The Hartford County Bar Foundation, Inc.

2008 Annual Appeal

December 7, 2007

Dear Colleagues and Friends:
Since I wrote you a year ago, the Hartford County Bar Foundation continues to provide a backpack filled with food to the little girl I described in last year’s letter every Friday after school. Remember, she was a child who would otherwise go hungry between free school lunch Friday and breakfast at school Monday morning.

This year, the Foundation has also helped an immigrant who spent his life’s savings to travel to the United States, but arrived in Hartford last winter with only a T-shirt, shorts and sandals. Without knowledge of English, a warm coat, boots or a cane to alert others that he is blind, the man badly needed our support. The Foundation was there to help women like the mother who snuck away with her small children to escape a physically abusive relationship leaving all their material possessions behind and the pregnant teenagers who hope to complete high school and keep their babies. Similarly, we supported disabled and elderly people who otherwise faced the choice of buying needed medication or eating and homeless women and men trying to survive another New England winter.

These are just a few of the many needs that exist in our own backyards. Food Share estimates that 100,000 people living in Hartford County will turn to a private charity for food this year. This is not surprising since a family of four earning $20,650 this year is considered to be above the “poverty line” by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Private philanthropy is vital to the well being of our less fortunate neighbors in Greater Hartford.

Are you ready to scratch a check? If you are, please let me tell you why “Hartford County Bar Foundation” should follow “pay to the order of.” The top 5 reasons:

#5. Gifts are deductible: The Hartford County Bar Foundation is a 504(c)(3) corporation and gifts are tax deductible.

#4. Gifts are representative: A gift to the Hartford County Bar Foundation shows the community that its lawyers care about their less fortunate neighbors and help the community as a whole, in addition to one client at a time.

#3. Gifts touch local needs: The Hartford County Bar Foundation serves the people of Greater Hartford. We do not make gifts to serve the needs of people living outside of Connecticut and rarely have given to those outside of Hartford County.

#2. Gifts are targeted: The Hartford County Bar Foundation has a mandate to address the fundamental needs of the community. Your money would provide food, shelter, clothing and other items directed at meeting the basic needs of our neighbors. Our past giving has shown a preference for aiding children.

The Foundation will not support the arts or award scholarships while people are hungry. We typically make small gifts addressed to a specifically defined need and to a reputable neighborhood or local organization. Since its inception on October 1, 1999, your Foundation has raised more than $178,000 for our neighbors in need.

Please review the enclosed brochure for examples of help the Foundation has provided in the past. (Click here for PDF file of Brochure.)

And, the NUMBER ONE reason to give to the Hartford County Bar Foundation:

#1. Gifts to your Foundation go where you intend: The Foundation Board and other lawyer volunteers give their time (lots of it). The Hartford County Bar Association’s wonderful paid staff gives their time to the Foundation. A greater percentage of money given to most charities is lost to costs. Your Foundation pays no rent and no salaries. Your Foundation’s expenses are very limited, the greatest of which are insurance and the printing and mailing of this request. As a result, to date the Foundation has given 94% of every dollar received to those in need.

It would be great to be able to issue a press release saying that every member of the Hartford County Bar Association contributed to the Hartford County Bar Foundation. Please spread word of your Foundation throughout your office and to your colleagues, clients and friends.

If you have kindly donated in the past, please consider increasing the amount of your gift. Every gift (including donations from and to honor non-lawyers) is gratefully accepted. We appreciate your generosity and thank you for making wonderful things possible.

May you and your family enjoy a joyous holiday season, good health and success in 2008. Thank you.

Sincerely,

James C. Wing, Jr.
Past President for the Officers and Directors of the Hartford County Bar Foundation