What will you leave behind? An ACES legacy, and a good reason to finally make your will
August is National Make-A-Will Month, an annual nudge to take care of something that is easy to put off and important to get right. Most of us know we should have a will. Many of us still don't. It rarely feels urgent until it does, and so it waits.
But a will is more than paperwork. It is one of the clearest ways to say, in writing, what and who you love. It protects the people who depend on you, and it lets you point your resources toward the things that shaped your life. For a lot of us, one of those things is a place: a campus, a college, a professor who saw something in us before we saw it in ourselves.
Few people understand that better than Lynette Marshall and her husband, Jeffery Ford.
A full-circle legacy
Before she became one of the most respected leaders in the country's advancement profession, Marshall earned a bachelor’s and master's degree at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and took on a role that had never existed before: the very first fundraising professional in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences. There was no playbook, and the job she built is, in many ways, the foundation of the work ACES Advancement does today. From there she went on to serve as the university's associate vice chancellor for development, and in 2006 she became president and CEO of the University of Iowa Center for Advancement, where she led the largest fundraising campaign in that university's history before her retirement in summer 2026.
Now, after more than 40 years in a profession she views as a calling rather than a job, Marshall and Ford are making that belief personal. They have chosen to leave a planned gift to the College of ACES, the place where Marshall’s own career began. It is a quiet, full-circle decision: the college's first fundraiser, ensuring that the work she helped start will carry on long after her.
A will is exactly this kind of act. It is a quiet decision, made on your own terms, about what your life adds up to and who carries it forward.
For those who feel a lasting connection to ACES, a gift in your will is one way to keep that connection alive. It costs nothing today. It can be any size. And it allows the college that shaped your path to keep shaping the paths of students who have not even arrived yet.
Making it simple
A will is not just for the wealthy, and it does not have to be complicated. In its simplest form, it lets you decide who receives what, care for the people and causes you love, and spare your family difficult guesswork later. Including a charitable gift can be as simple as naming ACES to receive a specific amount, a percentage of your estate, or whatever remains after your loved ones are provided for.
This August is a good moment to take the first step. If you have been meaning to get your affairs in order, let this be the year you do. And if the College of ACES is part of the story you want to leave behind, we would be honored to help you think it through.
To learn more about including ACES in your estate plans, contact the Office of Gift Planning & Trust Services, University of Illinois Foundation, 217-244-0473 or GPInfo@uif.uillinois.edu.