About the Organization

Established in 2022, the Betsy Brown Ruzzi Education Fund is a Donor Advised Fund created to honor the life and memory of Betsy Brown Ruzzi, who was active for 37 years in education policy. The fund honors her passionate commitment to education to support the causes she championed to continue their work. The fund was created to honor the life and memory of Betsy Brown Ruzzi, active for 37 years in education policy. Those closest to Betsy and those who admired her passionate commitment to education have joined together to create this fund, so that causes she championed can continue their work. Betsy’s full obituary can be found here.

SUPPORT THE BETSY BROWN RUZZI EDUCATION FUND

A MESSAGE FROM JOE RUZZI, HUSBAND OF BETSY

Dear Friends --

I want to thank all of you who called, sent us notes, and found other ways to express your sadness and support when my wife, Betsy, lost her five-year-long battle with metastatic breast cancer early in October. 

Typically, people diagnosed with stage four breast cancer are told they have only a short time to live. But Betsy researched the disease in her usual way, put together a first-rate medical team whose members had access to the latest research and care and put on her armor to battle. She was both optimistic and entirely realistic. Through surgery, radiation, and continual rounds of chemotherapy, she lived life to the fullest - sailing on the Chesapeake, traveling with me to Italy, skiing in France with her family, making holiday meals for 25 for our extended family, helping our daughter to move to Philadelphia, the site of her medical residency, and helping our son get started in his professional life. She did all of this, often in pain but without complaint. 

She was, in the end, surrounded by people whom she loved and who loved her - and they are many. 

Many of you have asked if we have plans to create a memorial for Betsy. That is why I am writing to you. While Betsy lived in many worlds, education was her abiding preoccupation all her adult life. So, it seems natural to celebrate and remember Betsy by setting up the Betsy Brown Ruzzi Education Fund. Through the Community Foundation of Anne Arundel County (CFAAC), we're creating a tax-exempt fund to make gifts to improve education in ways that Betsy would have chosen had she been running the Fund. We hope you might be interested in contributing to such a fund. 

Even more exciting, I am very happy to report that Vicki Philips, the new CEO of the National Center on Education and the Economy, has agreed to have NCEE match, dollar for dollar, all contributions to the Betsy Brown Ruzzi Fund up to a total for C of $10,000, and has told us that she might even be willing to contribute more. 

The Fund is being set up as a "donor-advised fund" in Betsy's name to which you can make tax.-exempt contributions. CFAAC will take care of all the administrative work while making awards from the Fund at our direction. Two of our current ideas for grants from the Fund are for 1) supporting an intern/ graduate student in global education research/benchmarking; and 2) supporting classroom teachers implementing new and innovative ideas in their classrooms. 

The Fund is set up and working. Use the link in this post to donate. 

In the meantime, if you have ideas about ways the Fund could honor Betsy and do some real good for students anywhere, please let me know by sending me a note at jmruzzi@hotmail.com. 

-Joe

SUPPORT THE BETSY BROWN RUZZI EDUCATION FUND

Many people like you are making tax smart donations with appreciated stocks and bonds, qualified charitable distributions(QCD) from an IRA, or a variety of planned gifts. For more information, please email John@CFAAC.org or call 410.280-1102 x103.

Should you wish to make a non-cash donation, CFAAC accepts gifts of appreciated stock for the benefit of this fund. To initiate this transaction, contact your broker with the number of shares of each security you wish to give. All gifts of stocks and bonds which are “DTC Eligible” can be transferred to CFAAC using the information below:

• Pershing, LLC Depository Trust Company (DTC) #0443 For the credit to: Pershing, LLC #4S2117401
• Account name: The Community Foundation of Anne Arundel County

PLEASE NOTE: Donor names are rarely provided when securities are transferred electronically. To ensure your gift is correctly allocated, please email Kathy@CFAAC.org with the gift amount and the name of the fund your gift will support.