Donors
Caskey Family Fund
Jill and Bill Caskey both arrived in Rhode Island in 1981 as college students. She, from Cape Cod, and he, from Oklahoma City, with a sense, he jokes, that he may have been a Rhode Islander in a past life. Although they lived in the same state, they wouldn’t find each other until a few years after graduation. They married, spent seven years in Atlanta, and ultimately returned to the place they loved. Over forty years later, Rhode Island is unambiguously home.
That deep sense of belonging is at the heart of the Caskey Family Fund, a new unrestricted fund at the Rhode Island Foundation — one of the most flexible and meaningful forms of philanthropic giving.
The Caskeys have been giving to the Foundation for a decade, including to its Civic Leadership Fund, a current use fund supporting advocacy, civic engagement, convening, and research. Over time, as the Foundation communicated how the Caskeys’ gifts were specifically being used, it deepened their trust and broadened their thinking. "We thought about leaving money to individual institutions," Jill explains, "but organizations come and go. Having one place that adapts to changing needs felt like a positive move." Instead of waiting to establish a fund through their estate, they decided to give meaningfully now, during their lifetimes.
For Bill, unrestricted giving carries a particular logic. "It might sometimes feel less glamorous," he acknowledges. "You're giving a little to the engine of the car. Everything that keeps an organization going — unrestricted giving helps with that." He also values the Foundation's rigorous grantmaking that aligns closely with the Caskeys’ philanthropic interests. "When the Foundation grants to an organization, the research and legwork have been done appropriately. It feels good to know the oversight has been done."
"We thought about leaving money to individual institutions, but organizations come and go. Having one place that adapts to changing needs felt like a positive move."
Education, food security, and climate health all matter to the Caskeys, and all are priorities the Foundation addresses. But what drew them to unrestricted giving was also something larger: confidence that the Foundation would direct resources where they were most needed, even toward organizations they'd never heard of, expanding their generosity beyond the familiar. "Names pop up as places that have been funded and I think — what a cool thing that's happening," Jill shares. "It keeps our giving from being limited to just what we know."
The experience of opening the fund was, in their words, smooth, transparent, and well-guided. And the fund itself is designed to endure — open to contributions from family and friends, a thread connecting the Caskeys to Rhode Island well into the future.
“The Rhode Island Foundation will be around long after we are," says Bill. "This fund represents a profound connection to the state we love, and that felt like a very good reason to make it part of our story.”
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