Meet Jerry and Ann Palmer
This story was featured in our FY2020 Annual Impact Report.
Topekans since 1966, Ann Palmer and her husband, Jerry, have become more than familiar with Capper Foundation over the years. In addition to Ann’s prior role on the Capper Board of Trustees, the Palmers were warmly welcomed as Heritage Society Inductees this past fiscal year.
The generosity of a planned gift, on top of their financial commitment to Capper Foundation’s Capital Campaign, will leave an immeasurable impact on the lives of persons served at Capper Foundation and our community. We hope others will follow their example. To those who might be considering this profound decision, Ann offered some words of advice:
“Take a tour of the Capper Foundation facilities and talk to someone whose children or child have received services at Capper. Go to An Evening for a Child and hear the story of the featured child that year and see the remarkable difference that Capper makes in people’s lives. Or come and sit through a day at iCan Bike and watch the parents and the bikers. After that, leaving Capper in your will is pretty darn painless.”
Why Not You?
Ann pointed out that, as outstanding as Capper Foundation’s services are, it needs money to operate in both good years and tough years. “Knowing that Capper has about $3 million in non-reimbursed cost of services in an average year, you have to understand, that money has to come from somewhere,” Ann explains. “Why not you?”
She said that many in her and Jerry’s chapter of life have talked to a lawyer, or will talk to a lawyer, about an estate plan. A lawyer will usually ask, outside of family, where funds should be left.
“We are certainly strong on leaving money to our children, but you want to leave something else,” Ann shares. “I think Capper is an organization that you want to see go on and on without interruption, and it does so much good.”
It takes a great deal of confidence to leave part of one’s financial legacy to be used by a nonprofit in ways that are out of one’s hands. You have to have complete confidence in the way it’s managed, Ann explains — confidence not only in its history but in its future as well.
“I don’t think people in Topeka realize what it means to have this kind of service available. There are many, many towns and cities in Kansas that do not have this… We are so lucky, and it is up to those of us who know to make sure the under-served get served.”