Anna Orgera ’83’s Deferred Gift Annuity Will Provide a Future Income Stream for Her and an Unrestricted Gift to Swarthmore

Anna Orgera

Anna Orgera ’83 is still enjoying her career in human resources consulting decades after two Swarthmore College courses first led her down this path. “There was a course that I took with [Professor of Sociology] Joy Charlton on the sociology of work, and that course—plus a course I took with Jeanne Marecek [William R. Kenan Jr. Professor Emerita of Psychology] on the psychology of women—got me interested in the idea of the meaning of work to the individual.”

Orgera remembers visiting campus in the fall and being amazed by the beauty of the foliage and the feeling that Swarthmore just felt right. “But the driving force was the idea of a rigorous academic focus in a small community,” she says, “where you could really get to know your peers and your professors.”

Orgera has maintained a close connection with her alma mater since graduation—first by fundraising and advising students during their job hunts, then as a member of the Alumni Council. She sat on the Board of Managers when she served as Alumni Council president. “At many institutions, you only get to serve on the board based on your level of giving,” Orgera says. “I think Swarthmore values not only financial donations but also volunteerism, and therefore I had an opportunity that was really very meaningful and exciting to me.”

After many years of annual giving and supporting the Alumni Council Scholarship, and with her 35th reunion approaching, Orgera created a deferred charitable gift annuity at Swarthmore. “What struck me about the deferred gift annuity was that it was a win-win,” she says. “It was an opportunity for me to make a more substantial contribution to the College but in a way that benefited me from a tax perspective.”

Orgera was involved in many activities as a student. “I ran the Social Committee during my freshman year,” she says. “I was on the movie committee for three years. I was on the drama board and acted in a couple of plays. I co-wrote the Hamburg Show the last year it was done. I think one of the benefits of going to a small school is sometimes you get opportunities to be connected to the College that might not happen if you went to a larger school.”

Recently, Orgera’s connection with the College has been serving on the Council for Presidential Initiatives (CPI). “I’ve really enjoyed that opportunity," she says. “It allows you to get to know people who experienced Swarthmore at different points in time. You get to know people who were at Swarthmore during World War II or during the 1960s, and so that's been very interesting for me as well.”

Orgera has left her gift unrestricted to be used in the area of greatest need at the time. “There are times that I earmark gifts for a purpose, like contributing to the Alumni Council Scholarship or giving to the Lifelong Learning program or the Parrish Hall Renovation,” she says. “But with this gift, I really thought let me just give Swarthmore the flexibility to use this money however it deems fit.”

When asked what she might say to someone considering leaving a legacy gift to Swarthmore, Orgera says, “working with Swarthmore on the gift annuity was really a pleasure. I’ve had the good fortune of getting to know people at the College that I feel a warm relationship towards, and they made it very easy for me to make this gift. It was not at all complicated, so I would definitely recommend working with Swarthmore in this way.”