge and passions into those decisions.

“We’ve lived by the quote, that you make a living by what you get,” explains Jack, “but you make a life by what you give.”