Ella Nash Newsletter - Fall 2022

The

Ella Nash Society

How To Be a Philanthropist

We feature Sarah Cochran in this issue because of her tremendous, yet little-known, impact on the College. Sarah was a philanthropist in the way we traditionally think of them: she accomplished all she did for Allegheny and others from a position of great wealth. Yet, the only real difference between her and most readers is the scale of her gifts. We all can bring out our inner philanthropists (donor, volunteer, or both) and create a financial giving plan through self-reflection, an understanding of our ability to give, and knowledge about the organizations whose missions align with our interests. Read on.

Reviewing your current and past gifts to charity is a great first step. Look at the organizations and causes you supported, what and when you gave, and how you got to the gifts. Were you asked for them, or did you give them proactively? Were they planned, or did you give as inspired? Are there patterns? What might they suggest? You may find that you gravitate

to specific nonprofits, or that your gifts do not align with what you consider important because you give from a sense of obligation. Perhaps you have not yet been a donor. This assessment can help you to focus on the charities and causes that are most meaningful for you.

Your “why” will affect where, how, and when you make your gifts, and it will likely change with time and circumstances. There are millions of registered charitable organizations in the U.S. — and sometimes it seems that we hear from all of them! — so a bit of research will help you to narrow the field. You may identify possible recipients by talking with friends and family, financial and legal advisors, librarians, community foundations, United Ways, and the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Alliance, and by searching the Internet. Websites like www.charitynavigator.org and www.GuideStar.org provide information about organizations’ financial health and practices.

Inspiring Women, Informing Philanthropy

How and what you give should correlate with the impact you hope to make with your philanthropy. Do you like to make small gifts for many organizations or large ones for a chosen few? Do you prefer to give alone, on your schedule, or do you like the idea of leveraging your gifts with others by responding to challenges or partnerships? Do you want your total donation put to immediate use (operations), or would you like to have most of it saved, with a specified portion doled out annually (endowment)?

and you might begin offering gifts before being asked. Eventually, you may be involved in highly personalized solicitation/negotiation/acceptance processes involving financial and legal advisors.

Heiress Tracy Gary, the author of Inspired Philanthropy, writes that “the three essential ingredients for philanthropy are giving, caring, and intention.” Intention is a guide for action, and there are a host of reasons for making charitable gifts, including:

• Desire to help

• Gratitude

• Faith and family traditions

• Supporting one’s values and interests

• To associate with like-minded others

• Social pressures and rewards

Smaller gifts will have greater buying power when put to current use, for endowments last in perpetuity by making only a minimal percentage available for annual spending. Generally, making larger gifts to fewer organizations will have a more significant impact, yet many organizations like Allegheny are judged, in part, by their number of donors and are thus grateful for annual support regardless of gift size. You may respond to solicitations from friends, family members, neighbors, employers, and fundraising appeals. In time, you may develop relationships with organizational staff and volunteers, perhaps increasing your involvement as your financial giving expands. Your philanthropy may become more targeted, even within the organizations you have long supported,

• Tax avoidance

• Obligation

• Family wealth planning

• To be remembered

• It simply feels good

• Because you are asked

How you give will also depend upon the activities you wish to support, your resources, your age, and your financial goals, as charitable gift planning can help with tax and wealth management issues. Most annual gifts to charity support general operations, are solicited through mass communications, and are usually made from readily available cash and equivalents. Major gifts stem from personalized solicitations for specific initiatives. They come from assets that have increased in value over time, such as bank accounts, stocks and bonds, individual retirement accounts, donor-advised funds, private foundations, real estate, and other tangible items. Estate and legacy gifts are made through wills, retirement accounts, life insurance, real estate, beneficiary designations, and charitable annuities and trusts (that pay donors income during life, with the balances put to organizational use at their deaths).

Returning to your “why” may help you to clarify what, if anything, you would like or expect in

exchange for your gifts. You might prefer to be anonymous or be happy to have your gifts recognized. (Please know that far from vanity, allowing your name to be publicly associated with your charities is an endorsement of their good work.) Consider also if you wish your support to go beyond making traditional gifts (e.g., would you like to provide direct services or

become involved in volunteer leadership?) and ask about options.

To be a philanthropist is to be thoughtful about our charitable giving. It requires us to understand our motivations, identify the organizations producing the outcomes we wish to see, and know the best ways to give in light of our personal circumstances.

To learn more about ways to give, visit our website at allegheny.edu/ways-to-give or request one of our eBrochures at allegheny.edu/gift-planning-brochures.

Inspired to make your own gift?

• Visit allegheny.edu/ways-to-give to explore the variety of ways you can give to Allegheny

• Call Melissa Mencotti at (814) 332-5912 to discuss the best gift options for your personal circumstances

An online Allegheny community where you can... Connect with fellow Gators. Offer or receive career advice. Post or explore job & internship opportunities. Build your Allegheny network.

Join today: gator2gator.allegheny.edu

The Coal Queen Behind Cochran Hall

A woman born into poverty in 1857 in a small coal mining town in southwestern Pennsylvania became known as “the Lady-Elect of Allegheny” and one of its most influential benefactors. Sarah Boyd Cochran (née Moore) and industrialist Andrew Carnegie provided most of the funding that helped President William Crawford transform Allegheny College into a modern institution of higher learning at the turn of the last century. Sarah’s name appears on Cochran Hall, home today to the Patricia Bush Tippie Alumni Center, but that is only one of the physical spaces on campus transformed by her generosity. She also built the College’s first fraternity house, Highland Hall (the site of the Wise Center); the Rustic Bridge and the sandstone wall in the ravine below it; and a two-story gym at Hulings Hall. Sarah also provided funding for the repair of Alden Hall after a 1915 fire and paid to plant 1,000 trees and shrubs throughout campus. This great Allegheny benefactor’s life reads like a fairy tale. One of nine children, she was born to a family of minimal means, but her sharecropper parents saw that she and her siblings received a secondary-level education. She then went to work as a maid for James

Cochran, a Pittsburgh-area pioneer in coke production (a byproduct of coal critical to manufacturing steel), and she fell in love with and married his son, Phillip, in 1879. They had a son, James Phillip, a year later. She was supposed to live happily ever after.

atop a mountain of wealth. These losses were devastating and, like a crucible, forged the woman we know today.

At the death of her father-in-law in 1894, the family’s holdings were reportedly worth $2 million (about $60–70 million today). Phillip taught Sarah about the business, referred to her as a partner, and named her vice president of at least one company at a time when women were seen as bad luck for miners and forbidden by state law from working in or around mines. Sadly, Phillip died only five years after his father. He left Sarah one-third of his estate and gave her complete control of their son’s two-thirds until he turned 21. James Phillip died of pneumonia six months short of his 21st birthday leaving Sarah, 44, alone

Sarah lay in her grief for a while before she realized that her life still had purpose and that she could do great good with her wealth. With the assistance of a close advisor and acting head of the Cochran businesses, she assumed many of her late husband’s roles and responsibilities, earning the title “Coal Queen.” Sarah used her inherited wealth to change lives and institutions from her hometown to Methodist communities around the globe. She built and supported churches, funded missionary work, and provided a college education for countless young men and women. Some of her most significant philanthropy involved gifts of time and treasure for higher education, and she served as a trustee of Allegheny College (the first female in the role) from 1908 to 1936. Sarah was also a trustee at American University and the former Beaver Female Seminary in Beaver County. She endowed chairs at the latter and Bethany College in West Virginia.

Giving was personal for Sarah. James Phillip was a Phi Kappa

Psi fraternity member at the University of Pennsylvania, so Sarah maintained a strong and beloved relationship with the national and local fraternity for the rest of her life. She made her first known gift to Allegheny circa 1903 to build Phi Psi’s Highland Hall house. Sarah’s grand estate, Linden Hall, had a Phi Psi room she kept open for brothers’ visits. West Virginia University’s chapter named its house in her honor and established the Sarah B. Cochran Club for Phi Psi mothers. Sarah was likely comforted by the association with her son and the ongoing relationship with his “brothers.”

Sarah and Allegheny’s President Crawford enjoyed a close and productive relationship until his retirement in 1920. She supported chapel services, created the Sarah B. Cochran Chair for the Presidency in 1910, and provided $100,000 (about $3 million

MORE ABOUT SARAH COCHRAN

You may visit her Linden Hall estate: www.lindenhallpa.com

National Women’s History Museum: allegheny.edu/ cochran-biography

A Lesser Mortal: The Unexpected Life of Sarah B. Cochran (2021) by Kimberley Hess

today) of the $500,000 raised in the College’s first major capital campaign in 1912. Her last gift to the College was a bequest of $90,000 at her death in 1936.

President Crawford once said of Sarah: she “has given liberally of her money, but the greatest thing she has given has been herself.” Indeed. She was a woman who knew hardship and great joy; a devoted wife and mother; a prominent business owner and suffragist; a Christian who lived her faith; and a woman with relatively little formal schooling who became a champion of higher education. Sarah used her extraordinary wealth to live again after losing her husband and son and transformed the lives of countless others through education. She was a remarkable person who created a “new light in the world” through her philanthropy. How fortunate we are that it shines upon Allegheny.

Planning Tip

Two special pandemic-related IRS rulings for charitable giving were discontinued in 2022:

• Individuals can no longer deduct $300 ($600 for married couples) for charitable gifts without itemizing their federal income tax returns, as they could in 20 21.

• Donors are now limited in the total value of charitable deductions they can claim to 50% of their adjusted gross income (AGI), down from 100% last year. For example, if Sarah’s AGI is $60,000 this year, she may claim up to $30,000 in federal income tax deductions. Those who make stock or other non-cash gifts or who make gifts to private foundations are limited to 30% of their AGI.

LEARN

Ms. Melissa

Mencotti

Director of Gift Planning

Allegheny College

520 N. Main Street

Meadville, PA 16335

This semiannual newsletter, named for M. Ella Nash, Class of 1873, the College’s first female graduate, celebrates women’s philanthropy.

A Love of Learning

The late Professor Emerita Blair Hanson fostered a love of learning at Allegheny for 40-plus years as a teacher, chair of the modern languages department, faculty secretary, live-in residence hall advisor, and friend. Students were immersed in languages and culture on campus and abroad under her leadership. Colleagues, friends, and students honored her when she retired in 1981 with the Blair Hanson Scholarship Fund to help defray students’ expenses for studying a foreign language abroad.

Pre-pandemic, about 35 students per year studied abroad at one of 20-plus Allegheny-vetted institutions. Meredythe Baird ’23, a dual major in business and Spanish, is in Seville this fall with support from the Hanson Scholarship. She wrote that immersing herself as much as possible in Spanish culture will help her to better understand others and their worldviews, which will be important to her career. Meredythe carries the memory of Prof. Hanson, whom she describes as a kindred spirit, with her this year, grateful every day.

PHILANTHROPY IN ACTION