This article originally appeared on www.jeffreybyrneandassociates.com
To the general public, tax benefits top the list of why people give to charity. But is that what motivated Joan Kroc to leave an estate gift of $1.5 billion to the Salvation Army—one of the largest gifts to a single organization?
In a 1998 article reporting how Joan Kroc gave $80 million that year to the Salvation Army's San Diego Corps for a community center, Joan recalled how her husband used to dress up as Santa Claus during the holidays and ring the bell for Salvation Army donations on the streets of San Diego.
Sure, the Krocs had known wealth, but what did the Salvation Army do to motivate what were at the time the two largest gifts the organization had ever received?