Connie and George Keiter create a philanthropic legacy at UCLA through bequests of property
By Samantha Masunaga
Feb. 1, 2012 1:33 a.m.
It only took a phone call from a friend to initiate Connie and George Keiter’s philanthropic legacy at UCLA.
Connie Keiter’s friend was raising money for UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Keiter was among the friends contacted for donations.
Her response? “Why not?”
Since then, the couple has been deeply involved with the Jonsson Cancer Center through donations and volunteer work. Their involvement at the university has also branched out to other departments.
Though the Keiters do not have a direct personal connection to the university, they fund an endowed chair in architecture and urban planning in the name of Connie Keiter’s father, a renowned architect, according to the Office of Planned and Major Gifts website.
Their final gift will be their high-rise condominium on Wilshire Boulevard, which will be willed to the university with proceeds directly benefiting the Jonsson Cancer Center.
Bequests of property are not an uncommon gift. In the past 40 years, the university has accepted a total of 200 gifts of real estate, said Rhea Turteltaub, vice chancellor for external affairs. The university has sold 148 of these properties, generating $101 million in revenue.
Donors can expect the sale of properties for specific purposes when they give gifts, Turteltaub said.
“Bequests are a large part of what we do,” Turteltaub said.
“We want to engage with people to which the university has been elevated to the level of family.”
A portion of the property’s sale will also go to the Braille Institute, a charity the Keiters have supported for years.
“UCLA has always been, in my mind, one of the finest institutions around,” Connie Keiter said. “We’ve always supported this institution.”
The Keiters are also longtime supporters of the Bruin 18 Women’s Golf Invitational and the women’s golf team as a whole. Connie Keiter, herself, has been an avid golfer for more than 60 years.
“Golf did so much for me, so if I could give to other young women who really loved the game … I would do that,” she said.
She speaks of the bequest process in a similarly casual manner.
“My husband and I believe in UCLA and the things that they’re doing,” Keiter said. “Each of us does what is best and hopefully more people will be able to do these things.”
