Monday, September 21, 2015
Staying True to Donors’ Wishes Beyond the Grave
Years after New York lawyer Sherman Day established a charitable fund to help poor and elderly married couples in the city continue living together, the fund’s officers had to admit they were stumped.
Times had changed, and there were now lots of seniors—including gay couples—who were living together but not married. The question: Would Mr. Day want to expand the mission to cover this new wave of senior lovebirds?
Alas, it was impossible to ask. Mr. Day died in 1944.
Instead, the board of the New York Community Trust, the community foundation where Mr. Day parked his fund, did some research. It discovered that while alive, he supported progressive causes including birth control. It voted to expand his fund to embrace needy, elderly couples of every stripe....