Generosity in Bloom

A story I heard recently reminded me of the simple truth that little things can grow to be much bigger than anyone could imagine. An avalanche grows from a single snowball, a tree grows from a seedling, and tiny acts of generosity can grow together to make a monumental impact. The story concerns a Brooklyn woman named Sylvia Bloom, who’d recently left $6.2 million to Henry Street Settlement in Manhattan’s Lower East Side—their largest single gift ever—to benefit a scholarship program that helps disadvantaged students prepare for and complete their college education. Though her gift is significant by any measure, she wasn’t a person of large means. She wasn’t born a millionaire or part of New York’s social elite. She was a legal secretary who shrewdly followed the investments of her superiors, and through a series of small, but smart, investments amassed a fortune over time. Sylvia did this in secret, working until she was 96 years old and living a frugal, modest life. No one—not even her family—was aware of her financial success until after her death. Her small acts of modesty were actually great acts of generosity. Each time she tucked away a bit of her earnings toward what would become her substantial investments, she was denying herself a bit of comfort and luxury—in a sense, deferring her own comfort so that it could exponentially benefit the lives of those she would never meet in ways that those who benefitted would never forget. This story is inspiring and hit home in part because it perfectly reflects the guiding principle of the Community Foundation’s Community Endowment—to give anonymously to help those you don’t know. For many (including the Community Foundation), this is the highest form of giving. But it also hit home because—like the Community Endowment—Sylvia’s gift was only possible because of small contributions, which grew over time.

Anyone can give modest—or great—gifts to the Community Endowment, and they will build upon the gifts of others to create collective impact. These gifts, like Sylvia’s, will benefit lives anonymously, but significantly, and they will grow greater over time. So, a $1,000 gift to the Community Endowment might only pay out $10 in its first year, but over time that same $1,000 will grow to payout $1000 or more to address a community issue—year after year. Though the Community Endowment has been around for many years, it is still in its infancy. So far, it has only paid out modestly to aid the community, but one day we hope that it can make significant contributions where our community needs it most. Right now, the Community Endowment is a sprout, but with the generosity of our community, we hope that it will grow to be giving tree that If you are interested in seeing how the Community Endowment will help create sustainable impact in our community, please call 775-225-6290 or email me at mgonzalez@nevadafund.org. I’d love to tell you more. Marvin Gonzalez, Development Assistant Connecting people who care with causes that matter

 By Doncram [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], from Wikimedia Commons