Donor Stories

Gift Planning for Her Future - and Ours

Catherine Prato has lived 76 of her 80 years in Walnut Creek, and she has been a donor to the John Muir Health Foundation every year since 1991. In December, 2006, she made a Campaign gift of $25,000 (partially funded by a special tax-free IRA withdrawal, called a charitable rollover) and named the Foundation as a beneficiary of a charitable remainder trust in her estate. So when she speaks about the perpetual need for community support of quality local healthcare, she speaks from personal experience-and the heart.

"Good medical facilities are very important in a community," says Prato. "Besides food, clean air and water, and a roof over our heads, one of the things we need most is medical care. This area is growing and we certainly have greater needs. It's important to have an excellent medical facility like John Muir and it's a worthy place to contribute to."

Prato, a retired UC Berkeley microbiologist, still resides in the house her father built in the 1940s, on what was originally a 10-acre plot. Back then, the area "was just farmland and ranches," she recalls.

That was also an era "when there was no hospital in town," she adds, noting the significant contributions that John Muir has since made to the community. "From the beginning, they kept up with the latest in medicine and medical technology."

Doing what she can to help John Muir Medical Center stay at the leading edge of its field is something that has inspired Prato's generous donations, but so is her desire to make strategic investments. Her planned gifts, an IRA Charitable Rollover and a charitable remainder trust, have provided terrific tax savings for her. As Prato simply puts it, "A planned gift to John Muir Health Foundation is a good way of getting more use of my money while also knowing that I'm supporting something worthwhile."

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