The Karen K. Pflederer Designated Charities Endowment Fund
Peoria Symphony Orchestra is one of the designated charities to receive annual grants from the Karen K. Pflederer endowment fund.
This fund was started in June of 2014 by the estate of Karen K. Pflederer. The purpose of the fund is to provide annual grants to 8 of Ms. Pflederer's favorite charities.
Karen Pflederer grew up in Morton and had a life-long love of music and nature. She graduated from Morton Township High School in 1958 and then earned a bachelor of science in education from Illinois State University. She later earned a master of arts in teaching literature from Northeastern Illinois University and continued her love of learning by taking additional graduate level courses. Professionally, she was a teacher in Indiana and Illinois. She returned to her hometown of Morton in 2002 and enjoyed gardening, music, reading and exploring the woods and creek in her backyard. She passed away in April of 2013 and left a legacy to seven Illinois based organizations and one out-of-state organization with an endowed fund at the MCF.
Those eight organizations are:
The Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation is one of the designated charities to receive annual grants from the Karen K. Pflederer endowment fund.
By establishing this endowed fund, Karen Pflederer created permanent sources of revenue for these charities. Her gift will initially provide about $33,000 annually to be distributed between the eight organizations. As time passes, the annual distribution is anticipated to grow as well.
“This gift is an excellent example of how someone can continue to provide financial support forever to charities and organizations they were passionate about during their life time,” Scott Witzig, executive director of the Morton Community Foundation, said. “I would be happy to talk with anyone who wishes to do something similar.”