Fall 2006

Jim and Constance Engelstad Plan to Leave a Legacy of Upward Mobility

“What I really care about is making jobs more accessible, taking advantage of technology, and creating higher level, accessible jobs that blind persons can do” says Constance Engelstad. “It’s a matter of creating choices.”

Constance, a long-time Lighthouse consultant, and her husband Jim plan to leave a percentage of their estate in support of two Lighthouse initiatives: employee training and the Deaf-Blind retreat. “Training opens up all kinds of doors in an organization, and the Deaf-Blind program is such an amazing program,” she says.

By designating a percentage of their estate rather than a dollar amount, Jim and Constance have the financial flexibility to take care of their family while still supporting longevity of Lighthouse programs.

“We have five children and hopefully we’ll have grandkids someday,” Constance explains. “So we decided to designate a percentage.”

“We prioritized it where we took care of certain things such as retirement and family first, then designated x percent to go to the Lighthouse,” she continues. “This allows us to leave a gift without trying to come up with an exact dollar figure,” says Jim. “It made it a lot easier to leave a planned gift to the Lighthouse at this stage of life.”

Constance first became involved with the Lighthouse in the late 1980s, when she helped the Lighthouse create a competitive wage study and plan for Lighthouse employees. As the founder of the Shaman Group, a consulting firm specializing in organizational development and human resources issues, she has been closely involved with expanding Lighthouse training and employment opportunities for over seventeen years.

Now she is closely involved with expanding opportunities for upward mobility at the Lighthouse --- opportunities her planned gift will preserve far into the future. “Right now we are thinking about how to make more managerial and supervisory jobs accessible to blind persons. So we need more training. I’m a huge believer that you have to have a comprehensive training program from top to bottom. From top-level management to an entry-level person in every category, you need a cohesive training program for the entire organization. It helps people to improve basic skills and continue to develop and contribute to the Lighthouse’s success as they do their jobs.”

By making a planned gift, Jim and Constance hope to preserve the legacy of diverse opportunities for blind and Deaf-Blind people far into the future.

“We all need training. We’re learning every day, and sometimes there’s a price tag with that. So we’re making a gift towards making those kinds of opportunities possible --- training, upward mobility, accessibility, taking advantage of technology,” she says. “Already we have blind persons working in such an amazing range of jobs at the Lighthouse --- the diversity of skill here is phenomenal. It just proves that blind persons are capable of learning any job throughout the organization.”

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