A Gift of Stock Translates to a Major Gain for My Sisters’ Place

Throughout their lives together, Carole and Bob have balanced compassion with practicality.

Recently, the couple made a significant gift to My Sisters’ Place to support the creation of overnight resting spaces for women in need. Winter brings added hardship for women already facing trauma, health issues, homelessness, and extreme poverty.

Through the ‘Winter is Coming’ campaign, My Sisters’ Place introduced overnight resting spaces—transforming the third floor into warm, secure, welcoming places where women can find shelter, community, and peace.

Bob and Carole have enjoyed a good life: a happy family, healthy careers, a comfortable retirement. Now they feel it is time to focus more on giving back.

Carole was raised on a farm near Strathroy, Ontario while Bob “grew up all over the place” before they married in 1971 and settled in London.

Carole spent 40 years as a nurse, caring for patients at the London Health Sciences Centre in departments ranging from the intensive care unit to veteran care to radiology. She retired in 2011.

Bob, an accountant who worked with small and medium-sized businesses, retired in 2019 after a career that spanned 50 years.

Together, they have two daughters. One is a teacher with the Thames Valley District School Board; the other followed in her father’s footsteps for a time but traded in her job in finance to run a bed and breakfast in Stratford, Ontario.

Once settled into retirement, the couple took stock and realized they had the opportunity to give something more to charities that are working to make the world a better place.

“I said to myself, enough is enough. We have enough to look after our needs for as long as we live. We can organize our affairs in such a way that we can help different charities,” said Bob.

For Carole and Bob, personal connections play a role in choosing a charity to support. An awareness of population health led to a donation to assist in the purchase of a MassARRAY System to simplify genetic testing at the Children’s Hospital; and Bob’s experience with a kidney stone led to a donation to help purchase a state-of-the-art ultrasound machine for the emergency room.

Regarding My Sisters’ Place, Bob had seen an item on the news about the program’s needs and heard about ‘The Ultimate Girls’ Night Out’ fundraising event to support overnight resting spaces, courtesy of CTV’s Julie Atchison and her onsite weather report the day before the event.

“Then, I had been talking with the team at the London Food Bank at Thanksgiving, and they mentioned My Sisters’ Place. And I thought, well there is another connection.”

They made their gift by donating shares, an effective way to support charities near and dear to their heart while benefitting from tax advantages. The charity receives the full value of the donation without the reduction that would occur if capital gains taxes were applied and it reduces future estate taxes.

“Throughout my accounting career, I encouraged people to take advantage of the tax benefit of donating publicly traded shares with high gains to benefit the charities we care about. It is a win-win,” Bob said.

In retirement, they plan to fully embrace this philanthropic strategy.

We are grateful to Bob and Carole for their support of My Sisters’ Place, helping to provide for women in need in our community. If you are interested in supporting My Sisters’ Place or CMHA TV, please reach out to donate@cmhatv.ca