If you've been through the Publix checkout line in Naples, Florida, you may have met Ruth Stockinger.
How do you know? She's genuinely friendly, even though you've just met. She has an authentically positive attitude that leaves you feeling inexplicably happy. The biggest clue: As you pay, she invites you to donate to charity, then lets you select from a shopping cart filled with small prizes—purchased with her own money.
"The kids get excited, and the parents donate, so the whole community helps each other," explains Ruth, who works at the grocery store two days a week.
A Natural Fundraiser
Ruth has been at this kind of thing for a long time, starting with Hadassah nearly 30 years ago. Back in Richmond, Virginia, she was inspired by the activism of other Hadassah members. "I thought, ‘Gosh, she does this, and she's on that committee,'" Ruth recalls. "So when they asked if I'd like to sell cards and tree certificates, I said I'd love to."
Ruth didn't just sell, though—she made a little industry of it, putting together inviting displays and incentives. "The others said, ‘In four years of the chapter, no one could raise as much money as you did, Ruth!'"
It has long been important to Ruth to lend support to Israel—both financial and moral. "Ever since my first trip to Israel in 1969 as a kibbutz worker, I just fell in love with the country," she says. "I am an American, and I love my country, but ever since that first trip, I knew that Israel was home, too. I feel I am a link in the chain of Hadassah women."
Ruth was named Outstanding Worker for her chapter, and soon moved up through the ranks, eventually reaching the level of Keeper. But raising money comes naturally to her. "I genuinely like to do things that will make people happy, and I genuinely love Hadassah," she says. "It's not phony baloney. That builds excitement."
Helping Hadassah While Receiving Payments
Today Ruth and her husband have six grandkids upon whom they lavish attention—not to mention their beloved corgi, Ami Rose.
And her excitement for Hadassah's work continues. That's why she has created two charitable gift annuities through the organization. The gifts help support the future of Hadassah and provide her with regular lifetime payments today. (Read more about this gift inside.)
"I'd seen the gift annuities in the Hadassah magazine, and I said to my husband, ‘You know, this would be wonderful, because Hadassah would get the money, but we'd get a dividend, too,'" she says. "We'd still have a little something for ourselves while ensuring that Hadassah had the money. It's a little like the candy cart! Everything gets something."
Learn More
Contact Planned Giving & Estates at (800) 428-8884 or giving@hadassah.org to learn more about the benefits you could receive from a charitable gift annuity.