spotlight: garland and mollie lasater
Giving with Your Heart and Your Head
In regards to philanthropy, some argue that it’s a battle between giving with your heart or giving with your head.
Garland and Mollie Lasater, longtime Fort Worth residents, are advocates of a completely different concept – they are firm believers that you can do both.
Through their donor advised fund at the Community Foundation of North Texas (Mollie and Garland Lasater Charitable Fund), the Lasaters have fulfilled their philanthropic mission of strategically giving to the causes and organizations they care about most.
Garland said the Community Foundation gives them time to plan and dispense funds, makes them more responsible in regards to bookkeeping, and gives them the opportunity to be more creative in their giving.
“We are big believers in community foundations,” he said. “It’s a lay down hand for me. It’s so convenient.”
The Lasaters stood behind their words when they established the I Have a Dream Foundation Fund through the Community Foundation of North Texas in 1989.
For the past 21 years, this fund has not only helped area school children live out their dream of going to college with support and encouragement, but it has financially supported these students through scholarships until they have their college degrees.
Fifty-seven percent of the students currently in the program are on the honor roll, and one high school student is third in her class at Trimble Tech.
“That’s exciting,” said Mollie, a former school board president in Fort Worth ISD.
She shared another story of how strategic giving to the Children's Education Programs at Bass Performance Hall has turned into a “fun” and “heartwarming” experience.
More than 750,000 children have participated in the program since its inception. The Lasater’s philanthropic legacy expanded in 2009 when their son, Edward, established the Ellison and Edward Lasater Charitable Fund through the Community Foundation of North Texas.