DONOR SPOTLIGHT: KEN AND RUTH GILBERT

After years of thinking so strongly about accumulation, it’s not so easy to start to think about distribution. Ken and I have been incredibly fortunate... and that good fortune allowed us to arrive at the point of saying we have ‘enough.’ We want to care for our children and the organizations that matter to us.

In 2017, ICA staff members have had the good fortune of visiting ICA colleagues to share stories about ICA’s impact on their lives and talk about ICA’s current work.

We were most fortunate to visit Ken and Ruth Gilbert and eventually host them for the May ICA Board weekend. Over lunch, Ken and Ruth shared the story of their financial journey with ICA staff, board, and visiting colleagues, which ended with an unanticipated announcement of their gracious commitment to repeat their 2016 donation of $100,000 once a year for the next four years!
 
While Ken and Ruth don’t recommend the task of reviewing your financial decisions as the first way way to grow closer within your marriage, their story revealed a commitment to lifelong values. They started off describing their individual upbringings that had a focus on the value of giving. In their young adult years, their values brought them to the Order Ecumenical. Thought they didn’t have much money at this time, they were “rich in community, friendships, activities, and experience, and especially in making a difference—it all seemed important.”

​Long after leaving the Order Ecumenical and accumulating savings, they thought more explicitly about financial planning and what was enough to support themselves as well as care for others. 

Ruth shared that “after years of thinking so strongly about accumulation, it’s not so easy to start to think about distribution. Ken and I have been incredibly fortunate. . . . and that good fortune allowed us to arrive at the point of saying we have ‘enough.’ We want to care for our children and the organizations that matter to us.”
 
We were as moved by their story as we were by their commitment to ICA’s mission and future. 

We invite you to read Ken and Ruth’s full story at www.ica-usa.org/Gilbert_Story. We ask that you consider for yourselves, “how much is enough?”

If ICA/EI have shaped your life, consider giving back to ensure that ICA may continue to “care for human community and ways for people to participate in it.” Contact ICA Board Chair, Jim Troxel, at [email protected] about ways to give.