The Creative Education Foundation (CEF) trains people in Creative Problem Solving (CPS) and other deliberate creativity and innovation practices. CPS is embraced by businesses and schools around the world, and we see people of all ages and from all industries at the Creative Problem Solving Institute (CPSI).
We couldn’t help but wonder, what if tomorrow’s workforce already knew CPS? What might be possible with more skilled innovators of all ages? In answer to these questions, we turned our attention in 2016 to bringing CPS professional development to public schools. There are 50.8 million students in the United States; imagine the creative power we could mobilize if we trained millions of students?
To date, we have worked with Georgetown Middle and High Schools, in Georgetown, MA, with the Manchester Essex School District in Manchester, MA, and with the Stamford Public School System in Stamford, CT. These schools have made multi-year investments with us. We want to work with more schools and with your help, we can do just that.
We have developed large-scale CPS Professional Development Workshops combined with in-class coaching, that allows us to train hundreds of teachers at a time. Our strategic plan outlines our initiative to scale educator and student training across the United States and around the world. We are poised to grow, and we face explicit capacity challenges to do so.
We have many willing and able trainers in our network who are excited to work with educators and students. By tapping our trainer network, we can scale exponentially. Before we do that, we need to enact and develop our strategic model for growth including standardizing education training materials and curriculum, and training our trainers for this education outreach.
Legacy gifts can come in any size and in many forms — from cash gifts to gifts of stock to gifts of property to estate planning. Jane Jensen is a dedicated donor who attends CPSI annually, and who makes significant annual cash donations. Her constancy provides a strong foundation for our growth. Jane tells why she donates:
“I donate to the Creative Education Foundation to support the work of educating the next generation of change leaders about the Creative Problem Solving process and ways to use CPS in their daily lives. I believe that my career path would have been very different if I had discovered CPS and CPSI sooner. What better way to use my resources than to provide the means for a young person to make that early discovery.”
You have invested in CEF because you know that the skill set, tool set, and mindset of creativity has helped you face challenges and seize opportunities. You know that you are naturally creative, and you have worked to become deliberately creative. Our Founder Alex Osborn created CEF because he knew that everyone is naturally creative. We have seen during the Covid-19 pandemic that difficult challenges often result in stunning adaptive creativy. What we can offer educators and students, on a large scale, is immersion in deliberate creativity training than can result in having millions of people trained to create the next significant innovations for social justice, the economy, for the arts, for politics, for industry, and for education. We can build a creativity movement with your support.
Mary Ellyn Viksta is a devoted CPSI workshop leader and regular and significant donor to our annual fund. Her annual gift comes in the form of stocks, which is an easy option for donating. Mary Ellyn sees our global vision:
“Creativity is an important aspect of my life. I feel the most alive when I am creating something or inspiring others to use their creative abilities. I donate to CEF because I want others to feel the thrill of creating and want to support efforts that will unleash the creative potential of every human being no matter how young or old.”
Join CEF as a Legacy Donor by making a gift of significance to you.
You can make a cash gift, a gift of stock, or donate property. Reach out to your Financial Advisor to include CEF in your estate plans or to learn about how to give your IRA disbursement. Please contact Beth Miller at bmiller@creativeeducationfoundation.org or 508-960-0000 x1 to talk about your legacy gift. Securing CEF’s financial health today will help us expand our CPS Professional Development for public schools.
Join us today — we are ready to do more to make the world a more creative place.
Legacy Benefits to You
There are many traditional ways to increase your impact through Legacy Giving to CEF that have different benefits for you.
- Control your assets during your lifetime while making a gift that provides an estate tax deduction.
- Eliminate tax on capital gains and receive an immediate tax deduction of full market value.
- Leave more for family by making a gift from highly taxed assets to avoid income tax and estate tax.
- Receive a current income tax charitable deduction and create an income stream for life or a term of years.
- Include CEF in your will or Trust.
- Contribute stocks or securities.
- Name CEF as a beneficiary of your retirement plan.
- Large income gifts such as a charitable gift annuity or charitable remainder trust.