United Way of Central Ohio today announced a generous grant by the Tad & Nancy Jeffrey Fund of the Columbus Foundation for $750,000. The grant, given by the children of Tad and Nancy Jeffrey, honors their mother’s legacy as a trailblazer and dedicated partner of United Way of Central Ohio.
As the first woman to chair a United Way of Central Ohio campaign in 1972, Nancy excelled at her role, leading the way to raise over $6.8 million to support United Way, its nonprofit partners and the families they served. In addition to being the first woman to chair a United Way of Central Ohio campaign, Nancy was the first woman to chair any United Way campaign above $1.5 million in the nation.
The generous gift was presented at United Way’s Legacy Lunch on Nov. 14 by Tad and Nancy’s daughters Anne Jeffrey Wright, Sally Jeffrey O’Neil, Betsy Jeffrey Balderston and son Andy Jeffrey, in absentia. Additionally, the family positioned the gift as a matching challenge to other major donors to incentivize giving toward the United Way endowment fund. This year marks United Way of Central Ohio’s centennial, which includes a $13 million fundraising goal to support Success by Third Grade and to increase its endowment by $2.3 million.
“United Way of Central Ohio’s board of trustees is committed to supporting ongoing strategies to continue to build the endowment, ensuring that we can help meet the needs of the community in perpetuity,” said Bob Tannous, chair-elect. “Thank you to Tad and Nancy and their family for making us even stronger for the next 100 years.”
The Jeffrey family’s generous gift is a significant contributor to reaching the endowment goal and inspired the creation of United Way’s Rainbow Chasers Legacy Society. The name, Rainbow Chasers, was chosen by the Jeffrey children and was inspired by a picture that hung over Nancy’s desk since the 1970s. The drawing dubbed Nancy and her team of fundraisers as Rainbow Chasers, in admiration of their dedication to and persistence in inspiring others to join them in helping those in need in the community. The Jeffrey gift carries out that legacy by modeling and mobilizing other community leaders and families to contribute to the endowment to build a stronger, more resilient United Way and community for generations to come.
