The Lesley Van Ness YES Endowment
(Youth in Education and Sports)
This Donor Advised Fund was started by Lesley Van Ness's husband, Tom Van Ness in May of 2023. The purpose of the fund is to make annual distributions from the Fund to qualified U.S. based 501(c)(3) and other not-for-profit organizations, primarily to fund programs and projects that benefit youth education and youth sports.
Mrs. Lesley Van Ness was unlike any other; she commanded the room when she entered, the soccer sideline when her boys played, and any event with her radiant personality and passion.
The Lesley Van Ness Endowment for Broadcast Journalism Education. She was the first in her family to attend college and graduate discovering a passion for journalism and broadcast television. Lesley was not only blazing a trailway for herself, but for future generations of journalists to come. Her passion for journalism and career, which developed at Illinois State University, was unmatched. Lesley felt ISU’s program was as good as any in the country she recruited from. The second; The Lesley Van Ness YES Endowment. Raising two young boys; Lesley and her husband loved a community that supported its youth and programs focused around their youth.
Lesley’s husband and two boys and generations to come are excited to provide grant funding for initiatives that support the communities’ youth in either sports or education.
Click below to donate online. Make checks out to Morton Community Foundation and write LVN YES in the memo. Mail to: 135 S First Ave, Morton, IL. 61550. For other ways to give, CLICK HERE