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Donor stories

Frank and Julie Young

Frank and Julie Young
“You’re here in this world temporarily. It’s a short period of time. If there’s any responsibility we have, it’s to make the world a better place for the future.” This sentiment has inspired Frank and Julie Young to support AFSC for 60 years—most recently by giving from their IRAs. Read More

Windford P. Lawless
Windford is retired and has found a way to live comfortably while also supporting organizations that reflect his values. For the past 30 years, he has established charitable gift annuities with many environmental and peace organizations. Today, he earns more money from his charitable gift annuities than he does from Social Security. Read More

Arlene Kelly and Helene Pollock

Arlene Kelly and Helene Pollock
For decades, their lives have interwoven with and been enriched by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). But Arlene Kelly and Helene Pollock have also given back time, energy, and financial resources to the organization they say has provided them with seminal, unforgettable experiences. Read More

Ann Tickner

Ann Tickner
Ann Tickner has been an AFSC donor for some 50 years. That steadfast support, she says, is inextricably linked to her Quaker beliefs and the feminist approach to international relations she has spent most of her adult life teaching. Read More

Jack Malinowski

Jack Malinowski
In 2009, Jack Malinowski retired from AFSC after 35 years of service. But even in retirement Jack has maintained close ties to the Service Committee—both as a donor and diligent community activist— because he is passionate about upholding the rights of all people. Read More

Anne Sweazey
"A few years ago, during a terrible international disaster—the tsunami that hit Southeast Asia—I went online to research organizations engaged in relief efforts." Read More

Bruce and Barbara Nordstrom-Loeb

Bruce and Barbara Nordstrom-Loeb
By remembering the American Friends Service Committee in their will, Bruce and Barbara Nordstrom-Loeb express gratitude for AFSC's role in their lives and the world. Read More

Dr. Leon and Hester Petty

Dr. Leon and Hester Petty
Dr. Leon and Hester Petty became interested in Quakerism early in their marriage. Considering their philanthropy later in life, they decided to make a deeper investment in peace and justice, supporting AFSC by creating a charitable gift annuity. Read More

Elizabeth Andrews and Karen Sturnick

Elizabeth Andrews and Karen Sturnick
Elizabeth Andrews and Karen Sturnick count support of immigrants and youth as their top priorities. Through their estate plan, they've targeted a gift specifically for the benefit of AFSC. Read More

Judith and Dan Coquillette

Judith and Dan Coquillette
Dan and Judith Coquillette found a spiritual home with Quakers early in their lives. Initially, they were drawn to the belief in the worth of each person and the religion's focus on addressing social injustices through concrete actions. Read More

Kristin Loken

Kristin Loken
Kristin Loken's career in the foreign service propelled her worldwide, but her Quaker values always led the way. Read More

Louise and Severyn Bruyn

Louise and Severyn Bruyn
If you talked to Louise and Severyn Bruyn long enough, you'd hear about protests, acts of civil disobedience, and decades of work centered on economic justice, antiwar activism, and environmental concerns. Read More

Celia Johnston Brown

Celia Johnston Brown
Celia Johnston Brown supported AFSC for over 40 years. Her sister, Joy Brown Pinson, remembers that Celia’s concern in life was always to be of service to others. Her conviction of the necessity of finding practical responses to poverty, as well as her quest for social justice, led her to choose to leave a lasting legacy by naming AFSC as the primary beneficiary of her will. Read More

Helen and Oliver Wolcott

Helen and Oliver Wolcott
Helen and Oliver Wolcott met and fell in love while they were undergraduates at Swarthmore College. That’s also where they first crossed paths with American Friends Service Committee and, like their marriage, it’s a relationship that has held strong for more than five decades. Read More

David Blair

David Blair
David Blair has spent the better part of a lifetime promoting peace an social justice around the world. His motivation is deeply spiritual. Read More

Richard Konrad

Richard Konrad
Richard Konrad’s gift to AFSC supports peace and justice after providing him with income during his lifetime. Read More

Carol and Russell Tuttle

Carol and Russell Tuttle
In 1942, Carol Richie accepted a position in AFSC, where she helped develop projects for conscientious objectors to World War II participating in Civilian Public Service. It was during a visit to one of those project sites in Trenton, North Dakota, that she met her future husband, Russell Tuttle. Read More

Christa and William Farnon

Christa and William Farnon
Christa and her husband, William, have been loyal AFSC donors for years and she recently established a charitable gift annuity. Read More

Christine Ayoub

Christine Ayoub
Lifelong Quaker Christine Ayoub, 92, has helped found a Quaker community, written a book profiling 37 Quakers, and given generously to Quaker causes—including the American Friends Service Committee. Read More

Alice and Harold Vedova

Alice and Harold Vedova
Alice Vedova, who established a gift annuity with AFSC with her late husband, Harold, is a member of a family that has been invested in the American Friends Service Committee since the very beginning of the organization. Alice’s father, Charles S. Beal, applied to the Service Committee to participate in the Friends Reconstruction Unit in 1918. He was only 18 years old. Read More

Dr. Ruth Lofgren

Dr. Ruth Lofgren
Dr. Ruth Lofgren was a scientific and environmental pioneer, a philanthropist dedicated to a multitude of causes, and a long-time AFSC supporter who said that the organization’s work for peace with justice spoke to her own core beliefs. Read More

Fran Kellogg

Fran Kellogg
There was never any question that volunteering and donating to causes she believed in would be central to Fran Kellogg’s life. Read More

Betsy Wood

Betsy Wood
Betsy Wood remembers the day she finished reading John Hersey’s Hiroshima, a novel about the atomic bombing of Japan and the horrific suffering that resulted. The year was 1946, and she was in her freshman year of college. She read the last page, closed the book, and said, “I am a pacifist.” Read More

Diane Evans

Diane Evans
Diane's relationship with AFSC began in 1952, when she met a group of volunteers on an ocean liner en route to England. "It was a like a floating hotel for young people," she recalls. She was participating in an Experiment for International Living, and the volunteers were on their way to help rebuild communities still devastated by the destruction of World War II. Their dedication to the worthy effort impressed her. Read More

Peggy and Allan Brick

Peggy and Allan Brick
The Bricks and the AFSC go back a long way! Notably, they helped establish the Middle Atlantic Region Office in Baltimore when Allan served as Peace Secretary. Even when they pursued other peace paths through the Fellowship of Reconciliation, they counted on the Service Committee for information and joint projects. Read More

A charitable bequest is one or two sentences in your will or living trust that leave to the American Friends Service Committee a specific item, an amount of money, a gift contingent upon certain events or a percentage of your estate.

an individual or organization designated to receive benefits or funds under a will or other contract, such as an insurance policy, trust or retirement plan

 Bequest Language

I devise and bequeath to the American Friends Service Committee, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (tax ID #23-1352010) (Insert amount of gift or insert the word "all" or the percentage of the estate) to be used for its general purposes.

able to be changed or cancelled

A revocable living trust is set up during your lifetime and can be revoked at any time before death. They allow assets held in the trust to pass directly to beneficiaries without probate court proceedings and can also reduce federal estate taxes.

cannot be changed or cancelled

tax on gifts generally paid by the person making the gift rather than the recipient

the original value of an asset, such as stock, before its appreciation or depreciation

the growth in value of an asset like stock or real estate since the original purchase

the price a willing buyer and willing seller can agree on

The person receiving the gift annuity payments.

the part of an estate left after debts, taxes and specific bequests have been paid

a written and properly witnessed legal change to a will

the person named in a will to manage the estate, collect the property, pay any debt, and distribute property according to the will

A donor advised fund is an account that you set up but which is managed by a nonprofit organization. You contribute to the account, which grows tax-free. You can recommend how much (and how often) you want to distribute money from that fund to AFSC or other charities. You cannot direct the gifts.

An endowed gift can create a new endowment or add to an existing endowment. The principal of the endowment is invested and a portion of the principal’s earnings are used each year to support our mission.

Tax on the growth in value of an asset—such as real estate or stock—since its original purchase.

Securities, real estate, or any other property having a fair market value greater than its original purchase price.

Real estate can be a personal residence, vacation home, timeshare property, farm, commercial property, or undeveloped land.

A charitable remainder trust provides you or other named individuals income each year for life or a period not exceeding 20 years from assets you give to the trust you create.

You give assets to a trust that pays our organization set payments for a number of years, which you choose. The longer the length of time, the better the potential tax savings to you. When the term is up, the remaining trust assets go to you, your family or other beneficiaries you select. This is an excellent way to transfer property to family members at a minimal cost.

You fund this type of trust with cash or appreciated assets—and may qualify for a federal income tax charitable deduction when you itemize. You can also make additional gifts; each one also qualifies for a tax deduction. The trust pays you, each year, a variable amount based on a fixed percentage of the fair market value of the trust assets. When the trust terminates, the remaining principal goes to AFSC as a lump sum.

You fund this trust with cash or appreciated assets—and may qualify for a federal income tax charitable deduction when you itemize. Each year the trust pays you or another named individual the same dollar amount you choose at the start. When the trust terminates, the remaining principal goes to AFSC as a lump sum.

A beneficiary designation clearly identifies how specific assets will be distributed after your death.

A charitable gift annuity involves a simple contract between you and AFSC where you agree to make a gift to AFSC and we, in return, agree to pay you (and someone else, if you choose) a fixed amount each year for the rest of your life.
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