Robert J. and Kathleen G. Bradley Charitable Gift Annuity
The Bradleys established a Charitable Gift Annuity (CGA) at The Community Foundation to make certain that the community programs they care about continue to thrive in the future.
After Bob and Kate Bradley graduated from college, they joined VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America), the anti-poverty program founded in 1965. The couple spent a year working with migrant farmers and establishing a daycare center in Florida, serving people where there was a need.
“It fulfilled something we’d hoped and dreamed about doing,” Bob said. “It gave us practical experience and was very rewarding. You can talk the talk, but to do something good, you must get up and do it.”
VISTA taught them a great deal about community building, Kate added. “We’ve carried that through our lives – building community – doing what we can.”
It is a tenet central to their lives in Westville, where they’ve lived since the late 1980s. “[It’s] a wonderful community; very diverse, open, accepting, and nurturing,” Bob said. “We’ve found a home here.”
Kate worked as a nurse for many years and Bob as a systems analyst, making a late-career transition to teaching. Now retired, they enjoy volunteering in New Haven.
To make certain that the community and the nonprofit organizations they care about continue to thrive in the future, the Bradleys established a Charitable Gift Annuity (CGA) at The Community Foundation.
The Bradleys enjoy their membership in the Westville Village Renaissance Alliance (WVRA), a non-profit that runs the annual Art Walk festival and works with local businesses and residents to foster economic and cultural vitality. They also established Blockwatch 303, which beautifies sites with plantings in and around Westville.
“We’re very involved with plantings around Westville; we love doing it,” Bob said. “It’s our form of art.”
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The CGA will support the Urban Resources Initiative, a community nonprofit that manages and restores New Haven’s tree canopy and green spaces.
The Bradleys’ CGA will also support the New Haven Symphony Orchestra and Elm Shakespeare Company. “The arts are very near and dear to us, and there’s a need for the arts to be supported,” Bob said.
The Bradleys chose to establish the CGA at The Community Foundation because “they do a wonderful job managing and investing; they manage it very well,” Kate said. “It’s important for nonprofits to have funds they know they can count on annually, and it’s helpful to show they have ongoing support to bring in other funders.”
The Bradleys’ hope is that the next generation is similarly inspired to volunteer and give and experience the joy that they have found from doing so. “This is a way for us to continue our hopes and goals beyond our lifetimes,” Bob said.
