Meet Our Clients
Evan
Evan today can only speak through the legacy he left behind. He passed away in 2016, before his time, but by then he had already given serious thought to the charitable legacy he wished to leave. Evan entrusted DonorsTrust to steward the endowment of a chair at the Cato Institute that would focus on the public understanding of economics. Evan's wife, Sue, discusses Evan, his legacy, and the value she places on those carrying it out.
Evan's biggest charitable success is the chair that Evan started at Cato for Public Understanding of Economics, held by Ryan Bourne, who is a superstar himself. Ryan is young, articulate, and he is in the press so much now. He is getting the message out on libertarian economic ideas, free markets, and capitalism. I'm so impressed with his work and the work that Cato is doing. I can't keep up with it!
The impact the gift has had in this time would have far exceeded his expectations, and it continues to exceed mine. Cato is doing fabulous work in economics, the subject-area that Evan was particularly interested in, and in educating the public on how the free market system works and why it's essential that we preserve it. To tell you how this began, Evan met Whitney Ball, DonorsTrust's founder, at a meeting and thought that the donor-advised fund was an excellent way to have someone oversee the gift to make sure his wishes were followed. At the time of course we didn't know what was going to happen in the future.
We had once considered making a large donation to a university to endow a chair in economics, but as we had conversations we felt that our wishes would not be followed there. The university wanted total control. For this gift to Cato, we thought that DonorsTrust was an organization that understood liberty, freedom, free market economics, and would make sure our wishes would be followed.
There is a real comfort in knowing that DonorsTrust is there. Organizations do change, so knowing that they are overseeing the gift relieves the pressure on me to manage the gift, particularly as I get older.
Because of Evan's gift, it's almost as if he is still with us, because his efforts continue.
Evan, in his life, Evan worked very hard. He felt this gift was part of his life's work. Having a legacy was very important to him. It was a legacy of freedom, liberty, and preserving our Constitution. It's important to me that his memory be recognized. Cato goes out its way to always use Evan's name in all their publications, newspaper articles, and seminars. I think it's a way of respecting his hard work and his gift.
DonorsTrust has those same beliefs—that if someone wants to be recognized, then DonorsTrust will do that on behalf of the individual who has made a generous gift. It is their life's work and should be respected.
