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 William J. Wade Family Fund
William J. Wade has been affiliated with the Delaware Community
Foundation almost since its inception. As an attorney with Richards
Layton & Finger, Bill helped consolidate several small charitable
trusts from Wilmington Trust to the DCF. This provided the
Foundation with its first growth spurt, and also led to Bill’s
long-term commitment to the DCF.
Bill was a member of the Board of Directors for six
years, from 1993 to 1998, and served on the Development and
Executive Committees. He has been a generous supporter of the DCF,
contributing to the Board of Directors Fund and Friends campaigns.
In 1996 Bill decided to start his own fund at the Foundation.
He established the William J. Wade Family Fund with
a gift of appreciated stock, gaining an immediate tax deduction and
the ability to recommend gifts to his favorite causes. His plan for
this fund was to make gifts at the end of each year and to “give
more stock each year than the sum I give out in gifts.”
The fund has been good for his family, Bill said.
Each year, usually at Thanksgiving, his wife Barbara, and their two
adult children, Michael and Erin, discuss year-end contributions and
decide on the recipients. “We always make an unrestricted gift to
the DCF so the Foundation can meet the state’s most pressing needs,”
Bill noted.
He is confident his children will continue to
support Delaware causes when the Wade Family Fund is in their hands
“because they know what the community means to us.” Bill is a former
chairman of the Delaware Theatre Company and continues to sit on its
board, as well as those of the Christiana Care Health Plans and the
Wilmington country Club. Barbara, who in April received a Jefferson
Award Certificate of Excellence for her work with the Domestic
Violence Project, is now involved in volunteer activities at the
duPont Hospital for Children. Both Bill and Barbara are avid
golfers.
Bill is pleased with the DCF’s services and
investment management. Due to favorable investment results over the
years, and Bill’s regular stock donations, the William J. Wade
Family Fund has grown large enough sustain itself and his family’s
charitable giving far into the future.
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