Greetings from Christian Living Communities,
As we move into the month of August, I want to say thank you for the warm welcome as Director of Philanthropy. I truly am honored to be a part of the Christian Living Communities family. Honestly, it feels like coming home.
I am astounded by the generosity of residents, team members, families, and our CLC community. The impact you’ve made by sharing your time, talent, and treasures is astounding. The enhancements to resident lives are countless through gifts for gardens, music, art classes, enhanced sound systems, security improvements and so much more.
The support of our team members is unlike anything I’ve ever seen in a workplace. Your contributions have provided scholarships for continued learning which adds to our resident experiences. You have provided emergency financial assistance for team members, mentor and leadership training, respite retreats and more that I’m still learning about!
I look forward to connecting with more fabulous people in the upcoming months. I’d love to learn what inspires you to give to CLC. As an opportunity to get to know me, I’ll share my inspiration for giving is to honor my mom’s memory. My mom was an incredibly generous woman who inspired me throughout her life with her generosity and huge heart.
The focus of my career as a fundraiser has been connecting people with endeavors that align with their passion. I’ve had the gift of working with a variety of visionary projects at Operation Christmas Child, Children’s Hospital Burn Camp, The Medical Center of Aurora, and Food Bank of the Rockies. For the last few years, I was at Covenant Living of Colorado, a continuing care retirement community. I had a lot of fun with our residents, and we partnered to improve our community giving impact in numerous ways.
On the personal side, I am a Colorado native. I grew up in southeast Denver and went to Cherry Creek High School. After attending Trinity University in San Antonio, TX, I returned to Colorado for graduate school at CU Boulder. My parents, Dick and Linda Manley, provided us with wonderful life opportunities and a passion for learning. My brother and I spend a lot of time with my dad and on summer weekends, I can usually be found riding my bike.
As I continue to learn about CLC, my goal is to build on our important mission to enrich the quality and dignity of life for older adults. One of the areas of our philanthropic endeavors that I am passionate about is our Compassion Circle. As a Compassion Circle member, individuals make the decision to leave a legacy gift to the organization. This ensures the financial viability of our giving for years to come.
Repeatedly I’ve witnessed the power of combining passion and mission; lives will be impacted. I can’t wait to continue the long-standing history at CLC of changing lives one by one.
Sincerely
Stephanie Manley, Director of Philanthropy