Meet Susan Rick

Susan Rick is at the beginning of her philanthropic journey and is thankful to the St. Louis Community Foundation for helping her create a strategic plan for giving.

“People think that I’m young to be planning my estate, but none of us knows what tomorrow will bring.  It’s very comforting to me to know that this is taken care of,” she said.

Susan chose to work with the Foundation because of their years of stable stewardship and the flexibility that their funds offer.  She set up both a donor advised fund and a scholarship fund.

The donor advised fund is intended to help small organizations that have a focus on helping animals or the natural environment.

“The amount of money I have is not going to do a tremendous amount of good for a big organization.  I decided that I would rather help small, local groups where a few thousand dollars means they can improve their facilities or do a project,” she said.

Because her career has been in an agriculture-related field, her scholarship fund is will provide educational support to females interested in those studies.

“It was just expected that girls would either be a nurse or a teacher when I graduated high school. No one talked about opportunities in agriculture.  If there are programs or scholarships available, it might give some of the girls the thought that there are jobs for them in this field,” she said.