Tad and Nancy Jeffrey Family Fund for Adirondack Journalism reflects a couple’s love of outdoors, desire to make a difference. Join them by making a gift to Adirondack Explorer’s Endowment Fund.
Tad Jeffrey was a passionate outdoorsman, woodworker and student of Adirondack history. His wife, Nancy, was a swimmer, extraordinary camp cook and entertainer who loved the outdoors, enjoyed the quiet but also learned all she could about the Adirondack communities around her.
Beyond enjoying the mountains, the Jeffreys sought to give back as much as they received from the Adirondacks. One of their generous gifts – an outgrowth of a chance encounter on an Adirondack peak – seems sure to make a difference for generations of Adirondackers to come.
“Both of them had deep ties to the outdoors. They loved feeling ‘off the grid,’” said their daughter, Betsy Jeffrey Balderston.
Every summer, the couple drove their children —Anne, Sally, Betsy and Andy — from their home in Ohio to the Adirondacks, for long stays at the rustic cabin at the Underwood Club, in North Hudson, that had been Nancy’s mother’s. Those summers instilled a love of the Adirondacks that would be passed on again to the next generation. On a wall of the cabin, a large map marked all the hikes the family accomplished, starting with Tad’s.
After Tad’s retirement at age 70, the cabin became their “happy place,” Betsy said, and they spent as much time in the seasonal dwelling as they could. They even winterized a room above the kitchen so they could spend New Year’s Eves there.
One afternoon in 2007, Tad hiked to the top of Baxter Mountain in Keene, where he happened to meet a fellow Williams College grad, Dick Beamish. Small talk about their alma mater quickly turned to Adirondack Explorer, the nonprofit magazine and Adirondack news organization Dick had founded nine years before. Soon the Jeffreys were subscribers, and then donors, devoted to the visionary mix of powerful journalism and stories of outdoor enjoyment that Dick had created.
Fortunately for the Explorer, Tad and Nancy passed along to their family not only a love of the Adirondacks, but also their commitment to supporting Adirondack causes for which they cared deeply. And in the fall of 2022, six years after Tad’s death and four years after Nancy’s, their children made a $500,000 gift from their parents to the Endowment of Adirondack Explorer, creating the Tad and Nancy Jeffrey Family Fund for Adirondack Journalism. The couple loved the Explorer and understood the importance of journalism that informs a growing audience of readers who care about the park as they did, and that inspires protection of the unique place that is the Adirondacks.
“They understood it’s the hardest money for organizations to raise,” said their son-in-law, Tom Balderston, now a member of the Adirondack Explorer Board of Directors. “Endowment resources provide a safety net for the future, if managed carefully and grown and stewarded very thoughtfully. They also support, hopefully, in small but growing degrees, the annual budget while preserving the principal for the future. Both Tad and Nancy understood that.”
Like many Adirondackers, the Jeffreys’ generosity was wide-ranging. They each made commitments to organizations in both of the communities where they lived – in Columbus, Ohio, and in the Adirondacks – and drew on their respective talents. Typically, Tad would help the organization with the investment side of the endowment; Nancy loved figuring out how to help an organization grow their support, calculating lead gifts – and those that would follow – like a puzzle. Then she would strategize with staff and other volunteers to organize meetings and events which would make the vision happen.
“She had the ability to say, ‘This is what we believe in, and we’re doing this,’ and people would follow,” said Betsy.
CREATE A LASTING ADIRONDACK LEGACY
Make a gift to Adirondack Explorer’s Endowment Fund
To become a Legacy Donor, you can make a gift now of any amount to the Adirondack Explorer’s Endowment Fund. Or you can designate the Adirondack Explorer as a beneficiary in your will, life insurance policy, retirement account, or other planned giving. Your gift will help to ensure that our future generations benefit from the Explorer’s comprehensive Adirondack news reporting, covering issues impacting the Adirondack Park’s environmental and economic vitality.
For more information, or if you would like to meet, contact Adirondack Explorer Publisher Tracy Ormsbee at tracy@adirondackexplorer.org | 518-891-9352, Ext. 1021.
I met them years ago when they made a gift to the hospital at which I worked. They were a lovely couple – he was charming and kind, she was very focused, poised and generous. I enjoyed meeting them and continue to think of them to this day. They definitely made an impact on me. I’m glad that the family made this wonderful gift in their honor.
– Jane Hooper, Elizabethtown