Advisers Giving Back: Theresa Conti

When the holiday season comes around, retirement industry consultant Theresa Conti has more than just family to think about when it comes to giving gifts.

A lot more, in fact: about 150 children in her community of Fountain Hills, Arizona.

Conti, who was recently promoted to executive director of the Cerrado Group, and her husband, Peter, have been running a Christmas Angels program for nine years. Through their program, pre-kindergarten kids through seventh-graders in need can write down their gift wish list and, on Christmas Day, find a present waiting for them.

To make this happen, Conti and her husband spearhead an effort every season involving schools, local businesses and some volunteer family and friends. That entails writing out the tags for the gifts, getting them onto trees at local businesses, gathering all the donated gifts and finally getting them distributed to the kids and families. It’s a lot of work, but Conti seems pretty relaxed in the weeks heading up to the big day.

“My husband stresses about it every single year,” Conti jokes. “But they’ll all get filled, even if we have to fill some of them ourselves.”

Gifting Season

Theresa and Peter started the charitable work after the retirement of a local organizer who had been running a program through the local Salvation Army.

She says they do it in part for “the thankfulness of people who need some help this time of year,” Conti says. “This year, 185 kids are going to have Christmas because of the work we do—that’s a pretty good feeling.”

There are more personal reasons, too.

“My husband grew up in a very poor family,” she says. “There were years where his dad didn’t know how he was going to buy gifts for the kids—they would often get socks and underwear for Christmas. It was very important for us to give back. Every kid should have Christmas—at least something.”

The 185 requests this year is the biggest number yet, Conti says. It also means the couple will have that many gift bags sitting in their garage before they are distributed, all tracked in a spreadsheet.

Families on the list are in need of gifts for all kinds of reasons, Conti says, including adults who may have lost a job or may be facing a major medical expense.

In 2018, Conti and her husband started their own registered, 501(3)(c) nonprofit through which to run the program and do other charitable work through the year, including funding sponsorships to graduating seniors and supporting educational programs at the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation reservation.

When it comes to the Christmas Angels program, they work closely with local businesses, including banks, a jewelry store and a property owners association, to help gather gifts.

They then host a gift distribution day at the local elementary school, where Conti says the reward often comes back to them via thanks from the families.

“People will tell us, ‘I didn’t know how I was going to do Christmas this year,’” Conti says. “Then there are those who maybe got help in a past year, but now want to donate to someone else. They’ll say, ‘You helped me for two years when I was in a bad situation. Now I want to help someone else.’”

Help Local

Conti says the work shows the capability every person has to help their local community in ways both small and large.

Meanwhile, she continues to also give back to the retirement plan community. She is active in WIPN (We Inspire. Promote. Network) as a board member, encouraging networking and advancement of women working in the retirement industry. She also works with her local Junior Achievement program, which provides financial education to students.

In addition, Conti started and co-hosts a podcast, Step into the Pivot, in which she and Ivana Polonijo speak with financial services professionals, among others, about how they have faced life challenges ranging from loss to addiction to cancer. Polonijo is the founder of Courageous Being, a center focused on helping women and allies use leadership techniques to navigate work and personal life.

Despite these other commitments, Conti remains motivated to continue the Christmas Angels program for kids in her local community and encourages others to think about ways they can give back.

“It’s not always about giving money,” she says. “It’s about your time. … Think about a way you can give some time to help out others. It will be appreciated.”