Determine a Destination
If a journey of a thousand miles begins with but a single step, your first step in gift planning should be to determine the destination. What would you most like to accomplish through your gift? What would give you the greatest satisfaction, meaning, and personal fulfillment through your giving?
There are far too many possible destinations for us to offer you a dropdown menu for that, but we would be happy to help guide you on your journey. The links below are intended to give you food for thought as you prepare to take that first and most important step.
And as you think about what the future might hold, we ask you to consider how your gift could be added to our growing endowment today, and supplemented by your thoughtfully planned gift in the future.
Area of Greatest Need
Our donors can be assured that any gift received which does not restrict its uses or purposes, will be used to address the most pressing and urgent needs required by the Hospital to ensure the safety and well-being of our patients and their caregivers. Just like David Watkinson’s transformative bequest, such unrestricted gifts can be critical to shaping the Hospital’s future.
Needs that will stand the test of time.
We respectfully request that you give careful thought about your purposing for any gift, other than for the general uses and purposes of the Hospital. Will that program or area still be in existence when your gift is realized in the future? How could your wording be crafted with possible obsolescence in mind?
Examples abound of gift plans realized long ago that endowed funds for horse troughs or defunct departments with outdated purposes. One way to address that possibility is to state a preference for a specific purpose which, if no longer applicable, can be applied to an area similar or successive to your initial preference.
We hope that you or your advisor will want to include us in such discussions so we can help you plan your gift in the most effective and meaningful way.
Endowment Gifts
Patrick O’Reilly’s $200 bequest in 1865 was the equivalent of $3,150 in 2019 dollars, and a $5,000 bequest received from the estate of Sara Dunham in 1912 is now worth $272,251.25 in endowment principal.
Under ideal circumstances, a $100,000 gift to endowment today could, over the next hundred years, generate a cumulative year to year amount totaling approximately $1.2 million for the use of Hartford Hospital.
Just think how far your gift could go, how much good it could do for so many others, and all for some thoughtful planning today.
Sustain your lifetime giving through the Endowment.
If you have given to Hartford Hospital’s Annual Campaign from year to year, you can make plans that will continue your annual giving long after you can no longer make that gift yourself.
Let’s say you have given $100 nearly every year for as long as you can remember. Simply multiply that amount by 25 ($100 X 25 = $2,500), and you will arrive at the amount of endowment principal needed to generate that $100 sustainably for many years to come.
If your plans specify that your gift should be added to the Hospital’s endowment, your planned gift can perpetuate your lifetime giving. Before naming a specific area or program in your plans, please contact a Philanthropy Department staff member to make sure your wording is not only properly spelled but will be sure to accomplish your objective.
Naming and Purposing
The Hospital currently has more than 200 endowed and current use funds supporting dozens of different budgets, departments, and areas with annual revenue totaling more than $2.5 million. These funds are prudently managed and invested as part of a broadly-diversified investment pool which includes the segregated endowment assets for other Hartford HealthCare Affiliates.
Please contact a Philanthropy Department staff member, and we will be happy to work with you and your advisors to help you determine the most effective, enduring, and satisfying way to accomplish your objectives.
For more information, please follow these links to learn more about the endowment, current funding priorities, and contact information for our Philanthropy staff.