Article

KEY POINTS:

• Cindy Hollingshead was a beloved employee at Ohio Farm Bureau. A scholarship in her name has left a lasting legacy.
• Jim Hollingshead provided a beneficiary designated gift to continue honoring his late wife Cindy, even after he passed.
• A beneficiary designated gift can leave a lasting legacy using assets like pensions, investments, bank accounts, or life insurance policies.

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For more than half her life, Cindy Hollingshead was the engineer that kept the Ohio Farm Bureau train moving.

She oversaw everything from its history to its policies to its new board members in her role as executive secretary.

When she died unexpectedly in 2011, at age 64, a scholarship was established in her name. Shortly thereafter her husband, Jim, set up his estate plan to include a beneficiary designation gift to the Foundation to support Cindy’s scholarship.

Jim was a loyal supporter of her scholarship for several years, and when he died in January 2025, he made the ultimate gift to honor his wife, making the Ohio Farm Bureau Foundation the beneficiary of a savings account and a retirement account for a total planned gift of $146,721.

Such gifts can be set up through a pension, investment, bank account or life insurance policy, and is one way that a person’s legacy can live on after their death.

“She would be so happy to know she’s a part of enriching the younger generation coming up in agriculture,” said her niece, Amy Burns of Blacklick, Ohio. “She’d be really proud.”

Because of this generous support, the legacy of this scholarship will reach more students than ever before. What began by awarding an average of two to four scholarships each year has grown to 16 scholarships this year. Even more significantly, the dollars awarded through the scholarship increased, creating an even greater impact for the next generation of agricultural leaders.

Former Ohio Farm Bureau Executive Vice President Jack Fisher said that’s the way Cindy would have wanted it.

“In her way, she was the chief operating officer of the Ohio Farm Bureau,” Fisher said. Hollingshead was his assistant for 14 years, and Fisher said all the Farm Bureau employees looked to her for guidance and feedback. “She knew exactly how to help us and when to challenge us. She was the best.”

Besides her work at Farm Bureau, Hollingshead volunteered alongside her husband in their hometown with the Groveport Heritage and Preservation Society and the Groveport Zoning Board. The couple also helped cook huge vats of apple butter for the annual Groveport Apple Butter Festival in the 1980s and were inducted into the Groveport Hall of Fame in 2011.

“She loved everything about history,” said Burns. “She was an all-around happy, great lady.”

The Hollingshead’s legacy lives on through Burns, who became a part of the scholarship review committee. In 2026, the committee selected eight applicants and awarded each one $2,000 for her aunt’s scholarship, Burns said.

She said reading the applications was eye-opening. “I never really grasped how much work goes into the farm-to-plate process,” she said. “This gave me a better knowledge of what agriculture is.”

For Burns, the scholarship fund in Hollingshead’s name is the perfect way to honor her aunt.

“Through the Ohio Farm Bureau Foundation, her decades of service are now transformed into scholarships that will feed the minds of future agricultural leaders,” Burns said. “Cindy’s legacy is no longer just in the past; it is in the future of every student who pursues an education in her honor.”

Beneficiary Designation Gift: How does it work?

A beneficiary designation gift is a simple way to make a gift to support the Ohio Farm Bureau Foundation by designating the foundation as a beneficiary of your retirement, investment or bank account or your life insurance policy.

To make your gift, contact the person who helps you with your account or insurance policy, such as your broker, banker or insurance agent. Ask them to send you a new beneficiary designation form. Complete the form, sign it and mail it back to your broker, banker or agent.
Upon death, your account or insurance policy will be paid or transferred to Ohio Farm Bureau Foundation, consistent with the beneficiary designation.

If you are interested in making a gift but are also concerned about your future needs, keep in mind that beneficiary designation gifts are among the most flexible of all charitable gifts.

To explore how you can set up a beneficiary designated gift to benefit the Ohio Farm Bureau Foundation, please contact Kelly Burns at [email protected] or 614-246-8275.