Financial Aid Recipient Gives Back to Scholarships—While Earning Income for Life

Priscilla Carter Fort ’69 received an education both inside and out of the classroom at Smith. For her last three years, she lived in Tenney House, the co-op dorm on campus. “Living and working in Tenney was a unique form of financial aid at Smith,” she explains. “Sixteen of us earned our keep by rotating through a daily work schedule that included scrubbing tubs, baking bread and getting dinner for sixteen on the table every night.”  

For Priscilla, the Tenney experience provided not only enormous financial relief, but also life-long friendships and incomparable preparation for multitasking—“raising kids, running a PR business, serving on community boards”—later in life.

“It was an accelerated course in time management,” says Priscilla, “and for that, I shall always be grateful to Smith.”  

Knowing how critical it is for today’s students to receive financial support just as she had, Priscilla specified that the proceeds of the charitable gift annuity she set up for the college a few years ago be directed toward scholarship aid. While the annuity could have started paying her income for life immediately, Priscilla choose to defer that income until she was fully retired and more likely to need it. By deferring, she also gets a higher payout rate.

Why an annuity? “I wanted a gift that multitasks just as I did in Tenney: a gift with the potential to appreciate, a gift that starts working for Smith in my lifetime, a gift that yields income and tax benefits when I most need them.”

“But best of all,” concludes Priscilla, “is the feeling of satisfaction at giving back to Smith—and forward to future students. That’s a benefit that really works!”

To learn more about setting up an annuity as well as other planned gifts, visit our website or contact the Office of Gift Planning at gift_planning@smith.edu or 800-241-2056, option 5.

Grécourt Society member Priscilla Carter Fort ’69