In 1982, Gretchen Kingsley co-founded Investors Strategy Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping women understand how to invest in the stock market. Now, she has found a new way to act on her lifelong commitment to advocacy and advancing the lives of women.
By naming Women’s Health Research at Yale a beneficiary of a new charitable gift annuity, Gretchen Kingsley becomes the latest member of the center’s Legacy Society, ensuring support for WHRY’s mission to improve the health of women and the community.
"I’m thrilled to be able to do this,” Kingsley said. “It’s just wonderful to be a part of a center unlike any other that focuses research and promotes outreach very broadly on the health of women and on health differences among women and men for the benefit of all.”
A charitable gift annuity is a contract between a donor and Yale that is “simple, stable, and secure,” said Mary Beth Congdon, University Director of Planned Giving. In exchange for a gift in cash or appreciated securities, the university will make fixed payments for life to a donor or to one or two other beneficiaries they select.
The university invests the gift annuity in Yale’s endowment, managed by the investments office. When the annuity ends, the remainder passes to a designated purpose within Yale.
“Yale’s charitable gift annuity program offers a range of benefits: dependable income for donors and their families, current and future tax savings, and a way to make a meaningful gift to Yale,” Congdon said. “A charitable gift annuity can provide an excellent way to balance financial, philanthropic, and family goals.”
Gretchen Kingsley said she and her husband, Charlie — now in their 80s, with their children educated and parents themselves — are on to the next stage of their lives.
“We’ve been blessed with so many things in our lives,” she said. “The regular annuity income is appreciated while knowing that organizations we want to continue to support will realize a gift from us.”
She said the gift diversifies her investment portfolio and allows WHRY to plan for a secure future that will continue to have great impact.
“I think it is really important to think about things long-range,” Kingsley said. “Not just today and tomorrow but to think far ahead when we are not here so the work can carry on still.”
A charitable gift annuity can provide an excellent way to balance financial, philanthropic, and family goals.
Kingsley joins Rosemary Hudson, Daphne Foreman, and Phyllis Z. Seton in WHRY’s Legacy Society.
“We are so grateful for Gretchen’s thoughtful gesture,” said WHRY Advisory Council Chair Carol Ross. “These types of long-term investments are what really stabilize an organization and offer assurance that this important work will continue because of your gift.”