Roberts fund IONS bequest program and make own bequest commitment
Nancy and Bruce Roberts are so convinced that IONS needs to encourage bequests that they’ve donated half the money needed to support a formal planned giving program at IONS for a year. IONS received the other half from board member and fellow planned giving enthusiast Daphne Crocker-White.
The Charlotte, North Carolina area couple knows that drafting estate plans and charitable bequests seldom tops most people’s to-do lists. “It’s one of those things that Stephen Covey calls ‘important’ but not ‘urgent’,� Bruce said, quoting the self-help author. “Everyone thinks a will is important, but unless you’re in intensive care you think it can wait.�
Nancy and Bruce consider themselves fairly typical, revising their estate plan on the eve of taking a trip to Turkey a few years ago, naming IONS as a major beneficiary in their estate plan. It seemed the logical thing to do, and logic appeals to them both.
“We both grew up left brained,� Bruce said. “Nancy has a Master’s in accounting; I was trained as an engineer.�
When they first joined IONS more than fifteen years ago, their business, Falcon Metal Corporation which Bruce founded in 1979, seemed a universe away from the cutting edge topics IONS favors.
“Here we were producing screws, bolts and nuts for industrial applications, listening to IONS people talking quantum mechanics.� Bruce said. “We almost bailed after our second IONS community group meeting. I think we were intimidated.�
Their first IONS conference changed their minds. “We found people who shared our values,� Nancy said. “They weren’t pushing an agenda, and they listened.�
Looking for ways to increase long-term support for IONS, Nancy, who now is coordinator of the IONS Community Group in Charlotte, focused her accountant’s mind on \ two statistics: more than 90% of individual U.S. wealth is found in personal assets; less than 10% is in income.
“Good causes always ask for income,� She said. “We want to encourage IONS supporters to consider sharing some of their assets with IONS in their will,� Nancy said. “We’re not asking people to disinherit their heirs, just have an estate plan that reflects their passion.�
Bruce finds IONS’ goal of raising consciousness hard to measure in the nuts-and-bolts terms he is used to. But he says IONS “has made a huge difference in our lives.� They in turn try to make a difference by sharing what they have with others. Their trip to Turkey took a sharp right-brained turn when they decided to help their Turkish tour guide get a law degree.
Impressed with the young man’s intelligence and values, they invited him to stay at their Charlotte home for several months and underwrote his education at Wake Forest University where he earned a Master’s Degree in American Law. He has since started a law firm in Antalya, Turkey, where they met.
Bruce attributes some of their philanthropic impulses to getting older: “Often you don’t see the gift in doing more noble things until you’re in your fifties. For years you’re concerned with getting what you want. Then you realize that to whom much has been given, much is expected. I think that happened to us.�
IONS is pleased to enroll Nancy and Bruce Roberts as members of its Visionary Circle which honors those who have included the organization in their estate plan. For Visionary Circle information, contact donor relations officer Kathleen Erickson-Freeman at 707-779-8232 or kathleenfreeman@noetic.org.
