December 3, 2011; Source: Magic Valley Times News | Each of 10 Idaho nonprofits has received a donation of $237,000 from the estate of Norah Andersen, 87, a woman who worked in a frozen food factory and lived in a double-wide trailer. Andersen, who died in September, was a child of the depression and was reportedly frugal her whole life. Saving and investing resulted in a nest egg of $2.3 million. The ten charities that received the money say that they had no idea it was coming. The groups included a church, a homeless shelter, a transitional housing facility, and a program that provides housing for children in child protective services cases. A number of the groups were so taken by surprise that they have not yet made decisions about where the money will go.—Ruth McCambridge
About The Author
Ruth is Editor in Chief of the Nonprofit Quarterly. Her background includes forty-five years of experience in nonprofits, primarily in organizations that mix grassroots community work with policy change. Beginning in the mid-1980s, Ruth spent a decade at the Boston Foundation, developing and implementing capacity building programs and advocating for grantmaking attention to constituent involvement.
