A Legacy of Safety: Why Planned Giving Matters to the Future of Genesis
How one future gift can help transform lives for generations of women and children escaping domestic violence.
Every woman who reaches out to Genesis Women’s Shelter & Support takes a brave step toward safety. Sometimes that first step is a late-night call to the Genesis 24-hour helpline. Sometimes it is arriving at shelter with children in her arms and only the belongings she could carry. Sometimes it is sitting across from an advocate, a therapist or an attorney and saying, perhaps for the first time, “I need help.”
For four decades, Genesis has been there in those moments—offering free, confidential safety, shelter, counseling, legal services, advocacy, children’s services and long-term support to women and children experiencing domestic violence. But the need is not temporary, and neither can our commitment be. Planned giving helps ensure that Genesis will remain ready, resourced and responsive for every survivor who needs a path to safety today, tomorrow and for generations to come.
What Is Planned Giving?
Planned giving, sometimes called legacy or estate giving, is a way to make a charitable gift through your financial or estate plans. Unlike an annual gift made today, a planned gift is often arranged now and fulfilled later—most commonly through a will, trust, retirement account, life insurance policy or other beneficiary designation.
The most common planned gift is a bequest, which is simply language in your will or living trust that directs a specific amount, a percentage of your estate or the remainder of your estate to a nonprofit organization after your lifetime. Other planned gifts may involve naming Genesis as a beneficiary of a retirement account or life insurance policy. In many cases, planned giving allows donors to make a meaningful future gift without changing their day-to-day finances today.
Because every family and estate plan is different, donors should speak with their attorney, financial advisor or estate planning professional to determine the option that best reflects their wishes. Genesis can provide information about how to include the organization in your plans, but your professional advisors can help you make decisions that fit your personal, financial and family goals.
Why Planned Giving Is Critical to the Future of Genesis
Domestic violence is not a short-term crisis. It is a deeply rooted public health issue that affects families, workplaces, schools, neighborhoods and entire communities. Survivors often need far more than a safe place to sleep. They may need trauma-informed counseling, help navigating the legal system, support rebuilding financial stability, services for children who have witnessed violence and ongoing advocacy as they begin again.
Genesis provides this continuum of care at no cost to clients. That promise requires dependable resources—not only for the urgent needs of today, but also for the future needs we know will come. Planned gifts create a foundation of long-term stability that allows Genesis to keep its doors open, sustain essential services, invest in innovation and respond to changing community needs with courage and care.
When donors include Genesis in their estate plans, they are doing more than making a financial decision. They are making a statement of belief: that women and children deserve to live free from abuse; that healing is possible; and that ending domestic violence requires sustained, generational commitment.
How Legacy Gifts Help End Domestic Violence
Ending domestic violence requires intervention at every level. It means providing immediate safety when a survivor is in danger. It means helping a mother and her children recover from trauma. It means giving survivors access to legal protection, economic stability and long-term support. It also means educating the community, changing systems and breaking cycles of violence before they continue into the next generation.
Planned giving makes that future possible because it gives Genesis the ability to think beyond the next fiscal year. Further, such gifts can help sustain core services, strengthen programs for children, expand trauma-informed care, support prevention and education, and preserve the organization’s ability to say “yes” when survivors need help most.
In that way, a planned gift is both practical and visionary. It helps meet the immediate needs of women and children while also building the future conditions necessary for safety, healing and prevention.
A Client Story: From Survival to Possibility
When “Elena” first contacted Genesis, she was exhausted from trying to keep herself and her children safe. For years, every decision in her home had been shaped by fear—what to say, when to speak, how to protect the children from the next outburst. Leaving felt impossible until the danger became too great to ignore.
At Genesis, Elena found more than shelter. She found advocates who helped her understand her options, therapists who helped her begin to process the trauma, legal support that helped her pursue protection and children’s services that helped her kids feel safe enough to laugh, learn and sleep through the night again. For the first time in a long time, Elena could imagine a future that was not defined by abuse.
Over time, she began rebuilding. She saved money, found steady work, enrolled her children in school and moved toward independence with a support system beside her. The transformation did not happen in a single moment. It happened because Genesis was there at every step—with safety in crisis, trauma-informed care in healing and practical support for the future.
Stories like Elena’s are possible because people choose to give. Annual gifts help keep services available today. Planned gifts help make sure those same life-changing services will be here for the next Elena, and the next family, and the next generation.
Simple Ways to Include Genesis in Your Plans
There are several ways to make a planned gift to Genesis. A donor may choose to:
Include Genesis Women’s Shelter & Support in a will or living trust.
Name Genesis as a beneficiary of a retirement account, IRA or life insurance policy.
Designate a specific dollar amount, a percentage of an estate or the remainder of an estate after loved ones are provided for.
Discuss other charitable planning options with an attorney or financial advisor.
Planned giving is not only for those with great wealth. It is for anyone who wants their values to live on through the causes they care about. Even a small percentage of an estate can create lasting impact when joined with the generosity of others who believe in the mission.
Learn More About Leaving a Legacy of Safety
If you are considering including Genesis in your estate plans, we would be honored to talk with you. Genesis can provide information to help you and your advisors ensure your future gift reflects your wishes and supports the mission you care about.
To learn more about planned giving or to let us know you have already included Genesis in your plans, please contact Maria MacMullin, Chief Impact Officer at Genesis Women’s Shelter & Support, through the planned giving inquiry form on the Genesis website or by reaching out to Genesis directly at 214-389-7729 or mmacmullin@genesisshelter.org.
Your legacy can help ensure that safety, shelter and support remain available for women and children long into the future. By planning today, you can help create a tomorrow where more families are safe, more survivors are free from abuse and domestic violence no longer has the final word.