#planned giving

Planned giving is the underdog of charitable gifts. Often underestimated and underused, planned gifts have the potential to seriously grow your nonprofit’s long-term revenue. And, conveniently, anyone can make a planned gift.   When donors make a planned gift, they solidify their legacy and make a real difference in the world (and tap into valuable tax benefits). Yet many nonprofits struggle to…

Support for this show is brought to you by our friends at Bloomerang. Bloomerang offers donor management and online fundraising software that helps small to medium nonprofits, like First Tee of Greater Akron, a nonprofit that empowers kids and teens through the game of golf. After just one year with Bloomerang they doubled their unique donors, improved donor stewardship, and raised more funds. To…

Storytelling Retreats

Married since 1991, Mary Alice Wollam and Bob Brennan met while volunteering for the Conservancy in 1989.

We interviewed two longtime Conservancy volunteers, Mary Alice Wollam and Bob Brennan, a husband and wife team who met while volunteering on a Conservancy special tour.

“In 1989, I was helping to organize the Case Study House tour with my partners Annette Andreozzi and Tom Gardner, and we needed a volunteer photographer,” recalls Mary Alice. “A staff member called me with a name, which I wrote down as ‘Bob Somebody’ on a work memo pad.”

That note, now framed, hangs in Bob and Mary Alice’s utility room. Brought together by the Conservancy and a love of great architecture, the couple married in 1991.

Why do you continue to volunteer with the Conservancy?

Mary Alice: My first volunteer job (in 1984) was as a Bullocks Wilshire docent and this simply changed my life. My relationship with the building has lasted almost 34 years. I still give tours [of this building] to young people for the Conservancy’s Adventures in Architecture program. I never tire of being a docent and sharing local architecture and it always thrills me to visit to a new building.

Why did you join the Conservancy?

Bob: Ironically it was a mail solicitation...that was the genesis of me joining. The enticing images of Los Angeles building details, mostly of the Fine Arts building, spurred me into opening the envelope and digesting the contents. And I joined!

I wanted to be part of the solution, not the problem, and the Conservancy’s mission to preserve worthwhile architecture and history was then, and is now, of fundamental importance.

Why is Conservancy membership important?

Mary Alice: There is so much about Los Angeles to appreciate—the history, the people, the architecture, visiting buildings and neighborhoods... and the fact that Los Angeles, whether in person or via books, continually unfolds to reveal new surprises. I grew up in Tujunga and remember driving around Los Angeles with my family. We bought our Christmas trees right off the train cars near Alameda, we ate dinner at the Tick Tock and browsed at the Pickwick Bookshop. The Los Angeles Public Library was always a source of inspiration and comfort. 

What do you feel the Conservancy brings to the preservation conversation in Los Angeles?

Mary Alice: Conservancy education programs serve as a gateway for people to think about preservation. Docents give tourgoers the tools to see and understand buildings, neighborhoods, architectural styles, and social and cultural history, all of which inspire people to think about the vital role that the built environment plays in their lives and the life of the community.

Why have you chosen to be a member of the Conservancy’s planned giving program, Pillar Society?

Mary Alice: Between us, Bob and I have spent about sixty-five years as Los Angeles Conservancy members. We belong to the Pillar Society so our interest in preservation will continue in the future.

Bob: I have always wished that more Angelenos would find out about our history and culture, and cherish it. And be active Conservancy members! May the Conservancy always be the foremost advocate of preserving our architecture, our history, our culture!

Mary Alice leads an Adventures in Architecture tour of the former Bullock's Wilshire building, now Southwestern Law School. July 2018.

Become a Pillar: Join the Pillar Society

Just as pillars support buildings, members of the Conservancy’s Pillar Society substantially support our efforts to protect L.A.’s historic and culturally significant places.

The Conservancy established the Pillar Society to acknowledge those who have executed estate plans to leave the organization with a legacy gift. These legacy gifts will make a significant and lasting contribution to our cultural heritage by allowing the Conservancy to continue to recognize, preserve, and revitalize the architectural and cultural resources of Los Angeles County for generations to come.