How a local couple gained a deeper understanding and appreciation of the foundation’s leadership role in mobilizing resources toward improving the quality of life in Boulder County.
Dee Andrews’ association with the Community Foundation is both broad and deep – she worked for the foundation at one point, and currently serves on our Board of Trustees. As for her husband, Scott, he grew up in Boulder and became aware of the foundation early on, thanks to his parents’ emphasis on giving back and making a difference in the community.
“We didn’t live here in the 80s and 90s,” says Scott, who just turned 50. “But when Dee and I moved back, we started looking for ways to get involved in our community.”
According to Dee, who also turns 50 this year: “Josie Heath [the foundation’s recently retired president] ‘recruited’ us by proposing we get involved with Social Venture Partners (SVP). Both Scott and I were a part of that for 10 years, which turned out to be a great way to get to know our community.”
Adds Scott, “For me, SVP was a way to combine my business skills and entrepreneurial experience with my philanthropic interests.”
Along the way, the couple gained a deeper understanding and appreciation of the foundation’s leadership role in mobilizing resources toward improving the quality of life in Boulder County. “That’s really appealing to me,” says Dee.
“Over time, we came to trust that the foundation has its finger on the pulse of things. And to this day, we rely on the foundation’s valuable TRENDS Report to inform and validate our own giving interests – from early childhood education to building community among immigrants and non-immigrants.”
So it happened that, in their mid-30s at the time, the forward-looking couple – Dee, a marketing communications consultant, and Scott, an investor and entrepreneur – made the decision to establish a giving legacy with the Community Foundation.
“This is home, and it always will be,” says Scott. “So we wanted to make sure that our giving would achieve the greatest possible philanthropic impact in the community we love. That led us to join the Legacy Society by designating a portion of our estate to the foundation.
“We implicitly trust that any money given to the Community Foundation is going to be wisely spent on creating more sustainable good.”
In turn, becoming Legacy Society members further inspired the couple to establish a Donor-Advised Fund with the Community Foundation two years ago. “It’s a way to teach our two daughters how to make an impact in their world, too,” says Dee.
“When it comes to our annual giving, we’ve always had conversation with our daughters about saving, giving, and spending. And now that they’re teenagers [Emma and Grace are 18 and 14, respectively], we’ve worked out our own mini grant process. Every year around the holidays, three generations of our family get together to talk about our giving priorities that year. Everyone has to come prepared with a ‘proposal’ as to where they want to grant money.
“It’s really rewarding to see what they choose, and to hear what’s important to them as they learn more about the world, and about people who are less well off.” So far, Emma’s giving interests have emphasized the rights of women and children internationally, as well as immigrant rights closer to home. Meanwhile, Grace is passionate about animal rights and wildlife protection.
“We’ve planned our giving even while we’re still creating wealth,” says Dee. “We didn’t see the point in waiting until we’d achieved a certain level, or a later point in our lives.
“When you’re meeting with lawyers and financial advisors to discuss guardianship and other matters relevant to having young children, it’s a natural time to think about your giving goals, too – for our kids, and for the future of our community.”
