As a committed Jayhawk and a financial advisor, Jill Docking recently made outright and planned gifts to KU School of Medicine-Wichita to help support its Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship.

“The Dockings have had four generations graduate from KU,” said Docking, a long-time Wichitan, philanthropist and vice chair of KU’s Endowment board. “From a legacy standpoint, the school is important to the Docking family.”

Although Docking isn’t an alumna of the medical school, she has a long history of caring about and supporting programs addressing the quality of health care in our community. She began as a member of the 4-Wichita Advancement Board for KU School of Medicine-Wichita in 2010, and has been chair twice and is currently the Fund Development Committee chair. This particular cause is important to her as adolescent mental health problems have reached a crisis level.

“About a dozen psychiatrists now serve Wichita and western Kansas — about one-fourth the number needed,” she said.

Docking’s gifts, along with other community donors, provided the initial funding for KU School of Medicine-Wichita to start a two-year fellowship program to train up to four child and adolescent psychiatry fellows each year.

“If psychiatry fellows are schooled here, they are likely to stay here,” she said.

 “This is truly a remarkable example of our community supporting their local experts and educators to provide a service our city and state desperately needs,” said Brad Rukes, KU Endowment senior development director for the Wichita campus.

Docking’s giving took two forms. Her outright gift helps in the present and her planned gift will help in the future. Both are valuable to an institution such as KU, which has immediate needs and long-term goals.

Docking designated the school as a beneficiary in a life insurance policy for the planned giving part of the gift.

Other options for planned giving include designating the proceeds of an individual retirement account or through a will.

As Rukes noted, “I enjoy visiting with donors about planned giving because it allows them to dream big about the impact they want to have on our organization, but it also allows them to advocate for the future they want for our community.” 

“It was actually a very simple process with KU Endowment,” she said. “They provided direction on specific language and procedures, and then I just had to fill out a one-page document.” 

Docking encourages donors to let institutions know that they have been named for a planned gift.

Docking shared that institutions are sometimes surprised when a planned gift is received. Letting the institution know ahead of time allows them to strategize for the future and gives them the opportunity to recognize and celebrate the gift while the donor is living. She notes that planned gifts are generally revocable if a donor changes his or her mind and that she feels fortunate to be in a position to leave money to extremely important causes like psychiatric care.

“I care about what Wichita will look like in the next 40 or 50 years, even though I won’t be here,” she said. 

Should you be interested in information about documenting a new or existing planned gift, please contact Brad Rukes, KU Endowment senior development director, via email at brukes@kuendowment.org or by phone at 316-293-2641.