Wednesday Luncheon is Charitable “Yes, Virginia” Organization’s Last, As It Achieves Goal of Establishing a $500,000 Endowment

For 25 years, the group called Yes, Virginia has held an annual luncheon to raise money to support its mission of supporting holiday toys for kids.

Yes, Virginia has been going strong in its mission to raise a $500,000 endowment so the organizations it helps don’t have to worry about future support.

Now with that goal within its grasp this year’s Yes Virginia Classy Sassy Boutique and Luncheon on Wednesday will mark the group’s final fundraiser.

But it’s not a sad goodbye, it’s actually the best news for which a nonprofit can hope, said Jennifer Fleming DeVoll, Pasadena Community Foundation President and CEO, which manages the Yes, Virginia fund.

“The goal was really to create a permanent source of support for the Yes, Virginia grants and the goal was to reach a half-million dollars,” DeVoll said. “We should do that with this, our final luncheon.”

There’s a legacy behind the name.

“’Yes, Virginia’ got its name from the famous published reply “Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus” 8-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon got from New York Sun editorial writer Frank Church in 1897.

Because children and families of little means should also be able to exchange holiday gifts, Yes, Virginia donates money to organizations that celebrate holiday gift-giving so that kids get toys and books .

The charitable organizations Yes, Virginia contributes to charities including Door of Hope, Treasure Little Children, Families Forward and Elizabeth House.

Elizabeth House takes pregnant women off the street and puts them through a nurturing and supportive program to help in a life-changing transition. The women can stay at the shelter for a few more months after birth and the organization helps the women find permanent housing.

“Yes, Virginia Fund has helped Elizabeth House for the past several years through providing our children with gifts at the holidays,” said Debbie Unruh, executive director for Elizabeth House. “Every year, we host a holiday party for over 300 of our moms and children, and the grant money we receive each year enables us to purchase educational books and toys so that our children have a Christmas gift. We depend on these funds each year, and for some of our children, it’s the only Christmas they experience.”

Different Tone at the Yes, Virginia Luncheon

This year, the Yes, Virginia luncheon will understandably take on a different tone as it is the last one. It is expected to be a wistful but extremely satisfying finale for an organization that existed with the sole purpose of raising money to give to nonprofits so they can provide gift-giving to families in need.

It is because of consistency for 25 years that the fund is self-sufficient.

“Every year we would raise money and make grants from the money that was raised and then save a little bit,” DeVoll said. “We would grant some, and save some to build to a half-million endowment.”

DeVoll said the endowment would then be invested and it would generate enough income each year to fund the grant-making for Yes, Virginia so that the group would be sufficiently capitalized.

The last Yes, Virginia luncheon honors Diana Rafeedie-Nofal.

“She came in to chair the 20th anniversary of Yes, Virginia six years ago,” DeVoll said. “And at that time the endowment for Yes, Virginia had reached about $210,000.

“The endowment, going into this year, was a little over $450,000, and we should be able to reach half a million this year. So we set a goal and we reached it and we’re going to use the invested endowment to continue to support the Yes Virginia program.”

The Pasadena Community Foundation holds and manages 360 different charitable funds. The investments are pooled and currently the groups says it has $90 million in assets. The Foundation says it contributes more than $1 million a year into the local community through these charitable funds.

“Most nonprofits would say it’s good to work yourself out of business,” DeVoll said. “But we have a lot of other initiatives. We launched a scholarship program recently for kids who are going to PCC. We have an initiative in the homeless services area. We focus geographically on Pasadena but we have had initiatives in environmental, education and now in human services area.

“We believe in building endowments so that these grant programs can be sustainable into the future,” DeVoll said. “Endowment building is a big part of our mission and goal, we call it ‘Building Hometown Legacies for Pasadena,’ so the grants can be perpetual.”

The Yes Virginia Classy Sassy Boutique and Luncheon is scheduled for Wednesday, November 6 from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Altadena Town & Country Club, 2290 Country Club Dr., Altadena. Tickets are $80. Click here to attend or donate.

For more about the Pasadena Community Foundation, visit https://pasadenacf.org/