The Pretter Family

Relocating from New York, Nancy and Isaac Pretter first moved to Baltimore when Isaac enrolled in the MBA program at Johns Hopkins University. Little did they know that 16 years later they would be calling their adopted community, home.

Now the parents of five, the couple is developing deep roots in Jewish Baltimore. And with that comes a commitment to devote time and resources to Jewish organizations close to their heart.

Nancy and Isaac: After we decided to stay here, we were introduced to The Associated and realized that we wanted to become more involved. We love being exposed first-hand to the work that they do. It's not about writing a check once a year, but going to events like Super Sunday and educating people about their work for our community.

There are so many places to give to, but Jewish causes like education and Israel are at the heart of what we want to support. We know that if we don't, most likely those outside the Jewish community aren't going to either.

We decided to open a donor-advised fund at The Associated because we know that, as an organization, they will share with us critical Jewish opportunities that need to be funded - many of which we may not have known about - particularly if we opened our fund at a non-Jewish organization.

We also know that their track record has been excellent in terms of the investment returns of the Jewish Community Investment Fund (JCIF) and of stewarding our donor dollars.

Giving back is so important to us and we want to make sure we pass these values on to our kids. We talk to them about it at the Shabbat table every Friday night and we engage them in the process of giving back.