Why
We Give
“It makes us feel that Tim goes on,” says AJ O’Connell’42,
of the scholarship established in his son’s memory. Arthur “AJ” ’42
and Betty Tew O’Connell ’46 both graduated from St. Lawrence.
Three of their four children followed in their footsteps: Anne ’73,
Barbara ’75 and Tim ’82. Tim passed away in 1992
while hiking in Brazil. Family members and friends give each year
to The Timothy Robert O'Connell '82 Memorial Expendable Scholarship.
Expendable gifts are those that are made to the University to be
spent in their entirety in the year,” says Associate Vice President
for Development Tom Pynchon. “Basically, a donor is telling
us, ‘Here is the money--now spend it!’ These funds are
different from endowment gifts, which require us to invest the funds
in perpetuity and spend no more than roughly 5% of the fund value
each year.” In addition, Pynchon notes, unlike gifts to endowment
and facilities, expendable funds are counted in St. Lawrence Fund and Reunion class
gift totals.
Named funds can be established for scholarships (the entire gift
is given out to a student or students each year), University Fellowships, prize
and award funds, and department funds.
“These expendable funds are helpful to the University because
they allow us to put 100% of the gift to work now,” Pynchon
says. “Many donors like these funds because they can be restricted
to an area of interest to the donor, as noted in the examples below,
so the donor knows the impact the gift is having on campus.”
The O’Connells also have an eye to the distant future. AJ
and Betty have established a charitable remainder trust with the
University; it provides income to them for their lives, and on their
deaths the remainder of the trust will fund an endowed scholarship
in Tim's name at SLU. They plan to give to the expendable scholarship
each year until the endowment scholarship is funded.
“It seemed a good chance, in a small way, to enable someone
else to go to St. Lawrence as Tim had,” says AJ in reflecting
on why the family set up the fund. “It makes us feel good that
many friends of all ages give to the fund in Tim’s memory,” says
AJ.
