Planned Giving – My Gift for the Future

Looking for more information about planned giving at POST? Click here!

Growing up in San Mateo, my family and friends would often go over to the coast on the weekends, sometimes stopping for a hike near Skyline. We enjoyed outside spaces and rolling hills, walking under huge oak trees and spotting lots of deer. These times in nature, so close to home, contributed greatly to my sense of quality of life.

Our souls are nurtured by this experience of the land. They truly are.

We live in one of the most biologically diverse areas and richest food cornucopias in the world. Land here is key to our health, but land here is also very expensive.

Thankfully, POST is a fulcrum point, teaching us about our local ecosystems, keeping land from being developed and helping farmers build a more sustainable food web. I’m impressed by how POST has adapted over the years to find ways to preserve open space and protect local farms. From attending POST lectures and other events , I’ve come to appreciate more what it takes to steward the land, the soil and the wildlife.

This work has helped to preserve the quality of life in our area. When I was a Montessori teacher in the 1970s, we explored where food came from with our young students, planted a school garden and prepared meals from our harvest. The children began to appreciate everything and everyone that went into providing the food they ate.

I can see the values I learned through Montessori—appreciating the interrelatedness of everything, encouraging curiosity, cultivating joy, teaching responsibility and accountability—alive in the work of POST.

Later, when I was in technology, I decided to donate to POST so that beautiful places on the Peninsula and coast would be here for decades to come. This decision came after realizing that every step I took on a trail was because of work others had done before me. I wanted to be a part of that effort.

I also realized I should consider a longer-term perspective in my planning. What was I passionate about? Where could I improve the quality of life in our community?

POST speaks to all of my values, and I’m so grateful for all that they have done and continue to do. That’s why I donate to POST each year and why I chose POST as one of the local nonprofits to include in my trust. POST allows me to contribute in a positive way to future generations.

You can learn more here about how you can include POST in your trust or estate plan.You can also confidentially connect with Jeanine Crider, our Director of Planned Giving, if you have questions about easy ways to support POST in the future.

If you have already included a gift in your estate plan, thank you! Please let Jeanine know so you can join our Open Space Legacy Society and receive invitations to outings on POST-protected lands and special events such as the June 22, 2016 luncheon with Dr. Nicole Heller.

Call: (650) 854-7696 x312
Email: legacy [at] openspacetrust.org