Generosity That Lives On

CFNEIA

October 7, 2016

When Norman Clare Sloan passed away, his three children benefited from his estate. For son Robert, a recent retiree from John Deere, the windfall was something he saw to be used for a bigger purpose. After a talk with his brother, Dick, and sister, Carol Citty, they agreed to establish four endowment funds; two with the Community Foundation of Northeast Iowa and two with the Buchanan County Community Foundation.

Robert and his siblings reviewed their father’s charitable giving to see how they could keep the good going that their father and mother, Gladys, had started.

“We tried to concentrate on where he’d been giving his charitable donations in order to try to aim what we were doing to some of the same things, and of course, the ones we agreed with. It was more in the vein of trying to continue on the kinds of giving that undoubtedly he and mom had both believed in,” said Robert.

That giving included a strong emphasis on education and community betterment through their church. Turning these passions into endowment funds made sense to the family because of the ease and the ability to recognize their parents’ names through the scholarship and designated funds.

“My thinking was, instead of us trying to write a check every year, we’ll put enough money into the endowment and make it permanent.”

Three of the four funds honor the name of Norman Clare and Gladys Sloan, with the fourth honoring the sibling's grandparents, Mildred and Everett Sanders.

“It was dad’s money in the first place, so let’s put it to something that will continue on doing some of the good that he and mom started. We wanted to keep it going with some of the charitable direction that we learned from them.”