Friends - April 2019

FRIENDS SUPPORTING EXCELLENCE AT NOLS | A PUBLICATION OF THE NOLS DEVELOPMENT OFFICE | APR 2019

NOLS MAKES WILDERNESS EXPERIENCES EASIER TO ACCESS FOR SUMMER SEARCH NYC PROGRAM

By Katelyn Hiett, Foundation Relations Officer

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or nearly 30 years, Summer Search students have explored the wilderness on NOLS expeditions. This year, the partnership will expand dramatically, as NOLS Northeast hosts 70 students from Summer Search NYC on eight dedicated courses through NOLS Custom Education.

The NOLS Gateway Partner Program is committed to providing youth from underresourced communities with life-changing wilderness experiences on NOLS expeditions.

Through this initiative, NOLS educated thousands of students, leading them deep into the wilderness where they learn important values: leadership, reliance on the team, and tolerance for adversity. These values are critical for any life pursuit—academic, professional, or personal.

Summer Search, a national youth development organization with chapters in the San Francisco Bay Area, Boston, Seattle, New York City, and Philadelphia, became the very first Gateway Partner in 1993. They are working to ensure that students have the opportunity to achieve their potential in school, work, and life through a combination of mentoring and transformative experiences. Summer Search partners with students beginning in their sophomore year of high school to support them in navigating and challenging the systemic barriers to post-secondary education, workforce participation, and financial stability. The expanded partnership with

Summer Search students on a NOLS expedition practice map reading skills. Kirk Rasmussen

NOLS will allow Summer Search students to experience the wilderness with their peers on custom courses with intact student groups, learning from a curriculum designed just for them. They’ll encounter nature, challenge and adversity, and develop perseverance, teamwork, and leadership ability.

Summer Search has traditionally enrolled most of its students on NOLS’ classic Wind River Wilderness courses, but this new partnership will allow New York-based students to explore their own nearby Adirondack wilderness. Growing NOLS’ partnership with Summer Search in this way allows NOLS to

reach more students and expand the school’s presence in the northeast.

Summer Search students have a distinguished record of success. “They are three times more likely to graduate college with a four-year degree than their peers and become the kind of leaders our country needs,” says Peter Retzlaff, Executive Director of Summer Search NYC. NOLS is proud to play its part in forming the foundation that enables these young people to pursue their dreams, and forge lifelong friendships in the wilderness.

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“My NOLS experience helped me set a different course in life, and it’s an honor to be part of a team crafting experiences for Summer Search NYC students that will help them step forward into their own life-changing experience.”

—Anne Magnan NOLS Director of Custom Education

FRIENDS IS FOR PEOPLE COMMITTED TO HELPING NOLS PROVIDE THE WORLD’S BEST EDUCATION IN WILDERNESS SKILLS AND LEADERSHIP. This newsletter aims to provide useful and interesting information on charitable gift planning and supporters of the school. NOLS is not engaged in rendering legal or tax advisory services.

State laws govern wills, trusts, and many charitable gifts, and these laws vary from state to state. While NOLS welcomes and encourages inquiries about the material in this publication, individuals should consult with their professional advisors when planning their wills or deferred gifts.

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Molly Hagbrand

LIFE INSURANCE GIFTS

A Straightforward Way to Support NOLS

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your family no longer needs the policy.

This allows you an immediate income tax deduction. If the policy is fully paid, your deduction equals the policy replacement value unless that value exceeds the tax or cost basis. The deduction is limited to your cost basis. If there are remaining premiums, the deduction is about the same as the cash surrender value. You may also continue to pay the remaining premiums yourself, providing additional charitable deductions.

owned by our organization, a $1,000,000 gift will be assured. When the gift is completely funded, group members will have accumulated the gift on the installment plan by paying relatively small annual premiums which qualify as charitable contributions. And if a member of the group dies in the meantime, our organization receives the full amount of his or her gift in advance.

• Beneficiary: Alternatively, you may simply name our organization as beneficiary of the policy. Since this is not an irrevocable designation, you do not receive an immediate income tax deduction. At your death, • Owner and Beneficiary: You can make however, your executor can take a federal our organization the owner and beneestate tax deduction for the entire amount. ficiary of a new policy. Your income tax deduction equals the premium payments, and the policy’s value is removed from your Group Gifts taxable estate.

Insurance policies also offer an attractive way • Owner of Existing Policy: You can make to make a group gift. For example, if 20 people our organization the owner of an existing join a plan whereby each pays premiums on policy. This is particularly appropriate if a $50,000 25-year endowment policy that is

In addition to the practical advantages of making life insurance gifts, there also are tax benefits. For example, if our organization owns the insurance policy, premiums paid by you qualify for a federal income tax charitable deduction. If you give an existing policy during your lifetime, you are entitled to an income tax deduction at the time of the gift and the proceeds will not be subject to federal estate tax. If you give a paid-up policy, the charitable deduction is usually equal to its replacement value; for a policy on which premiums are payable in the future, the deduction is usually measured with reference to the policy’s reserve value.

or a great many donors, the primary advantage of a gift of life insurance is that it provides the only available means of making a sizable gift to their favorite charitable organization. It is also significant that many policies provide for the waiver of premiums during any period in which the insured donor is disabled. Such a provision may prove to be vital in “guaranteeing” the amount of the gift.

Life Insurance A current life insurance policy offers NOLS donors a simple and attractive way to support our organization.

You can make a gift of life insurance in three ways:

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Tax Savings

INSIDER NEWS

NOLS SEARCHES FOR NEW PRESIDENT

By Anne McGowan, Development Communications Coordinator

When, in October of 2018, NOLS President John Gans announced his decision to retire in late 2019, Board of Trustees Vice Chair Greg Avis immediately stepped forward to lead a search for a new president.

It is no small job: Greg received over 150 nominations of 75 individuals when he requested recommendations from faculty and staff members to fill four places on a search committee. Among the members selected for that committee are field instructors, a location director, and supervisors who span three of the school’s “pillars”: NOLS Custom Education, NOLS Wilderness Medicine, and NOLS Expeditions. The remainder of the 11-member committee is comprised of Advisory Council members and trustees.

“The committee represents a broad swath of the NOLS community, all who share a passion for NOLS and the desire to find the very best candidate for the position,” Greg said. “Selection was extremely difficult, as the number of highly qualified and interested candidates greatly exceeded the available positions.”

Deductibility The deductibility of life insurance gifts depends on state law. Please consult your tax advisor to make sure a gift of life insurance is deductible in your state.

This information is not intended as specific legal advice. Consult your attorney when considering any legal matter. State laws that govern wills and contracts vary and are subject to change. For more information, please contact: NOLS 284 Lincoln St. Lander, WY 82520 1.800.332.4280 | www.nols.edu © Winton C. Smith, Jr., 2005

John Gans speaks at the 2016 NOLS Expedition Faculty Summit in Lander, WY. Kirk Rasmussen

In February, a leading search consultant with international reach was chosen to assist the committee.

Isaacson, Miller was a unanimous choice based on a number of factors, including deep experience in recruiting exceptional leaders for organizations sharing common characteristics with NOLS: cultural compatibility; outstanding reference checks; and demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

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SUMMIT TEAM

TERRY WELCH: TEACHING LESSONS SHE LEARNED AT NOLS

By Anne McGowan, Development Communications Coordinator

“NOLS gave me the confidence to challenge myself in ways I never thought I could,” said Terry Welch. The newest member of the NOLS Summit Team, Welch has joined an important group of alumni and friends who include NOLS in their estate plan. A graduate of a 1992 Mountain Instructors course and a 2004 Prince William Sound Sea Kayaking course, Terry has been a middle school science teacher for the last 25 years.

In addition to teaching, Terry—who lives on Whidbey Island with her husband Neil and his daughter—serves her community as a volunteer firefighter and EMT. “NOLS taught me that I can be comfortable going beyond my normal comfort zone,” she said. “I don’t think I would have had the confidence to become a firefighter and EMT without my NOLS training.”

“I was an environmental education

Terry Welch in the Galapagos Islands.

Courtesy of Terry Welch

instructor at various places and had heard about NOLS along the way,” Terry said of her introduction to NOLS. “I was a little timid when taking my instructors course because I didn’t have as much mountaineering experience as some others had.

By the end of the course, though, my CONTINUED ON BACK

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EASY ACCESS FOR SUMMER SEARCH CONTINUED

Rodrigo Bustamante, a Summer Search graduate, reflected after his NOLS course, “I learned how to live in the present and appreciate each moment. I surpassed my physical and mental capabilities, which had never been tested like they were on this course. Most importantly, I met, lived with, and got to know 15 truly incredible people. Without all of them, the growth I experienced would not have been possible.”

Through NOLS’ new partnership with

Summer Search NYC, hundreds more students will have life-changing experiences like Rodrigo’s in the years ahead. NOLS is thrilled to have this unique opportunity to reach so many young people with our leadership curriculum, and to support Summer Search’s important work to create a more equitable society.

Opportunities like these are supported by gifts to the NOLS Fund. To donate, contact the Development office at 800-332-4280.

VOLUNTEERS IN ACTION

AMBASSADORS VISIT 17 STATES

SEARCH FOR NOLS PRESIDENT CONTINUED

which has the ultimate responsibility to make the appointment.

Greg stated that “everyone in the NOLS community will have the opportunity to provide input.” The committee has already coordinated a series of interviews and group sessions with NOLS faculty and staff, alumni, and other key constituencies, and more will follow.

For more information, see www.nols. edu/en/about/presidential-search.

By Tess Donovan, NOLS Ambassador Program Manager

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rom hosting screenings of the NOLS Exploration Film Tour to attending gap-year events and organizing presentations at schools, our 20 new NOLS ambassadors are ambitious and excited to spread the NOLS love in their communities.

The NOLS Ambassador Program officially launched in October 2018. Since then, ambassadors from all over the U.S. have organized and hosted events in 17 states, putting us in touch with over 150 new NOLS Wilderness Medicine and NOLS Expedition students.

Our ambassadors are all different ages, and have a wide variety of both life and NOLS experiences. From Jack Johnson, a freshman at the Hotchkiss School who took an Adventure course in middle school, to John Moon, a retired veteran in Kansas City who took a prime course in his 60s, the thing they all have in common is their passion for the outdoors and the knowledge that NOLS changes lives.

NOLS Patagonia semester grad Peter Throckmorton, an ambassador from Reno,

SUMMIT TEAM CONTINUED

Cat Spears hosts the NOLS booth at a Gap Year Fair in Brooklyn. Tess Donovan

Nevada, said, “My semester in Patagonia in 2015 turned my interest in the outdoors into an all-out passion, and I love inspiring likeminded people to take a NOLS course so that they can become a better person and be a good steward to society.”

Applications for next year’s NOLS Ambassadors will be accepted beginning in May. For more information, visit info.nols.edu/ become-a-nols-ambassador.

GIFTS AT WORK

TRIBUTE GIFTS HONOR OTHERS

By Anne McGowan, Development Communications Coordinator

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re you seeking a unique and heartfelt way to recognize someone special? Consider donating to NOLS to honor or remember their place in your life. A tribute gift can celebrate a significant occasion, recognize someone special, or commemorate a milestone. Some NOLS graduates, for example, have made gifts in honor of their instructors; some have donated in memory of loved ones, including

family members, fellow alumni, and friends.

All that’s required is your direction. Making a note on your gift to NOLS—whether it’s through the comment field in an online donation or on a check sent through the mail—indicates that the gift has been given in recognition of someone special, and that designation will appear in our annual report, The State of the School.

NOLS | 284 Lincoln Street, Lander WY 82520 | 1.800.332.4280 Anne McGowan, Editor. To subscribe, contact: NOLS Development development@nols.edu | 1.307.335.2273.

The Friends Newsletter is printed on 30%-PCW FSC-certified paper.

confidence level was much higher, and I was amazed at how much I’d learned in the month-long course!

I learned to trust myself and my coursemates.” Terry experienced the same growth from her sea kayaking course in Alaska, acquiring new skills and revisiting those she’d previously learned. And she carries on lessons from her NOLS experiences in her middle-school classroom.

“Experiential learning is something I try to offer my students when I can,” she said. “That’s a big takeaway from my NOLS courses. I add environmental science to my curriculum and try to take my students on yearly field trips and camping trips. I’m taking a group of 26 to Iceland this coming summer.”

As a member of the NOLS Summit Team, Terry made a bequest to NOLS so future students can have some of the same kinds of experiences she had. “I received a generous scholarship to do my instructors course,” she said. “I hope my small gesture, joining the Summit Team, will change the path of a student for the better, as it did for me!”

Find out how you can help ensure the future of NOLS, leave a legacy, and benefit your heirs by becoming a member of the Summit Team.

Contact the NOLS Development office at 800-332-4280, development@ nols.edu, or see www.nols.edu/ giving for more information about planned giving at NOLS.

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