Having benefited from the generosity of another, Beverly Jean Gerth decided to spread the spirit of generosity to others by creating The Beverly Jean Gerth Fund at a community foundation.

After receiving a gift of stock, Gerth initially thought about using some to the stock proceeds to make a one-time gift to her church. But then she learned that she could place the stock in an ongoing charitable fund at a community foundation, and decided that was the right giving option for her. "The idea that I could perpetuate my gift forever really appealed to me," Gerth says. "It feels good to know that my gift will keep on giving."

Bev has belonged to her church for more than 12 years. She taught Sunday school for nine years, and now volunteers in the church office. She says the church has always given her a great deal of support, "and I’m glad that I can now give something back, year after year."

Gerth also designated a second beneficiary of her fund: a nonprofit organization dedicated to fighting kidney disease. Bev’s mother died of kidney disease in 1985, after a long and difficult illness. Her mother was on kidney dialysis for seven years, and lived without a kidney for two years before undergoing transplant surgery. She went through a rough time after the transplant, Bev recalls with some difficulty. "My mother was a very strong woman to have put up with that for so long. I never realized just how strong she was until she was gone."

Bev hopes that her fund’s annual donations will help support new research to improve kidney transplant surgery techniques and treatment procedures, so that other kidney patients won’t have to suffer as much as her mother did. During her mother’s illness, Bev witnessed firsthand some dramatic improvements in medical technology — the time her mother needed to spend on the dialysis machine dropped from six to two hours per visit — and she hopes the improvements continue.