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The Hastings Center Beneficence Society

Credited by many as having founded the field of bioethics, The Hastings Center has invested more than 50 years addressing complex challenges at the intersection of health, science, and technology—including issues of aging populations, health care access, growing financial inequality, and the wise use of emerging technologies such as gene editing, brain-computer interfaces, and artificial intelligence in health care.  

Like you, The Hastings Center cares deeply about these issues—about how they impact the future for us, our children, and generations to come. We are committed to expanding our research capacity while raising the profile and public impact of our collaborative outcomes.  

The importance of this work today—and its profound implications for the future—has prompted some of The Hastings Center’s most loyal contributors to seek practical and meaningful ways to include The Hastings Center in their charitable estate planning.

For a variety of reasons, generous people like you have not only made charitable gift plans designed to generate impactful outcomes for The Hastings Center, but also have shared pertinent details about those plans with us in advance, such as a methodology, amount, timing, and purpose that reflect their particular circumstances, preferences, and estate planning objectives. 

The Hastings Center seeks both to honor and recognize such thoughtful individuals and encourage others to emulate them. In fact, one of our benefactors recently created a challenge fund especially for this purpose. Please read on to learn more about The Hastings Legacy Challenge Grant.

 The Hastings Center Beneficence Society 

The Beneficence Society—named after a foundational bioethical principle denoting the desire and intent to “do good”—comprises benefactors who are acting today to secure the bioethical practices of tomorrow. By joining, you help to ensure that the values at the core of the Center’s mission continue to inform the rapidly evolving fields of health, science, and technology—now and in the future.  

Members of The Beneficence Society may include The Hastings Center in their estate plans, wills, revocable trusts, donor advised funds, retirement plans, charitable remainder trusts, life insurance policies, and other planning vehicles. Some “planned gifts” to The Hastings Center can be relatively easy to arrange, most offer significant tax benefits, and all can be used to accomplish various estate planning goals. Some planned gifts can be fully revocable, offering flexibility for members wishing to change their plans if necessary. 

However you choose to plan your gift, The Beneficence Society allows us to recognize you today for your intentions to fulfill our shared vision for Hastings’ enduring mission.

Members of The Beneficence Society
Anonymous
Barbara and Raymond Andrews
Adrienne Asch
Shirley Bach
Janie Elizabeth Bailey
K. Danner Clouser
Richard and Margaret Cross
Irene Crowe
Alan Fleischman
Bradford H. Gray
Barbara Kummerer
Ann Margaret Mayer [click to read “Why I Give”]
John W. Morris
Timothy Morris [click to read “Why I Give”]
Arno Motulsky
Robert Pearlman [click to read “Why I Give”]
Nancy Press [click to read “Why I Give”]
Blair & Georgia Sadler
Ryan Sauder
Millie Solomon
Elise Stern
Benjamin Wilfond [click to read “Why I Give”]
Sarah Yarmolinsky

Future Bequests Can Unlock Matching Gifts Today—Legacy Gift Challenge!


Right now, The Robert W. Wilson Charitable Trust is generously sponsoring a legacy challenge that will make new bequests to The Hastings Center even more impactful. Gift intentions formalized after September 1, 2021, and accompanied by this simple downloadable Hastings Legacy Challenge Grant Response Form, will trigger an immediate contribution by the Trust to The Hastings Center’s annual fund: either 10% of the anticipated future value of the gift intention (up to $20,000 per bequest) or $1,000 if the anticipated future value is not known or shared. Chief Advancement Officer Ryan Sauder (sauderr@thehastingscenter.org) is happy to answer questions and provide additional details about this exciting opportunity to further secure The Hastings Center’s long-term impact.


We strongly urge you to seek professional guidance from a qualified adviser, tax professional, or estate attorney for matters involving your charitable estate planning, charitable tax benefits, and other issues particular to your own financial circumstances.

If you have questions about membership in The Beneficence Society, please contact Ryan Sauder, Chief Advancement Officer at The Hastings Center (sauderr@thehastingscenter.org; 1-845-424-4040 ext. 257). 

Benefits of the Society 

Perhaps you, like many other people, seek the satisfaction of knowing that the causes about which you care most will carry forward into the future. The Beneficence Society demonstrates support for the best of what we do at The Hastings Center and combines it with a shared vision for the future. 

Please let us know that you have included, or intend to include, a planned gift to The Hastings Center in your estate plans so that we can enroll you in perpetuity as a member of The Beneficence Society. In recognition of your foresight, vision, and generosity as a member of the Society, you are eligible for the following benefits: 

  • Public acknowledgment for members who give permission to list their names in the Center’s annual report and an inscribed leaf on The Hastings Center Giving Tree prominently displayed in our lobby;  
  • Special Beneficence Society Subscription Rate for one of our journals, The Hastings Center Report or Ethics & Human Research
  • A lapel pin indicating your membership in The Hastings Center Beneficence Society; 
  • Periodic Beneficence Society mailings on gift planning and invitations to lectures or other events; and 
  • Pride in the knowledge that you will be supporting The Hastings Center in your lifetime and beyond. 

Sharing Your Planned Gift Intentions 

To become a member of The Beneficence Society, please fill out the form below, or, if you prefer, print the documents at the bottom of this page and return them to Ryan Sauder, Chief Advancement Officer at The Hastings Center, via fax (845-424-4545) or mail (21 Malcolm Gordon Road, Garrison, NY 10524-4125). 

He then will contact you to verify your membership. 

Fill out my online form.