Setting a direction for generosity with Field of Interest Funds
Don and Marsha Pedersen
When Don Pedersen’s wife, Marsha, passed in June 2020, he realized that they had put off deciding exactly where to channel the generous gift they had earmarked in their estate planning for the Quad Cities Community Foundation. “I asked myself, what do we really want to happen to that money?” said Don. “I felt that before something happened to me, I needed to establish a direction for those funds to go.”
Over the next eight months, Don worked with the Community Foundation to open an endowed Field of Interest Fund, allowing him to identify targeted areas of need and opportunity in the Quad Cities without having to choose exactly which organizations will receive funds each year.
According to Anne Calder, vice president of development at the Community Foundation, it’s not uncommon for philanthropists like Don and Marsha to hesitate when considering their legacies and how to make the greatest impact on the causes and communities that matter to them. It can be difficult to know now which specific nonprofits will need support in the decades to come when so many worthy options are available.
“Endowed Field of Interest Funds make it easier for donors to identify their special area of impact while leaving it to the Community Foundation staff and volunteer committees to distribute grant dollars to nonprofits addressing priority needs and community opportunities in those donors’ interest areas,” said Calder. “We take pride in our ability to locate the intersection of what donors care about and what their community needs.”
One field of interest Don is particularly excited to support through the Don and Marsha Pedersen Endowment Fund is creative arts and culture. A lifelong musician, the retired engineer cherishes fond memories of traveling with Marsha to see shows in New York City. “We’d see five or six over one long weekend,” he recalled. The Pedersens also supported the arts locally. Among the charitable endowment funds dedicated to specific organizations the couple established at the Community Foundation in the mid-2000s was the Marsha and Don Pedersen Endowment for the Quad City Symphony Orchestra, an organization whose board Marsha also served on.
With the Pedersens’ new endowed Field of Interest Fund, Don can trust the Community Foundation to identify the arts organizations where resources from the fund, pooled with other donor gifts in the same field of interest, will make the most impact.
The Don and Marsha Pedersen Endowment Fund will also support education and children, youth, and seniors, two categories that align with the couple’s longtime interests. “When I hear about communities getting rid of school programs because of funding—whether that’s performing arts or football—I get very upset,” said Don. “I think those things are so important to kids growing up.”
Other fields of interest donors can gift to at the Community Foundation include basic human needs, health and wellness, animals and the environment, and cities and neighborhoods. Donors also have the option of defining a field of interest to capture the area of need most important to them.
No matter what areas a donor chooses, the Community Foundation works diligently to connect that donor’s generosity to the nonprofits that can do the most good with it in their community every year.
Building on his enduring relationship with the Community Foundation, the process was easy for Don. “Every interaction we’ve had with them, every experience, has been totally positive,” he said.
To learn how you can ensure the causes you love are supported in our community, contact Anne Calder at 563/326-2840 or AnneCalder@QCCommunityFoundation.org.