Endowment giving is one way donors can create lasting community impact while helping meet urgent needs. Tocqueville Society members Dana and Lori Klimp are longtime supporters of Greater Twin Cities United Way. Dana began supporting our work in the 1970s through 3M’s workplace giving campaigns. Over the years the couple’s support has deepened through payroll deductions, volunteer activities, and stepping into leadership roles like campaign ambassador and involvement in the Tocqueville Society.
After retiring, Dana became more engaged with our planned giving and endowment committee, which helped him better understand how endowment gifts create long-term community impact. Recently, the couple began thinking about their own legacy and how giving to our endowment now could make a lasting impact, while continuing to help meet urgent needs.
An endowment is a pool of funds that are invested on behalf of a nonprofit. Endowments create a permanent, ongoing source of income. The principal gift accrues value over time while only a percentage of the earnings are withdrawn and spent each year, ensuring the funds last forever.
When you make an endowment gift as part of your giving now or in your estate plans, your gift is maintained in perpetuity and creates a lasting, meaningful difference. For nonprofit organizations like United Way, endowment funds provide a predictable revenue source and support impact initiatives continuously.
Planned giving doesn’t always mean end-of-life plans. A planned gift can also refer to charitable contributions you make during your lifetime. People may choose to make a planned gift during their lifetime for a variety of reasons. Some key benefits of lifetime endowment giving:
We recognize donors who give an immediate gift to our endowment or include us in their estate plans as members of the Legacy Society.
Our board of directors invests planned gifts in Greater Twin Cities United Way’s diversified and professionally managed endowment. These thoughtful investments help our endowment grow steadily, enabling us to make annual distributions that support our work in the areas of housing, food, education and economic opportunity.
Greater Twin Cities United Way established the endowment in 2007 to support long-term financial stability and steady grantmaking for local programs focused on meeting basic needs. Because of the generosity of Legacy Society members, our endowment grew to $74.7 million as of December 31, 2025.
We use about 4% of the endowment’s earnings annually to support United Way’s community work. Since 2007, we've invested $42.07 million in endowment fund earnings into our annual fund to meet urgent needs and make lasting change. In addition to recurring annual distributions, our healthy endowment allows our board to respond with special distributions for strategic opportunities, unanticipated community needs or funding challenges.
It’s easy to put off conversations about planned giving. Dana and Lori Klimp, however, were all in, bringing a lot of enthusiasm and thoughtful questions to the table. When they considered all the ways to make a lasting impact, they were particularly drawn to the idea of giving directly to Greater Twin Cities United Way’s endowment.
The biggest appeal of giving to the endowment now is that it creates a lasting gift. The principal can grow while annual distributions continue supporting urgent needs.
When encouraging other donors to consider an immediate endowment gift, Dana says, “Consider giving now rather than waiting through a legacy gift, because community needs are immediate and the impact can begin right away.”
He also shares the following “planting a tree” analogy: When is the best time to plant a tree? Thirty years ago. When is the next best time? Today. Much like a tree, an endowment gift grows over time, produces benefits year after year and continues helping without being depleted.
“It’s kind of fun to start early!" said Dana. "So it could start growing right away. It becomes about joy instead of waiting and wondering.”
Lori shares that urgency: “So many people worry about groceries and gas. Sometimes you wonder, how did I get so lucky? We can share that. And why put it off when we can be an example for our kids?”
The Klimps chose Greater Twin Cities United Way because, Dana said, “Trust is earned over time. We started decades ago with a small payroll gift. It gained traction as we heard such compelling stories of impact. Good people are involved and we have confidence.”
For more than a century, Greater Twin Cities United Way has been earning trust and building relationships among nonprofits, volunteers, donors and employers to support our community.
Our work is responsive to evolving community strengths and needs, and our impact is lasting, because we cultivate longstanding partnerships with communities, employers, policy makers and supporters. This trust-based approach to philanthropy is effective because open dialog and mutual learning make our partnerships more enduring and agile.
As a result, our donors trust that when needs arise, our partnerships enable us to quickly move funds, information and people to do the most good. A healthy endowment supports this work by contributing to our financial stability and flexibility.
There are many ways to contribute to our endowment with an immediate gift or as part of your estate plan. The Klimps chose to make an immediate gift to the endowment using a combination of donor advised funds (DAF) and a qualified charitable distribution from an IRA.
Donor advised funds are a great tax and cost efficient option for those looking to contribute to an endowment today. With a DAF, you can recommend gifts to charity during your lifetime, and when you pass away, your children can carry on your legacy of giving.
Check out our new tool that allows you to give from your DAF directly on our website.
If you are 70 ½ or older, you can use a qualified charitable distribution from your IRA to an endowment to lower your taxes and make an immediate impact in community.
In addition to donating unused retirement assets or including us in your will, other ways to contribute to our endowment include gifts of appreciated stocks, charitable gift annuities or donating an unused life insurance policy.
Our shared vision of a community where all people thrive regardless of income, race or place matters now more than ever. We invite you to join us by investing in a thriving future with a gift to our endowment. Whether you give today or include us in your will, life insurance or retirement account, your gift to our endowment supports stability and success in the Greater Twin Cities.
To learn more, please contact your Greater Twin Cities United Way relationship manager or myself, Linne Lemke, CFRE, at linne.lemke@gtcuw.org.
