Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

legacy gift

What does legacy mean?

by

I think about that word a lot. Legacy. What does it mean, exactly? Why do we strive to leave something behind when we pass on, and how do we go about doing that?

While legacy means different things to different people, I think that almost everyone wants make a difference and feel that their life added to the world in some way. I don’t think I could co-run a nonprofit without coming to that conclusion.

I am in the privileged position of seeing, everyday, the generosity and caring within people.

Over the years, Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest has been the beneficiary of the last act of generosity from several donors. Some of these donors were very close to the sanctuary. I knew of their health struggles and was aware that they had planned to leave something behind for the chimpanzees. We mourned their passing and have been honored to be a small part of the bigger-than-life legacy they created, which included the uncountable acts of kindness they gave during their living years.

More surprisingly, the sanctuary has also received small bequests from people we were not familiar with at all. They named the sanctuary in their will without having made contact with us. I always try to gather information about these donors to find out more about them as I marvel at their surprise gifts.

I consider bequests in any amount to be very special gifts because they are an expression of the trust in a nonprofit to carry on the legacy of the donor. It’s a responsibility that we take very seriously.

You may already know that August is Make-a-Will Month. For you, blog readers, I wanted to throw out the market-tested appeal language and share the above, my rather raw thoughts, with you.

Whether you name Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest in your will or not, I do hope that you will seize the day and create a part of your legacy by sitting down and planning your will if you haven’t already or updating it if you have new causes you’d like to support. You can use this tool to do that. It really is very easy and walks you through all of the steps.

If you have an IRA, 401(k), life insurance policy, or any other asset that your will does not cover, you can plan beneficiaries for those non-probate assets separately. Use Freewill to learn more about how to go about that.

If you’ve already named the sanctuary in your estate planning, you can let us know here, and you will be counted as an official member of the Primate Family Legacy Circle.

Your legacy could make a huge difference for the future of sanctuary or for others you care about.

Thank you.

First Day of Thanks, Featuring Bruce and Burrito

by

We have a whole heck of a lot to be thankful for here at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. We have an amazing team of staff, board members, and volunteers, and a huge network of supporters spread all over the world.

It would take us years to highlight each donor (wouldn’t that be fun, though!). Trying to be realistic, I decided to take this week of Thanksgiving to tell, in brief, the stories of a few different donors as representatives of the many ways that people support the chimpanzees.

With seven days and seven types of donors it seems appropriate to also highlight the seven chimpanzees while I’m at it, right?!

So, today, on day one, I’m starting the week in a big way by highlighting Bruce Davidson and Burrito.

burrito with toy bowl

We were first introduced to Bruce Davidson over two years ago via the nephew of long-time donors Margaret Parkinson and Karen Creason. Bruce had begun thinking about getting his will in order and wanted to designate a large portion of his estate to go towards a nonprofit. Here’s Bruce in his own words,

When I saw the original KCTS piece on the sanctuary years ago I was struck by the “audacity” of a relatively small group of people with relatively limited funds dedicated to doing what they could to make a difference. “How about we start out by saving seven?  Seven. That’s seven who won’t hurt anymore.”  The Audacity of Hope indeed.

Bruce has visited the sanctuary twice and this last summer we were able to show him the additional parcels of land that we had acquired and were working on acquiring (more news on that soon!). Here’s what I didn’t realize would happen with a donor whose focus is entirely on a potentially large gift that will happen (hopefully) far in the future: it has been a huge source of motivation. We know that Bruce has put the trust of his legacy in the sanctuary, and we are inspired to live up to that profound level of trust.

If the need still exists, we all want the sanctuary to live far beyond our lifetimes, and Bruce is going to be a part of making this possible. Isn’t that amazing?!

If you’re curious about becoming a legacy donor, you can check out this page on our website: www.chimpsnw.org/you_can_help/single/leave-a-legacy.

So, Burrito…

This morning when I entered the chimp house, Burrito greeted me with the usual mix of, let’s call it “assertiveness” and playfulness that is his typical greeting towards me. This means that he first needs to get out a bang or a spit towards me before he gets down to the business of play. He had a big pair of plastic tweezers that he handed/pushed towards me, which I proceeded to use as a back-scratcher, finger-grabber, and stomach-tickler.

It’s just a fact that, while Burrito can be downright intimidating:

there is no way to resist his charm:

Burrito being coy