A Real Estate Gift With Lasting Care
How a longtime UC Davis Health employee and her spouse turned a rental property into income today and compassionate care for tomorrow
For many donors, the idea of making a planned gift can feel complex: something reserved for “someday,” or for people with specialized financial knowledge. Joleen Lonigan and her wife, Donna Lewis, once thought the same.
However, Lonigan and Lewis learned they could use a charitable remainder unitrust, or CRUT, to gift a small rental home in exchange for lifetime income—while also supporting health care for aging patients. A CRUT often offers tax advantages to donors, and when the trust ends, its remaining value is directed to the charity of choice.
“We didn’t realize this was even an option for us, but the whole process was far easier than we thought,” Lonigan said.
Lewis and Lonigan have chosen to support geriatric clinical care at UC Davis Health. They structured the gift so the funds remain flexible and may be used to support patient needs in the future, recognizing that care priorities may look very different in the decades ahead.
Caring for People as They Age
As vice president and associate chief nursing executive for patient care services at UC Davis Health, Lonigan has spent 26 years helping shape how health care is delivered: supporting nurses, advocating for patients, and strengthening a system she believes in.
“My life has been greatly enriched by everything UC Davis represents, so it’s a very logical place to commit to and partner with,” Lonigan said.
Sacramento is also where Lonigan and Lewis have built their life together. For more than 20 years, they’ve lived just two miles from the UC Davis Health campus, close to where Lonigan has spent her career and where both have chosen to receive care.
As they look ahead, that sense of permanence matters.
Their decision to support clinical services for older patients grew from lived experience—from being deeply involved in the care of loved ones, and from seeing how uneven that experience can be for others. Lewis spent nearly a decade helping care for her aging father, navigating complex systems and advocating to ensure his needs were met.
“We were fortunate,” Lewis said. “Our family had access to resources and knowledge, but not everyone does.”
For Lonigan, who began her career in pediatrics before spending much of her work focused on older adults, the contrast is striking—and motivating. While children’s care often inspires broad support and well-developed systems, she is compelled to bring that same level of compassion, attention and resources to patients at the other end of life.
“Too many older adults are navigating care alone, and that’s where I see real gaps,” Lonigan added. “Supporting geriatric care is about making sure people have dignity, connection and quality of life as they age.”
Giving that Grew Naturally
This isn’t Lonigan’s first gift to UC Davis Health. She began donating to the university in 2011 after fellow nurses approached her about supporting the vision behind what would become the UC Davis Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing.
The idea of helping launch a school that would strengthen the nursing workforce throughout the Sacramento region resonated immediately. Lonigan made a five-year pledge and became a founding donor.
“My first pledge felt like a big step for me at the time, but it was exciting to be part of something I knew would shape the future of nursing,” Lonigan said. “To see an idea become a school, to watch students graduate, and even to teach and hire those nurses. It’s been incredibly rewarding.”
The couple later established an endowed scholarship at the School of Nursing in 2016, in honor of beloved family members who had passed. The John H. Lewis, Rose Proto, and Dorothy Lonigan-Turzyn Memorial Scholarship supports graduate nursing students pursuing geriatrics and prevention-focused research in Alzheimer’s and related dementias.
“When we got married, we wanted to honor the family members we had lost and carry their values forward,” Lewis said. “Establishing a scholarship to support students felt like a meaningful way to do that—a tribute to the past and a way to publicly begin our life together.”
Lonigan and Lewis consider philanthropy a natural extension of the values they already live by, and they hope their story inspires others to support the causes that matter to them.
“There’s a real joy in helping people,” Lewis said. “We’ve both benefited from what others have built before us, and this felt like our opportunity to help make the journey a little easier for someone else.”
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