Jerry Donnelly’s commitment to students began as a staff member. Now, he’s giving with the future in mind.
Posted by PCC Foundation
PCC retiree Jerry Donnelly explains his motivation for including the PCC Foundation in his estate plans:
I didn’t grow up in a family with a lot of money. My dad worked in a factory that made steel bed frames, and my mom worked nights as a waitress. I was the first in my family to go to college. And it wasn’t easy.
My father died during my sophomore year, and I dropped out to help support the family. I eventually returned, taking classes when I could and paying my own way. It took me 11 years to graduate, but when I did, I earned two bachelor’s degrees at the same time.
I remember how hard it was to make everything work. That experience has stayed with me, and it’s one reason helping students has always mattered to me.
I came to PCC in 1994 to work in human resources and gave to the PCC Foundation through payroll deduction from the beginning. It wasn’t a grand gesture. It just felt like the right thing to do. And I kept giving after I retired.
Over the years, I’ve seen what giving can make possible for students. Through the PCC Retiree Network, I helped raise money to endow the Rose Scholarship. I put up a challenge gift, and within two weeks, other retirees had pledged enough support to fully endow the scholarship. That’s what’s possible when people lean in.
As I thought about my legacy, I considered the difference I could make. I chose students. And that’s why I decided to include the PCC Foundation in my estate plans.
Sometimes people hear “planned giving” and think you have to be wealthy. You don’t. My mother taught me that. Years after my dad died, she landed a full-time office job and began putting $10 from each paycheck into savings bonds. When she died, we found a whole stack of them. Ten dollars at a time had become thousands.
Small things add up. So do years of giving.
I know how much it can take to finish college. If I can make that path a little easier for someone else, that means something to me.
Improving other people’s lives — what else are we here for? You do what you can to help.
Jerry Donnelly retired in 2011 after 17 years in human resources at PCC. He remains active with the PCC Retiree Network and is a longtime champion of the Rose Scholarship, which supports students in their final year at PCC. He is also a member of the PCC Foundation’s Legacy Society.