David Acomba’s black Labrador, Chester, had his own paper route – well sort of. “Every morning he would retrieve the already read Globe & Mail from the neighbour. He would return home and take it directly upstairs to my wife, who was in bed sipping a morning coffee I had brought her. We were a team in service!”, remembers David.
“Everyone in our neighbourhood knew Chester,” David says. “When [he died] a close friend donated in his memory to an animal charity, it truly touched my heart. I started investigating charities that help pets, and that’s how I learned about the Farley Foundation.”
David was already an animal lover, so the Farley Foundation‘s mission made sense to him from the start. What deepened his interest was learning that, across Ontario, veterinary bills that are routine for some families are simply out of reach for others. Support from the Farley Foundation can make the difference between keeping a beloved pet and having to give them up.
“The Farley Foundation seemed to have a real reach…a real understated reach,” he says. “Having a pet is expensive, but I’ve never had to worry about that. However, there are people who do have to worry.”
That gap is the Farley Foundation’s whole mission. For many of the families it helps, a pet isn’t a pet — it’s a family member, sometimes the closest one they have. And the fear is real: a diagnosis they can’t afford to treat, a bill that competes with rent, the heartbreak of giving up friend.
David didn’t stop at admiration. He called a friend and asked his own veterinarian what they thought of the Farley Foundation. What he heard told him his money would go where he intended.
“It just made sense,” he says. “I felt that every dollar I donated would help two sentient beings, not just one.”
He also settled on something else. He decided that his giving would go further if concentrated in one place rather than spread across many.
“There are many organizations in the world that could use help, and there are so many places you can support,” he says, “but I decided that I wanted to just focus on one organization so that my support could make more of a difference.”
This extended to his Will too. David included a gift to the Farley Foundation in his Will as a way to make a meaningful difference in the future, without changing anything about the life he lives today.
“A gift like David’s lets us do something an annual donation alone can’t,” says Kristy Hoffmann, manager of community and donor relations at the Farley Foundation. “It means we can commit to a family working through a hard diagnosis today, knowing that support will still be there for the next family, and the one after that.”
The Farley Foundation works with the Ontario Veterinary Medical Association and veterinary clinics across the province. Since 2002, they’ve helped more than 19,000 pets and their families, including 1,743 this past year alone. A gift like David’s is part of what lets the Foundation set a bigger goal: helping 2,000 pets annually by 2027 and inspiring even bigger dreams for the future.
David’s gift is a continuation of something he believed about animals long before Chester died.
“Pets are truly vital to our lives, especially in today’s electronic, isolated society,” he says. “Many people seek companionship and find comfort in animals to help navigate life’s challenges.”
Learn more about leaving a gift in your Will to the Farley Foundation
How do I leave a gift to a charity like the Farley Foundation in my Will?
It’s simpler than you might think. Most Canadians leave a small percentage in their Will to charity and the rest to family or friends. It all gets done when you create or update your Will. We’ve laid out how to leave a charitable gift in your Will in three easy steps, so you can explore how it works and see what’s possible.
Do I need to have accumulated a lot of wealth to leave a gift in my Will?
Not at all. Most people leave a gift in their Will aren’t wealthy philanthropists. In fact, three million Canadians – roughly one in ten of us – have already included a charity in their Will. What qualifies isn’t the size of your estate, it’s the decision to set aside a portion of what’s already there.
Even a small percentage can add up to something meaningful over time. See what that could look like for you using our simple calculator.
Topic: Donor Stories
