Supporters Like You

Jen and David Baily live in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, where they are raising five children and running the family business, Baily Insurance Company. Both of them served as CCO campus ministry staff in the 1990s. David was the CCO’s first-ever second-generation campus minister—his father, Chuck Baily, worked for the CCO in the 1970s—and Jen recruited her mother, Shelley Williams, to join her in working for the CCO.

“We do not know of a way to have a greater impact on the future of our world than by grounding tomorrow’s leaders in a biblical worldview and equipping students with a vision that all of life matters to God,” they share.

Today’s college students, for better or for worse, whether living lives submitted to Christ or living for themselves, are going to be tomorrow’s leaders and culture-shapers. What they believe absolutely has an impact on what they do and who they become. And what they believe is largely influenced by who they encounter, spend time with, and are shaped by.

Jen and David encourage others to give to the CCO, urging, “We are living in a time in our country when we are in the throes of division. With very strong secular influences in our institutions of higher education and, in some cases, outright hostility to faith in Jesus, it is vital to present to students an alternative that is rooted in the Gospel, rooted in Christ’s love, and rooted in a worldview of servant leadership. There is nothing more important than supporting an organization that is committed to equipping student leaders who will bring good news to a world that is groping for truth, but looking for answers everywhere except for Scripture and the witness of the Church—Christ’s body.”

Jen and David have chosen to create an enduring legacy of transforming college students to transform the world through a planned gift to the CCO. However, as business owners and parents of five college-bound children, currently their finances are limited. They chose to increase their capacity to make an impact through a gift that costs nothing now by designating the CCO as a beneficiary in their wills. In addition, they’ve purchased a life insurance policy with an increased benefit, taking caring of their loved ones, while also gifting a portion to the CCO.

Stephanie and Jason Summers first met when they were undergraduates at Kenyon College, both involved in the CCO’s ministry. After graduating, Stephanie worked for the CCO, on campus and in a variety of leadership roles; today she serves as the CEO of the Center for Public Justice. Jason is Chief Scientist and Managing Member of ARiA (Applied Research in Acoustics), a small research-and-development firm based in Washington, DC. For many years, Jason and Stephanie have taken turns chairing the The McIlvaine Fund, the alumni community board that funds the CCO’s campus ministry at Kenyon College, and both have been Jubilee speakers.

The couple supports the CCO because they credit being the people they are to the faithful work of the CCO, sharing, “So much of how we lead our respective organizations we learned at Jubilee, in conversations with CCO staff, or in books we read that we bought from CCO alumni Byron and Beth Borger!”

“College and graduate school were the years God used to form the trajectory of our lives and leadership. We believe this period is a crucible God uses to form young adults, and we believe it is important to have campus ministers in place to help point to the Truth and to the work God is doing.”

Stephanie and Jason hope that their generosity will inspire others. For them, it’s a powerful investment whose impact on young people carries on for a lifetime, shaping a diversity of institutions—from businesses, to churches, to families.

About their legacy gift, they state, “CCO staff alumni were the people God used in our lives to have very specific conversations about giving and stewardship. We are so thankful, because as our capacity to give has grown, we have found ourselves delighted to employ the wise advice we were given at the very beginning of our marriage. When we were in our 20s, we chose to designate a percentage of our estate, hoping that our choice would mean our gift will have a bigger impact over time.”