For the past 10 years, while serving as conductor of the Germantown Performing Arts Center Youth Symphony, Jonathan Schallert has zealously shared his love of music with GPAC’s company of young musicians.

This fall, Schallert was able to share another gift with his ensemble of budding artists. Through the Schallert Family Fund that Jonathan and his wife, Mary Catherine, established at the Community Foundation, they helped purchase new instruments for the Youth Symphony and provided funding toward a tour the symphony has planned later this year.

“We are able to make a significant gift to a cause that’s near my heart only because of the generosity of my grandfather, Herb Chinworth,” Jonathan says. “We’re a young family, with three kids under six and me still working toward a doctorate in music. We’re not wealthy. But Grandpa Herb wanted all his grandchildren to know the joy of charitable giving.”

Herb Chinworth was a chemical engineer at Dow Chemical for more than 40 years. During his lifetime, Chinworth made gifts to many community organizations and educational institutions. Before his death in 2017, he established a Charitable Lead Annuity Trust (CLAT) that enables each of his 11 grandchildren to name the recipients for his or her share of the CLAT’s annual charitable distribution.

“I was surprised at the size of my share,” Jonathan says. “It is generous, and we wanted to use it wisely. So, we asked The Community Foundation for advice.”

Working with the Community Foundation has introduced the Schallerts to new ideas on how to maximize their distribution’s potential, Jonathan says. “The Foundation’s staff showed us how to hold back some of the funds and let them grow. We’ll invest them for 10 years, and by then we can make sizable contributions using the interest. Plus, our own children will be old enough to participate in the decision making. And my grandfather’s wonderful legacy of giving will be instilled in another generation of his family.”

Excerpted from the 2018 Community Foundation Annual Report