A Commitment to Doing Good

By Jennifer Magro Algarotti

Joan Workman Newman, Gamma-UC, Berkeley, holds Service for Sight near to her heart. With vision loss increasing among an aging population, Joan sees an increasing need to support Service for Sight. She’s funded a charitable gift annuity with the Delta Gamma Foundation.

Like so many Delta Gammas, Joan’s path of involvement hasn’t always been a straight line. While an undergraduate at UC Berkeley, Joan served as vice president of Panhellenic Council in charge of recruitment. This experience gave her wide exposure to a diverse set of women and allowed her to develop her leadership, organization and public speaking skills. And her involvement with both Service for Sight and campus activities around implementing the American with Disabilities Act provided Joan an opportunity to think deeply about the issues facing those living with blindness or vision loss.

After she graduated and moved to Chicago, in addition to advancing her professional career in finance and organizational behavior, Joan became involved with various non-profits, including currently serving on the board of the Fortnightly of Chicago, the city’s oldest woman’s organization dedicated to cultural and intellectual programs, Gilda’s Club, and an investment club. While working at Bank of America, Joan was asked to join their Foundation board, where she worked to make grants to organizations that were having a direct impact on the communities around them. As a partner with an investment firm, she organized their community outreach program and was introduced to Hadley School for the Blind. Joan also began joining sisters in the Chicago North Shore alumnae group.

Joan grew a great appreciation for the Delta Gamma Foundation and gives her time, talent and treasure by serving on the Board of Trustees and the Finance committee, along with her outright gifts and legacy gifts.

“Today, I appreciate the values Delta Gamma reinforced for me, the network of established and new friendships it has enabled over the years and the impact it played in evolving my college perspective of often thinking volunteering infringed on my personal time to now thinking volunteering represents an important aspect of my personal time,” Joan says.

While Joan once felt a need to develop her own self, her goals have shifted to helping others develop themselves. Joan is committed to empowering others with the resources needed to leverage their skills to their fullest potential. Joan enjoys discussing with her son Chris, a CFA, the value of constructing an investment portfolio based on her priorities and translating these into asset allocation strategies. She applies many of these principles to her philanthropic giving by diversifying charitable giving through direct and planned giving.

“A charitable gift annuity allows me a tax efficient way to support a specific program and receive a fixed stream of income as a regular ‘thank you,’” Joan says. “This, in turn, serves to personally motivate me to continue to support these programs through both time and money.”

Contact Senior Director of Development Aleesa Ross at 614-481-8169 or plannedgiving@deltagamma.org for more information about how a charitable gift annuity with the Delta Gamma Foundation can help you secure your financial future and meet your philanthropic goals.