Gift Planning | Minnesota Medical Foundation

IRA charitable giving opportunity extended for 2013

2013-03-07T15:38:41Z

Thanks to recent legislation, you can again benefit from a popular tax-advantaged giving option.

Make a gift of up to $100,000 directly from your IRA to the University of Minnesota Foundation (UMF) to support medicine and health research before December 31, 2013, and you can avoid paying federal income tax on the amount of your gift.

These rules apply to IRA charitable rollovers in 2013:

Only IRAs are eligible (other types of retirement accounts are not).
You must be age 701/2 or older at the time you make your gift.
Your gift must come directly from the IRA custodian to UMF.
You can give up to $100,000 from your IRA to one or more qualified charities in 2013 (and if your spouse has a separate IRA, you can each give up to $100,000).
Your gift must be outright; it cannot be used to fund a charitable gift annuity or charitable remainder trust.

While you will not be able to claim a charitable deduction for your IRA rollover gift, you also won’t owe federal income tax on any amount up to $100,000 that you distribute to a qualified charity.

To learn more about supporting University of Minnesota research, education, and care through the IRA charitable rollover option or through another type of planned gift, contact our gift planning team via email or at 612-624-3333 or 800-775-2187.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Stocking stuffers

2012-11-26T15:53:33Z

Securities can make great gifts

The bull market of 2012 raises an intriguing question for those with investments: What is the most beneficial gift I can donate to the Minnesota Medical Foundation? In terms of taxes, the answer is securities that 1) have gone up in value and 2) have been owned for more than one year.

Supporters who give highly appreciated stocks receive a double tax benefit that enables them to magnify the impact of their generosity: They can deduct the full fair market value of their investment — not just what they paid originally — and they save again by avoiding all capital gains taxes on their “paper profit.”

Taking stock

Take the example of Mrs. Jones. The stock she purchased in 1995 for $200 is now worth $1,000. If Mrs. Jones gives the stock instead of cash, the Minnesota Medical Foundation receives a gift of $1,000 — the fair market value of the stock — and she can claim a $1,000 charitable deduction on her next income tax return.

In the 33 percent bracket, that’s a tax savings of $330. Furthermore, she avoids $120 in capital gains taxes that would be due whenever she sold the stock. The result: After figuring her tax savings, a gift of $1,000 costs Mrs. Jones only $550.

Mutually beneficial

Mutual fund shares can be given to the foundation with the same beneficial effect as listed and actively traded stock. Your deduction is the “net asset value” of the shares, which is calculated each day, generally after the close of the stock market. If you decide to contribute mutual fund shares, please notify us as soon as possible and send us a copy of your mutual fund statement. Transfers can take from two to six weeks to complete, and we will need to work with you and your account manager to make the gift effective for the current year.

To find out how you can make a planned gift that supports medical and health-related research, education, and care at the University of Minnesota, please contact the Minnesota Medical Foundation’s planned giving team at 612-625-1440, 800-922-1663, or giftplanning@mmf.umn.edu.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Who gets the life insurance?

2012-11-26T15:52:49Z

Examine your life insurance policies and take a look at who is named beneficiary. Chances are it’s your spouse or other family members, but if a beneficiary isn’t named, the proceeds will go to your estate. There are several reasons why you don’t want that to happen:

The proceeds could be subject to state death taxes,
Creditors of your estate would have access to the funds,
Probate fees could be increased, and
Distribution of proceeds could be delayed until administration of your estate is complete.

Make sure you have named a beneficiary for the proceeds. Keep in mind that you can name the Minnesota Medical Foundation as a primary or contingent beneficiary of your life insurance, in the event that a named beneficiary is not alive at your death.

To learn more, please contact the Minnesota Medical Foundation’s planned giving team at 612-625-1440, 800-922-1663, or giftplanning@mmf.umn.edu.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

One gift generates a huge return on investment

2012-10-17T16:33:45Z

A famous reporter was once advised to “follow the money.” Here at the University of Minnesota, tracing the journey of a $25,000 gift from Liz Hawn and her husband, Van, on its path through the Department of Neuroscience is a perfect case in point for how private donations can reignite critical research—and, ultimately, become the gift that keeps on giving.

When department head Timothy Ebner, M.D., Ph.D., holder of the Max E. and Mary LaDue Pickworth Endowed Chair in Neuroscience, received the Hawns’ donation last December, he split the funds between two scientists who had reached an impasse in their research due to lack of funding.

Paul Mermelstein, Ph.D., researches the effects of estrogens on the female brain, but late last year two major grant proposals were in jeopardy because lab resources had been stretched too thin. When Ebner funneled $10,000 of the Hawns’ gift to the lab, the relatively modest sum kept the team going. And in July, both the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation kicked in significant dollars to put the work back on track.

Mark Thomas, Ph.D., meanwhile, was studying the underlying neurobiological mechanism responsible for drug addiction relapse when funding for a key lab member ran out, threatening to halt the promising research. The remaining $15,000 from the Hawns’ gift saved the day.

“Addiction is a chronic relapsing disorder,” Thomas explains, “and, using a mouse model, we’d identified a specific change in the brain when an addicted mouse was exposed to a stressor or re-exposed to the addictive drug. Unfortunately, you can have what seem like marvelous, innovative ideas, but if you don’t have the right team of well-trained people and the right equipment … well, you won’t get very far.”

Restoring support for one of those well-trained people allowed Thomas’s research team to finish work necessary for its grant proposals to the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the NIH— which also paid off in spades.

“The combined total dollars for the four grants Paul and Mark received will be more than $4 million,” Ebner says, “leveraging the Hawn gift into a spectacular rate of return.”

“The basic science projects often have the hardest time getting funding—those things that aren’t ‘sexy’ but are so important,” says Liz Hawn, who serves on the Minnesota Medical Foundation’s board of trustees and has recently donated another $25,000 to the University. “I was really pleased to find out how much our gift helped.”

Donations of all sizes can make a difference, says Mermelstein. “It’s about more than dollars. It’s the idea that an individual is willing to support our work. It changes the dynamic in the lab, really driving home the message that what we’re doing is working to improve lives. We’re all incredibly appreciative.”

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Creating a family legacy through the gift of land

2012-08-16T20:34:03Z

A couple gives real estate through a bequest to fund a scholarship for future rural doctors

Daniel F. Aldrich, a Wyoming-based expert in plant-insect interactions, had a successful career in agriculture. But it was a stint in the Peace Corps in the mid-1970s—not science—that changed his outlook on life.

While serving in the Peace Corps in the Terai region of southern Nepal, Aldrich became immersed in the native culture and taught local entrepreneurs about viable fish farming. At that time, the median income in that area was about $250 per year. In the Terai region, he encountered people who were hungry and dying. “It gives one a distinct perspective on what you need and want and what happiness is,” he says.

That perspective, as well as his Minnesota roots, influenced Aldrich’s philanthropy. Earlier this year, he and his wife, Cathleen Aldrich, made a gift of land in honor of his family to fund a scholarship supporting University of Minnesota medical students who are studying rural medicine.

Family ties to medicine

Aldrich’s father, Herrick J. Aldrich, M.D., was an enthusiastic alumnus of the University of Minnesota Medical School, Class of 1935. After serving in World War II, he worked as a rural physician in Minnesota and Wyoming, where he lived with his wife, Floris, Daniel Aldrich’s mother.

“Dad was a consistent fan of the University of Minnesota,” says Aldrich, adding that he has fond memories of attending Twins and Vikings games with his father when he was a teenager.

Aldrich’s older brother, Sgt. John Herrick Aldrich, also had ties to medicine. He served as a combat medic in the Vietnam War and was killed one year into his service.

And although he never met his grandparents, Daniel says that their professional accomplishments also inspired his philanthropy.

His grandfather, Frederick H. Aldrich, M.D., a World War I veteran, practiced medicine in Monticello and Belview, Minn., and served in the Minnesota House of Representatives for two terms. His grandmother, Emma L. Aldrich, M.D., also practiced medicine in rural Minnesota. He says that her achievements impressed him: “I think back about how difficult it would have been for a woman to go to medical school at the beginning of the 20th century.”

The gift of land

In recent years, Aldrich inherited 200 acres of farmland in southwestern Minnesota that had belonged to his grandfather. He says that it just seemed right to make a gift to honor his family.

Through a bequest in their will, he and Cathleen made the gift through the Minnesota Medical Foundation. Proceeds of the sale of that land will eventually be used to fund the Frederick H. and Emma L. Aldrich Scholarship Fund for medical students studying rural medicine.

“It was my grandfather’s land. It seemed appropriate,” says Aldrich, adding that creating this scholarship also fulfills his father’s wish to help others.

“The need for rural medicine is more critical now than ever,” says Aldrich. “My dad dedicated his life to medicine and fostered all forms of life. He wanted to make a grant for students interested in practicing in a diverse rural environment.”

‘If you have enough, you share’

Aldrich says that he’s proud of his family, the legacy that this scholarship will leave, and the impact it will make on recipients’ lives.

Deciding to donate his land to support rural doctors of the future was simple, as was the bequest process, Aldrich says. “My brother and both my folks would be very pleased that this bequest was made to the Minnesota Medical Foundation. All of us felt it was important.

“I don’t have any needs there,” he says of the land. “We were taught to make a line between what we needed and what we wanted. That’s how we were raised: ‘If you have enough, you share.’”

To learn more about how to make a gift of property or other types of planned gifts, such as bequests, beneficiary designations, charitable gift annuities, lead trusts and remainder trusts, memorial and honorary gifts, endowed gifts, and donor advised funds, contact Jay Kautt at 612-626-0510 or j.kautt@mmf.umn.edu.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

On-target cancer treatments

2012-06-07T17:26:52Z

A grateful patient supports technical training in radiology

Although Bob Johnson calls himself a “Swede from the East Side of St. Paul,” with a little prodding, you’ll learn that he carries many other titles as well: lawyer, former Minnesota state legislator, war veteran, proud father of six, cancer survivor.

And one thing becomes clear: He does not shy away from challenges — he seeks them out. “I lied to get into the Navy in September of 1941,” says Johnson, who was 17 years old at the time. When World War II started, he was in the Navy ROTC at the University of Minnesota and went on to serve two years on a naval destroyer in the South Pacific.

After returning to Minnesota, Johnson graduated from the University’s Law School and practiced law for more than 50 years, in addition to representing the Highland Park area of St. Paul, Minn., as a state legislator for 12 years.

Yet to come was his biggest challenge. In the late 1990s, Johnson was diagnosed with prostate cancer and sought treatment at the University. Following months of radiation while under the care of Kathryn Dusenbery, M.D., Johnson made a full recovery.

“She did a marvelous job and restored my confidence,” Johnson says of Dusenbery. In the years that followed, he has made annual financial contributions and an estate gift to support her work. “She really took great care of me. You couldn’t help but support her,” he says.

Where the physicists come in

Dusenbery, an associate professor and head of the University’s Department of Therapeutic Radiology- Radiation Oncology, specializes in pediatric and gynecological tumors but also works on eradicating prostate tumors.

She says Johnson’s philanthropic support has helped to build one of the nation’s first residency programs for medical physicists and transformed the way the University trains the experts who deliver radiation treatments for cancer.

“Today’s radiation machines are very complicated. It takes trained medical physicists to make sure the equipment is running correctly and that the doses desired are actually delivered,” Dusenbery explains.

“Our physicists leave this institution very well trained. Because of their skills, the treatment given under their supervision is as accurate and safe as it can be,” she says.

Importance of philanthropy

“Mr. Johnson’s gifts along the way have helped a lot,” Dusenbery says. “Bob had a lifelong interest in education, as did his late wife, Betty. I’m pleased that these gifts have been used for education.”

In addition to annual gifts, Johnson created a charitable lead trust; half supports Dusenbery’s work, and half supports the Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota. The trust, which contributes to the University annually, also provides Johnson with financial and tax benefits.

“I’m a firm believer that if somebody does something for me, I should do something for them,” says Johnson. “There are a lot of people who need help, and this was a beautiful way to do it.”

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Keeping current

2012-06-07T16:41:49Z

How to ensure that your benefits are distributed as you intended

You can have the most up-to-date will or living trust, but if your beneficiary designations on life insurance and retirement plans are not current, much of your planning could be undone. Consider:

Under federal law, a surviving spouse is automatically the beneficiary of a 401(k) plan. This is true despite what a will or prenuptial agreement states — or even what the beneficiary designation provides. If a widow or widower remarries, the new spouse will be entitled to the funds, unless a spousal consent waiver has been properly executed.
Unlike a 401(k) account, an IRA does not automatically pass to a surviving spouse. Instead, the beneficiary designation on file with the IRA custodian dictates how the funds will pass. This could create a problem if the named beneficiary is deceased at the IRA owner’s death or if the beneficiary is no longer married to the IRA owner.
Named beneficiaries of IRAs can take advantage of the ability to stretch out the receipt of income — and the payment of taxes — over their lifetimes. For example, if a 27-year-old grandchild is named the beneficiary of a $100,000 IRA, he or she need only take about $1,780 the first year, allowing the balance to continue growing. Each year’s required distribution will be based on the account balance and the grandchild’s remaining life expectancy. This option is available only for named beneficiaries, however, so it is important to keep designations current.
Life insurance generally passes to the beneficiary named on the policy. Owners who marry, divorce, or have other life changes should review beneficiary designations to ensure that they still reflect the owner’s wishes.
Keep in mind that you can name the Minnesota Medical Foundation (MMF) as the beneficiary of all or a part of your life insurance or qualified retirement plans. Your estate will be entitled to a charitable deduction for any amounts we receive, and any income taxes that might be owed by other recipients will be avoided.

To learn more, please contact Jay Kautt on MMF’s planned giving team at 612-626-0510 or j.kautt@mmf. umn.edu, or visit www.mmf.umn.edu/giftplanning.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Leave a legacy of hope

2012-04-12T16:26:37Z

Your annual gifts to support leading-edge research, education, and care at University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s Hospital make a real difference to children and their families. But did you know you also can leave a legacy gift that will make a difference after your lifetime? When you include a gift to support children’s health at the University in your estate plans, your future gift will provide critical funding to accelerate the development of new treatments and cures for childhood diseases.

Creating a charitable legacy that will help children live healthy and happy lives may be easier than you think. You can make a gift through a bequest in your will or living trust or simply name the Minnesota Medical Foundation as a beneficiary of your retirement plan or life insurance policy. You maintain control of your assets during your lifetime and can modify your plans if circumstances change. There also may be significant tax benefits for your estate and your heirs.

Have you already included a gift to benefit children’s health at the University in your estate or financial plans? We hope you will let us know. By informing us about your future gift, we can recognize and thank you now and work with you to ensure that the funds from your future gift are directed to the programs or areas you wish to support. (You can share your gift intentions with us and still choose to remain anonymous.)

To discuss the many ways you can leave a legacy gift, please contact Jennifer White at the Minnesota Medical Foundation at 612-625-8676 or jewhite@mmf.umn.edu.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

A gift to the U, lifetime income for you

2012-03-13T13:30:01Z

If you would like to support groundbreaking research at the University of Minnesota and also receive steady income for life, a charitable gift annuity may be right for you. Through a simple contract, you agree to make a donation of cash, stocks, or other assets to the Minnesota Medical Foundation. In return, we agree to pay you a fixed amount each year for the rest of your life.

In addition to providing future support for research and receiving lifetime fixed payments, a charitable gift annuity offers additional benefits

•Your gift is partially income tax-deductible.

• Your gift payments are partially income tax- free throughout your estimated life expectancy.

• Your payments are fixed—unaffected by economic ups and downs.

• The gift annuity can be for one or two people, so your spouse or another loved one can also receive payments for life.

• If you use appreciated stock to make your gift, you can eliminate capital gains tax on a portion of the gift; typically, you can spread the rest of the gain over your life expectancy.

To receive a personalized illustration of how a charitable gift annuity can work for you, contact the Minnesota Medical Foundation’s gift planning team at 612-625-1440, 800-922-1663, or giftplanning@mmf.umn.edu.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Scholarship support: Breathing new life into medical education

2012-02-17T18:50:36Z

Resuscitation expert, alumnus supports Medical School scholarships through planned gifts

While stationed at the Naval Hospital in Pensacola, Fla. in 1962, Jerome Modell, M.D., D.Sc. (Hon.), had a career-changing close call involving a critically ill patient.

“A flight surgery student from Japan drowned,” recalls Modell, a 1957 graduate of the University of Minnesota Medical School. Although he was able to save the patient’s life, Modell was hampered by a lack of treatment protocols related to drowning.

Another complication: “We didn’t have intensive care units back then,” he says.

In the years that followed, Modell led efforts to establish one of Florida’s first Intensive Care Units at Jackson Memorial Hospital at the University of Miami, and later became a national expert in resuscitation and drowning.

That’s how Modell operates; when he sees a need, he becomes part of the solution. That’s also how he approaches philanthropy.

“I think everyone should give back,” says Modell, mentioning that he is concerned by the debt most current medical students carry. That’s why he created a scholarship for U of M medical students in memory of his parents, William and Frieda Modell, in 1999. And it’s why nine years later, he and his wife, Shirley Graves Modell, M.D.—a pediatric anesthesiologist and intensivist—created a second scholarship in their own names at the Medical School.

To make the most of their giving, the Modells used estate planning tools that help support medical education while also securing their own financial future.

The couple created a $100,000 charitable gift annuity (CGA) to establish the Drs. Jerome and Shirley Graves Modell Endowed Medical Student Scholarship Fund, which provides them with lifetime income and tax benefits.

“You receive income,” Jerome Modell says of the CGA benefits. “Instead of letting our money sit, the University benefits,” he added. “It’s a relatively painless way to give.”

Work ethic honed at the U

When he was in medical school in the 1950s, Modell worked for University of Minnesota scientists Samuel Schwartz, M.D., Ph.D., and Cecil Watson, M.D., assisting in some of the first-ever experiments of chemotherapy as they combined hematoporphyrin with radiation therapy to treat cancer .

“That was kind of an exciting thing,” he recalls. “I worked in the laboratory for Dr. Schwartz and I learned a lot about research.”

Modell’s accomplished career includes multiple scientific publications as well as numerous high-profile awards such as the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Critical Care Anesthesiologists, the Distinguished Service Award from the American Society of Anesthesiologists, and the President’s Medallion and Honorary Doctor of Science Degree from the University of Florida.

He also has had notable appointments—including serving on the original medical team for Project Mercury, which was the first program to launch astronauts into space. He has been on the faculty at the University of Florida College of Medicine for 42 years where he served as Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology, Executive Associate Dean and Interim Dean of the College of Medicine, and as Associate Vice-President for Health Affairs.

His own success, built on a modest upbringing, makes giving back all the more important, says Modell. “My wife and I both came from fairly meager financial backgrounds with very hardworking parents,” he explains. “They always believed in education.”

The impact of giving

Today, that commitment is building medical careers.

Former Modell scholarship recipient Andrea Watson, M.D., for example, is now a pediatric hematologist-oncologist at the Erick Peter Person Children’s Cancer Center in Duluth, Minn. She received the scholarship honoring Modell’s parents in 2001 while attending medical school at the University of Minnesota.

“I remember feeling, like—‘Wow!’” she says of the award. “The symbolic nature of someone helping you means a lot and says a lot. It’s really humbling that they believe in you.”

The scholarship, Watson says, helped her meet financial challenges. “At that time, I had just had a baby. [The scholarship] made life a little easier and doable at the time.”

Watson adds that the financial support also allowed her to focus on finding her professional calling. She initially started on the family practice track, but after her residency training found that she loved working with children and families touched by cancer.

“It’s an intense connection,” she says of her relationships with her patients and their families. “This was everything I was in medicine for. It’s amazing and I love it.”

Watson says that being a scholarship recipient has influenced her ideas about philanthropy and medical education—and has inspired her to follow Modell’s example. “It makes me want to be that person for someone else,” she says.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Is MMF in your estate plan?

2011-12-05T14:22:34Z

A gift from your estate is an easy way to make a future gift in support of health-related research, education, and care at the University of Minnesota. You retain the use of the asset during your lifetime and the ability to modify your gift. Estate gifts can be made through your will, revocable (living) trust agreement, retirement plan, or life insurance. You also can make the Minnesota Medical Foundation (MMF) beneficiary of your bank account (via POD — “payable on death” designation) or your stock portfolio or real estate (via TOD — “transfer on death” designation).

Following is sample bequest language:

Unrestricted gift

“I give [the sum, percentage, or description of property] to the Minnesota Medical Foundation, Minneapolis, Minnesota, free of trust, to be used wherever the needs and opportunities are greatest.”

Restricted gift

“I give [the sum, percentage, or description of property] to the Minnesota Medical Foundation, Minneapolis, Minnesota, to be used for the benefit of the [name of school, department, or program].”

To designate the Minnesota Medical Foundation as a beneficiary of your life insurance policy or qualified retirement plan, you will need the foundation’s tax ID number: 41-6027707.

For more information about leaving an estate gift to MMF, please contact the Office of Gift Planning at 612-625-1440, 800-922-1663, or giftplanning@mmf.umn.edu.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Advancing stem cell science

2011-08-17T15:29:36Z

Current and planned gifts extend alum’s longtime University support

Clayton Kaufman knows a high-impact story when he hears it. His judgment is forged by a broadcasting career that spanned more than four decades. That’s one reason he’s keeping tabs on advances in stem cell science—and why he’s supporting the research through current and planned gifts to the University of Minnesota, his alma mater.

“The importance of stem cell research cannot be overemphasized,” he says, mentioning its potential impact on a myriad of diseases, such as diabetes, cancer, and Parkinson’s disease. That’s another reason Kaufman is interested in the research: he has Parkinson’s.

Then there’s his youngest son, Dan Kaufman, M.D., Ph.D., associate director of the University’s Stem Cell Institute, who’s investigating the use of embryonic stem cells in therapies such as bone marrow transplants to treat patients with leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma, and other cancers.

In fact, Clayton Kaufman, who earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota’s School of Journalism in 1949, says since his time as a student, his longtime commitment to the U of M and to stem cell science continues to grow stronger.

Family connections to the U

Dating back to his undergraduate days, Kaufman met his late wife, Nancy—mother to his three sons—when they both attended the University of Minnesota.

A self-described “lifelong Gopher football fan,” Kaufman says that he learned the basics of journalism while working as a sports editor at the Minnesota Daily, the University’s student-run newspaper. That experience, he says, launched his career.

He went on to work as a sports writer and editor for an International News Service and later took a job at WCCO Radio, where he worked for 39 years. He was initially hired as a news writer but eventually became the general manager and then senior vice president for radio. In 2007 he was inducted to the Minnesota Broadcasting Hall of Fame.

The University also helped to shape the careers of Kaufman’s three adult sons. The oldest, Dixon Kaufman, M.D., Ph.D., completed his undergraduate, medical (Class of ’83), and doctoral degrees at the University, as well as his residency and fellowships. Now a transplant surgeon and researcher, he has worked at Northwestern University in Chicago and was recently appointed Transplant Division Chief at University of Wisconsin—Madison’s School of Medicine and Public Health, and at its hospital and clinics. Middle son Douglas Kaufman, M.B.A., earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Minnesota and is now the finance director of corporate trust services at U.S. Bank.

Meanwhile, Dan, an alumnus of Stanford University and Mayo Medical School, is an associate professor at the University of Minnesota and an internationally recognized stem cell researcher—working with induced pluripotent stem cell, or iPS cells, and embryonic stem cells.

Clayton Kaufman says exposure to medicine through his sons sparked his interest in the field, as did his service on the Minnesota Medical Foundation’s Board of Trustees in the 1980s, and later on the Masonic Cancer Center’s Community Advisory Board in the 1990s. “[MMF] opened the door for me to get involved in a whole new community,” he says.

The importance of stem cell science

Although he provides generous annual support to the Masonic Cancer Center and the journalism school, Kaufman says that embryonic stem cell research is the primary focus of his giving.

Philanthropic support for embryonic stem cell research is hindered by many factors, he says—most notably donors’ tendency to fund research on specific diseases, like cancer and heart disease. “People don’t have stem cell-itis,” Kaufman says.

The lack of a national organization that raises money exclusively for stem cell research and the politicization of the research also deter scientific progress, he says.

“Federal money has been diverted on and off since they started studying stem cells,” says Kaufman’s current wife, Susan. “Private fundraising is the most important financial source for embryonic stem cell research.”

So, Kaufman says, he decided to turn their frustration into action by making two planned gifts that directly support embryonic stem cell research at the University.

The right kind of gift

“For a long time I had thought, “When my day comes, I want to leave some money for stem cell work at the University,”” Kaufman says.

But after learning about the charitable gift annuity—a gift that allows donors to transfer assets to a charity in exchange for fixed payments for life—he decided to accelerate his planned estate gift.

Kaufman funded two charitable gift annuities with MMF in 2008, increasing his current income and securing a partial tax deduction while ensuring continued support for embryonic stem cell research at the University after his lifetime.

“This is a way I could make my gift now, get some benefit from it, and have a major share available for the Stem Cell Institute,” he says.

Kaufman says that he hopes his giving will inspire others to think about the promise of stem cell science and act now—instead of later. “You can’t take it with you,” he says. “But this is a way to give it before you go.”

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Philanthropy propels new lung cancer research

2011-06-27T12:33:43Z

Donor-funded research advances work of U lung cancer team

Every day in his University of Minnesota lab, researcher Joel McCauley, M.D., confronts a stubborn and challenging adversary—lung cancer—but he never labors in isolation. He works regularly with colleagues across the University to find more effective treatments.

“Lung cancer is the [country’s] No. 1 cancer killer on an annual basis,” McCauley says. In the United States, nearly 160,000 people die of lung cancer each year. Current treatments, primarily surgery and chemotherapy, have not advanced in recent years. “They don’t do much to impact survival,” he says.

But, thanks to philanthropic support, McCauley and his colleagues are driven to change that.

Essential support

When Joyce Lammersen of St. Cloud, Minn., died from lung cancer in 2008, she left a $26,000 estate gift to the Minnesota Medical Foundation to support lung cancer research at the University’s Center for Lung Science and Health (CLSH). In turn, the Center directed those funds to help launch McCauley’s research in non-small cell lung cancer, which accounts for 85 to 90 percent of lung cancer cases.

McCauley, a senior fellow in the University’s Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine, will be joining the CLSH faculty this fall.

Philanthropic support is essential to getting new ideas off the ground before they are far enough along to compete for major federal funding, says thoracic surgeon Jonathan D’Cunha, M.D., Ph.D., one of McCauley’s research partners. “The support through this gift is going to pay huge dividends.”

A collaborative research approach

Together, McCauley and D’Cunha are investigating the use of targeted drugs on pathways in lung cancer cells. McCauley says of one of the compounds, “These are very specific. One such compound interferes with the cancer cells’ ability to make proteins, which they need to survive.”

McCauley and D’Cunha also are working together to develop a systematic approach to help doctors evaluate lung nodules found on X-rays and CAT scans—often the first indicator of lung cancer.

CLSH director Marshall Hertz, M.D., says that lung scans have greatly improved in the last 10 years. “We find way more spots than we used to,” he says, adding that once spots are found, doctors can learn more about the cancer through PET scans, biopsies, and ultrasounds. McCauley will play a major role in developing this program, which brings together pulmonologists, surgeons, oncologists, radiologists, and others. This team will also explore investigational opportunities to further advance this work, as nodule screening is expected to increase in popularity.

McCauley is also working with Peter Bitterman, M.D., a University professor, executive research director in the CLSH, and co-leader of the University’s Genetic Mechanisms of Cancer Research Program in the Masonic Cancer Center (MCC). Bitterman works to understand how genetic changes cause cancer and tests novel compounds, synthesized at the University, that are designed to correct these genetic changes. “Cancers hijack a key step in the gene expression pathway. We’re developing molecular and pharmacological treatments to regain control,” he explains.

Their research is currently in the pre-clinical trial phase and includes a broad range of faculty from the Medical School, College of Pharmacy, and the College of Science and Engineering, as well as researchers at Mayo Clinic, New York University, McGill University in Canada, and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden.

Part of the University’s broader team

CLSH members work in collaboration with many other University scientists and physicians to achieve advances in lung cancer research and treatment, including members of the University of Minnesota Masonic Cancer Center. Michael Maddaus, M.D., a professor and chief of the University’s Division of Thoracic and Foregut Surgery, is a driving force in lung cancer research. Other prominent researchers include Robert Kratzke, M.D., and Arkadiusz Dudek, M.D., Ph.D., medical oncologists performing clinical trials on treatments for solid tumors, and Stephen Hecht, Ph.D., who leads the MCC’s Carcinogenesis and Chemoprevention Program. University scientist Dorothy Hatsukami, Ph.D., in the Department of Psychiatry, is also internationally known for her research in tobacco and nicotine prevention and control.

“We have a serious vision,” says Hertz of the University’s team-focused efforts to combat lung cancer. But the success of new treatments comes down to the ability to explore novel ideas—which requires seed funding.

“All new ideas need modest amounts of money,” agrees Bitterman. “The biggest advantage is getting that jumpstart. It makes a huge difference.”

D’Cunha wins national teaching award

Jonathan D’Cunha, M.D., Ph.D., a University of Minnesota assistant professor and thoracic surgeon, received the Philip J. Wolfson Outstanding Teacher Award from the Association for Surgical Education earlier this year. Presented to just four educators nationally, this prestigious award recognizes surgical educators who are considered by their peers and students to be “the best of the best.”

Special event

Herbert’s Hope—Sept. 10, 2011

Save the date for this lung cancer research gala, which will benefit the University of Minnesota’s Thoracic Oncology Laboratory and lung cancer research.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

A wonderful life

2011-06-15T16:00:00Z

Long-standing ties to the Medical School inspire couple to champion scholarships

By Kristine Mortensen

Trim in appearance and outgoing by nature, James H. House, M.D. (Class of 1963), a renowned hand surgeon, revered teacher, and enthusiastic ambassador for the University of Minnesota Medical School, describes the 50 years he and his wife, Janelle, have spent together at the University as “a wonderful life.”

“A year ago my heart stopped beating down in Florida, and I came home with a pacemaker,” House notes, to put things in perspective. “I’ve been very blessed in so many ways, and I think that staying connected to the Medical School has been a very positive thing for me.”

Both he and Janelle are from humble beginnings and value the opportunities the University has offered. Their gratitude is clearly evident in their philanthropy. Cumulatively, they have contributed nearly $500,000 to the Medical School in outright and planned gifts, including a 1999 donation of undeveloped land in Roseville to the James and Janelle House Scholarship and the James House Hand Surgery Education Fund.

More recently, the Houses accelerated a portion of their future estate gift by taking advantage of federal legislation temporarily permitting individuals over the age of 70½ to make tax-free distributions to charity from individual retirement accounts. Like their previous giving, these contributions reflect the couple’s desire “to provide a boost” for today’s medical students and residents and to inspire philanthropy in others.

True dedication

The studious farm boy from Woodlake, Minnesota, was smitten the moment he met the attractive home economics student at South Dakota State in 1957. Jim House graduated and entered medical school at the University of Minnesota the following year, and the couple married in 1961 after Jan completed her degree in child development.

House excelled in Medical School, was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society in his third and fourth years, graduated as the valedictorian of his class, and in 1968 joined the faculty as a professor of reconstructive hand surgery.

His interest in orthopaedics stemmed in part from personal experience; he had polio when he was 10. “I think that gave me a little empathy for children with musculoskeletal deformities,” he says.

As a teacher of anatomy, House has trained hundreds of orthopaedic residents and taught nearly every medical student at the University over the past half century—including Jonathan Herseth, M.D. (Class of 2010), and his father, Ralph Herseth, M.D. (Class of 1974). “Dr. House is a true gem,” says the younger Herseth, recipient of the House scholarship in 2008 and now an orthopaedic resident. “There are few who have the enthusiasm and dedication to teaching that he has maintained for many years.”

House became active in fundraising in 1988. It was the 100th anniversary of the Medical School, the 50th anniversary of the Minnesota Medical Foundation (MMF), the 25th anniversary of House’s graduation from Medical School, and his 50th birthday. “It seemed like it was time to get involved,” he says.

In the years since, House has helped MMF raise tens of millions of dollars for medical and public health scholarships. In recognition of his contributions, he was one of three Medical School graduates honored with MMF’s inaugural Alumni Philanthropy and Service Award in 2010.

“It makes you feel good to be able to help somebody,” says House. “And the little personal notes of thanks from the students mean a lot.”

To support Medical School scholarships, contact Holly McDonough Gulden at 612-625-8758 or h.gulden@mmf.umn.edu.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Transfer taxes and your estate planning

2011-06-15T15:00:00Z

Last December Congress passed legislation that exempts all but a tiny fraction of Americans from gift and estate taxes. But the 2010 tax relief act comes with an expiration date. Under the new law, individuals are able to transfer up to $5 million (or $10 million per married couple) to their heirs free of gift or estate taxes through December 31, 2012. Then, unless Congress acts again, the exemption will revert to $1 million, and the top tax rate will return to 55 percent (vs. 35 percent under the new law).

Now is a good time to review wills and trust arrangements to determine how these recent tax changes may affect you. Be sure to have your attorney review any estate plans linked to the federal estate tax exemption to ensure that future changes won’t disrupt your intended distributions to family and charities such as the Minnesota Medical Foundation.

Federal ‘transfer taxes’

	2011–12	2013
Estate tax exemption	$5 million	$1 million
Top estate tax rate	35 percent	55 percent
Gift tax exemption	$5 million	$1 million
Top gift tax rate	35 percent	55 percent
GST* tax exemption	$5 million	$1 million
GST tax rate	35 percent	55 percent

* Generation-skipping transfer tax

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Building medical student success

2010-12-21T20:17:43Z

Boulger spirit inspires Duluth scholarships

James Boulger, Ph.D., professor of behavioral sciences and director of alumni relations at the University of Minnesota Medical School, Duluth Campus, is widely known for his commitment to medical students. But this year, the Boulger name became truly synonymous with boosting student success.

Last November, Medical School, Duluth Campus alumni Randall Card, M.D., Kristi Elliott, M.D., and Michael Heck, M.D., decided to honor the longtime professor, adviser, and advocate. With help from the Minnesota Medical Foundation (MMF), they asked their Duluth classmates to help build a major scholarship in Boulger’s honor.

In his letter to classmates, Card wrote: “If your experience was like mine, you’ll agree that Jim believed that everyone attending the UMD School of Medicine was special. In that spirit, I am encouraging everyone who attended the Duluth school to contribute to this scholarship.”

By December, a committed group of alumni, community leaders, and faculty had contributed more than $28,000 to help establish the James Boulger Endowed Scholarship. Pledges and gifts to the fund are now up to $160,000 and growing.

“I am honored to be remembered in this way by former students who are now friends and colleagues,” says Boulger. “Scholarships are so critical if we are to continue to accept those students most likely to fulfill the school’s mission to the citizens of Minnesota — and particularly those who are underserved in rural areas and in Native American communities.”

A family affair

Meanwhile, Medical School, Duluth alumna Stephanie K. Carlson, M.D., Class of ‘94, was devising her own plan to honor the Boulger name. In September 2009 the Mayo Clinic diagnostic and interventional radiologist pledged $50,000 in her estate plan to establish a scholarship recognizing Boulger’s son, James Jr.

A self-described sports enthusiast, Carlson met Jim Jr. when they both worked in UMD’s sports information office. Jim Jr. shares her enthusiasm for sports even though a form of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (MD) prevents him from participating himself.

Nonetheless, Jim Jr., now 43, has never let MD get in his way, says Carlson. “He was always positive and courageous.” The James Boulger Junior and Stephanie K. Carlson Scholarship, she says, is a way to help students and thank those, like Jim Jr., who have inspired her.

Another good turn

But there’s more to the story. Last February, at an MMF event in Rochester, Carlson was invited to speak about her motivation for creating the scholarship. James Sr., his wife, Dee, and James Jr. also attended and made a surprise announcement: They were pledging $25,000 to begin the scholarship immediately.

Carlson was thrilled. Just one month later, she matched the family’s pledge, adding another $25,000 to the current scholarship — for a total of $50,000 in active pledges and another $50,000 in the estate gift.

“Support from generous folks like Stephanie Carlson makes it possible for our students to attain their dreams of helping the underserved,” says James Boulger Sr. “None of us succeeds on our own.”

By Michelle Juntunen

To learn more or to support Medical School, Duluth Campus scholarships, please contact Michelle Juntunen at 218-726-6876 or [m.juntunen@mmf.umn.edu](mailto:m.juntunen@mmf.umn.edu).

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Leaving a legacy that matters

2010-12-21T17:59:29Z

Your annual gifts to the Minnesota Medical Foundation (MMF) make a real difference for children and adults suffering from diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and other devastating illnesses.

You can continue to provide ongoing support after your lifetime as well by remembering the foundation in your estate plan — for example, by including a bequest in your will or living trust or by naming the foundation as a beneficiary of a retirement plan or life insurance policy. The funds generated each year by your endowed gift will continue to advance world-class medical research, education, and care at the University of Minnesota.

With a bequest to MMF, a named endowment may be established to support scholarships, research, or a department or program.

For sample bequest language or to speak to a development officer at the Minnesota Medical Foundation, contact the Office of Gift Planning at 612-625-1440 or 800-922-1663 or visit www.mmf.umn.edu/giftplanning.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

A passion for their profession

2010-12-21T17:29:04Z

Couple’s planned gift benefits pediatrics, neurosurgery

Over 48 years of marriage, Drs. Betty Oseid and Michael E. Carey have shared a stimulating and fulfilling life — one that’s included three children and six grandchildren, two wartime deployments, leading-edge research, and Medals of Valor for each of them.

The University of Minnesota brought the Careys (Betty uses Oseid professionally) together. And by giving back, the couple has helped to ensure a healthier future for others.

Beginning their careers at the U

Betty and Michael met in 1960, when both were starting their residency training at the University. Bemidji native Betty Oseid had just graduated from the Medical School and was a first-year pediatrics resident.

“It was an exciting time to be in medicine, an era of great advances,” she says, citing the development of polio vaccines, promising new leukemia treatments, and surgical repair of congenital heart defects.

Mike Carey, fresh out of Cornell University’s Medical College, was in Minnesota to begin his surgical internship and residency before tackling five more years of training in the University’s Department of Neurosurgery.

Their grueling schedules actually brought them together. “We were often both on call,” Betty explains, “so we’d get together for a soft drink and talk.”

Military service sparks brain trauma research

Two years after they met, the Careys married, started a family and, following Mike’s training, moved to Hartford, Connecticut, for private practice. A year later, Mike was called to serve as chief of an Army neurosurgical “K team” in Vietnam.

Mike returned in 1969 and soon joined the neurosurgery department at Louisiana State University Medical School in New A passion for their profession Couple’s planned gift benefits pediatrics, neurosurgery Orleans, where he conducted research to improve treatment for nonlethal brain wounds.

In 2006, after the hospitals in New Orleans were devastated by Hurricane Katrina, he retired from LSU to become chief of neurosurgery at the VA New York Harbor Healthcare System in Manhattan. He stepped down in September to write a book on the history of wartime surgery.

Following his return from Vietnam, Mike had joined the Army Reserves as a colonel and served as a neurosurgeon in several Army hospitals, including one in Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Storm. In 2008 he was sent to Ramadi, Iraq.

Over the years, Betty worked at various medical positions, serving on the University of Connecticut pediatrics department staff and in public health clinics in El Paso, Texas, and New Orleans, where she joined LSU’s pediatrics department. The couple’s children — T om, Elizabeth, and Sarah — kept her busy as well.

Meanwhile, Betty’s support proved invaluable when radical animal-rights activists targeted Mike’s brain trauma research. For standing firm, even in the face of death threats, Mike and Betty each received a Medal of Valor from the American Medical Association.

Giving back to support research

For decades, the Careys have supported the University’s work in pediatrics and neurosurgery through the Minnesota Medical Foundation (MMF). In 2000, for example, they made a major pledge to help establish the Shelley N. and Jolene J. Chou Chair in Neurosurgery.

As part of their retirement planning, the couple also created three deferred payment charitable gift annuities that will benefit the Departments of Pediatrics and Neurosurgery; in the meantime, MMF will make regular payments to the Careys during their lifetimes.

“The medical field is vast and fastmoving. It’s important that researchers can use money the way they feel is best,” says Mike, discussing their support.

“Being able to find answers to medical questions is valuable,” adds Betty, pointing to University legends Robert Good, M.D., Ph.D., and C. Walton Lillehei, M.D., Ph.D., as stellar researchers. “Everyone benefited from their inventiveness. It’s so important to help, to provide the wherewithal to address the questions.”

By Karin Miller

Learn more by contacting the Minnesota Medical Foundation Office of Gift Planning at 612-625-1440, 800-922-1663, or giftplanning@mmf.umn.edu. Or visit www.mmf.umn.edu/giftplanning.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Making the most of a second chance

2010-12-15T20:51:13Z

U lung transplant recipient becomes a patient advocate, makes a planned gift

While skiing in Breckenridge, Colorado in, 1991, Ed Schuck found himself gasping for air, and it wasn’t just the altitude. Schuck, who was then age 51, was diagnosed with Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (Alpha-1) a genetic disease that can cause lung failure and liver disease.

Alpha-1 is caused by decreased or abnormal production of a protein called alpha-1-antitrypsin (A1AT), which is produced by the liver and protects the lungs from inflammation and inhaled irritants.

The debilitating illness was tough for Schuck to accept. “Because the lungs are the most robust systems, we take them for granted,” says Schuck, an active angler and ambitious businessman who didn’t like the idea of slowing down.

A University alumnus and engineer-turned-entrepreneur, Schuck had worked for Medtronic, Inc. and other tech companies, and had cofounded two successful companies of his own. “I’m kind of aggressive in pushing what I want to do,” he says.

But that drive and high energy conflicted with the realities of living with Alpha-1. In addition to drug therapy, Schuck would need a lung transplant.

Life with Alpha-1

For Schuck, life with Alpha-1 became a challenge. He would get winded easily and had to have an extra oxygen supply at night. “It limits what you can do,” he says. “When I was at my worst, I had to calculate everything—every step.”

Besides the challenges, Schuck says, his experience provided new insights.

For example, living with a lung disease carried a stigma and exposed him to the widely held assumption that people with lung conditions brought on their illness through their lifestyle choices, such as cigarette smoking. “I have a genetic disease; I didn’t do this to myself,” he says, adding that he hopes sharing his story will help educate people.

Also, while Schuck waited for a lung transplant, he took a drug called Prolastin to help replace the missing A1AT protein. The drug cost $125,000 per year. He says that exploring his treatment options taught him a lot about how drug companies make money and about the importance of medical research in improving treatment for lung-related illnesses.

In 2003, after living with the disease for more than a decade, Schuck was offered a second chance through a single-lung transplant at the University of Minnesota. “When I had my transplant, I had 12 percent lung function,” he says.

A second chance

Within weeks of Schuck’s transplant, his lung function and quality of life were profoundly improved. “It was a great experience. This is the place in the U.S.—maybe in the world—to get a transplant,” he says.

“In transplantation, it’s really a partnership between the health care professionals and the patient,” says Marshall Hertz, M.D., Schuck’s physician and director of the University’s Center for Lung Science and Health (CLSH). “Ed has done everything we asked him to. He’s just determined to do well.”

True to his ambitious nature, Schuck didn’t rest for long after his transplant. “It’s not what you can’t do—it’s what you can do,” he says. “Climbing a mountain is out. But I ski at lower altitudes.” And he now enjoys more low-key hobbies, such as restoring boats and collecting duck decoys.

Schuck and his wife, Judy, also enjoy traveling and visiting their two grown daughters and four grandchildren in Idaho and Australia. They recently returned from Australia and New Zealand, and they are planning a trip to South Africa.

“You look at each day differently,” he says. “I am here because I got a second chance, and I intend to take advantage of it.”

Becoming a patient advocate

That second chance also inspired the Schucks to help others suffering from lung-related illnesses.

Ed Schuck has served as a dedicated volunteer for the Alpha-1 Foundation and is committed to supporting the University. He and Judy recently made a gift of more than $140,000 from their estate to the University’s CLSH to promote and advance the center’s top-notch research, outcomes, and clinical medicine.

“I did so well after the transplant,” Ed says. “When I looked at [transplant] results, the University had some of the better outcomes in the nation.”

Additionally, Schuck joined the Minnesota Medical Foundation’s Lung Advisory Committee, where he is using his connections and business background to advance lung-related research and care at the University.

“People underestimate their input, their stories, and their voice,” Schuck says. “You’d be surprised what a small group of people can do when they’re focused on a mission.”

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Fostering growth through giving

2010-08-19T19:14:23Z

Professor emeritus and wife support U department through current and future gifts

Mark Dahl, M.D., a University of Minnesota Medical School alumnus and former dermatology department head, has spent 46 years as a dermatologist and researcher. That qualifies him as an expert in identifying and solving problems. “Dermatology is a field where I can see what I’m treating and how well the treatment works” he says.

Waning state support for higher education motivated Dahl and his wife, Arlene, to establish a deferred gift annuity and a future gift to benefit the University’s Department of Dermatology.

“The state doesn’t support the University as it should. The departments always need money,” says Dahl, who along with his wife, also recently made a leadership gift to an endowed dermatology resident education fund and make regular gifts to another endowed fund in the department.

Now a professor emeritus, Dahl came to the University of Minnesota as a medical student (Class of 1968). Later, he became a dermatology researcher and professor and from 1995 to 2000 was head of the Department of Dermatology.

Dahl says that his teaching experiences also inspire him to support the University. “People are going into medicine with the same ideas, values, and excitement that I had,” he says. “They’re interested in taking care of people and in science. These bright, committed students will make an impact and do something productive.”

Dahl developed strong ties to the University when, as a medical student, he received career guidance from his professors, including Robert Good, M.D., who helped to foster his interest in immunology and the study of disease. “I’m very grateful to the University for my education,” he says. “The U is a great place. It gave me a successful career.”

After completing his residency at University of California, San Francisco Medical Center, Dahl returned to the University to work in 1974. His research focused on immunology and dermatological aspects of infectious diseases.

Dahl stayed at the University for 26 years and says he thrived here because of the intellectual atmosphere and the faculty’s cross-disciplinary approach to their work and willingness to explore topics outside of their specialties. “It was fantastic,” says Dahl.

Ten years ago, when he wanted to try something new, Dahl joined the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona, where he works part time, though he has remained connected to the University of Minnesota as a professor emeritus. He plans to retire this year and is looking forward to spending time at his Norway pine tree farm in Ideal, Minnesota.

Although the couple has supported the dermatology department with many gifts over the years, making a planned gift for the long-term was important to winning financially and the University’s winning. “

When evaluating their estate plans, Dahl says that the couple’s two children (and eight grandchildren) came first, but the University was a high priority. “I’ve come to realize a lot about giving,” he says. “What’s important to me is teaching and mentoring and providing opportunities for personal growth. That’s a big thing for me in creating a lasting, living legacy.”

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.