CCF Board member Ray Thomas and wife Sharon recently opened a Donor-Advised Fund to underscore their commitment to giving back to their Cobb community. Their family has a passion for charitable giving, and we sat down to talk with them about their charitable activities and their decision to open a new fund with CCF.
(Q) Sometimes making charitable donations is something we grow up with, and sometimes it’s a priority we set as an adult. What is your first memory about supporting charity work?
(A) Church offerings were the first exposure we had to charitable giving and provided our foundation. However, since graduating from college, we have been supporting and donating to charitable organizations. The scripture, Luke 12:48, “to whom much is given, much will be required” has been one of our guiding lights throughout the years. Since Ray was the first to graduate in his family, and knowing the financial struggles of getting through university, our first charitable act was the creation of the “Thomas-Burch Investment Fund” to provide financial assistance to children in our family who aspired to achieve a college degree, military training or vocational trade.
(Q) How have your ideas about charity evolved over time?
(A) They absolutely have! We initially started out small based on the size of our budget and grew along the way to where we now have several trusts and a recent donor advised fund established to support our various charitable causes. Beyond money, we also feed the hungry, cloth the poor, visit the elderly, and counsel the younger generation.
(Q) Ray, you currently serve as President of Mableton Improvement Coalition. How did you first get involved with the Coalition?
(A) One of our family’s core values is to get involved in the community in which we live and help leave it a better place than when we arrived. When we moved to Mableton in 2015 and googled local community organizations, Mableton Improvement Coalition was the first one that came up in our search doing the things we believe in, so we joined it. Through the Coalition’s activities, we met Carolyn Turner of H.O.P.E. Family Resource Center and were introduced to the Cobb Community Foundation.
(Q) What impact would you like to make with your new donor advised fund?
(A) We plan to bolster the fund and use proceeds to support causes in education, elder care, and family under God’s guidance.
If you’d like to read more about how donor advised funds work, visit our website here. If you’d like to learn more about how your charitable giving can be more impactful through a DAF at Cobb Community Foundation, contact us at CCFTeam@CobbFoundation.org or by calling (770)859-2366.
