Lighting the way for children and communities
to reach for the stars.

A foundation in memory of Penny, Emlyn, and Madelyn Jeffrey

For generations, the Jeffrey Family devoted their lives to helping others and strengthening the communities they called home. Today, their legacy of giving shines on through the Jeffrey Family Foundation.

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One River

The Guadalupe. Where our stories converge.

Three Stars

Penny, Emlyn, and Madelyn. Our guiding stars.

Our Rising Sun

Every gift is a bet on a brighter future.

Our Mission

Their giving didn't end. It changed hands.

We honor Penny, Emlyn, and Madelyn Jeffrey by helping children and families learn, grow, and recover with the same faith, generosity, service, and compassion they lived by.

Penny and Emlyn spent decades quietly making other people's lives possible: standing beside foster children who needed someone in their corner, providing opportunities for camp experiences, and opening one more door for students who needed it. At eleven, their granddaughter Madelyn was already following in their footsteps, finding ways to give back to her community. Today, the Foundation carries their spirit of giving forward, one need at a time.

What we do

Three Pillars

Education. Experiences. Emergency Response.

Our three pillars light the way to reach people in need and build hope in communities.

One

Education

Education is the door that stays open. We invest in students so they can finish what they start and choose their own future, covering the scholarships and quiet costs that decide whether they get to walk through it.

Two

Experiences

Time in the Texas Hill Country. A season on the field. The science camp a kid gets to attend because somebody quietly covered it. The parts of a childhood that rarely make a family's budget, and never leave a child's memory.

Three

Emergency Response

When a family's worst day arrives, help should already be moving. We fund the people who get there first - and the families living through what we lived through.

How We Give

It's never just a check.

We give to ensure real people are supported in the ways they need most.

We name the need, identify the cost, and bring you back stories of how your gifts change lives.

Already Underway

They walked, so the foundation can run.

After the flood, our community opened their hearts and gave generously. The Jeffrey Family Foundation carries forward that generosity and the legacy of stewardship modeled by Penny, Emlyn, and Madelyn. The gifts given have already changed lives. Now, we're building on that legacy.

$5,000put soccer within reach for girls eager to play.

$10,000to children's ministries at San Pedro Presbyterian.

$150,000helped restore the waterfront at Camp Honey Creek.

Penny, Emlyn, and Madelyn Jeffrey together

Our Story

Two parents, a granddaughter, and a lifelong habit of showing up

A court advocate who took the cases nobody else wanted. A founding board member who helped build a camp where children could belong, have fun, and live life to the fullest. An eleven-year-old who made an impression on everyone she met.

They were lost together on July 4, 2025. Everything here exists so the work they started multiplies.

Learn their story

Our Story

In the early morning hours of July 4, 2025, torrential rains caused catastrophic flooding in the Texas Hill Country. Penny, Emlyn, and their granddaughter, Madelyn, had been staying at their riverside cabin for the holiday weekend when they were swept away by the floods. Like so many others that night, they were lost too soon.

But our story is not about the flood. It is about how they lived, and their legacy of showing up for others, making room for everyone, and changing the lives around them.

Emlyn

In 2004 Emlyn volunteered to stand up in court for children in foster care. He never stopped.

He was an engineer by training and endlessly curious by nature. But what he became known for at CASA doesn't fit on a résumé: attorneys asked for him by name, and he was handed the cases no one else wanted.

Years after a case had closed, a young man Emlyn had advocated for invited him to his high school graduation.
Emlyn went.

"He was the only person who showed up."

That is the standard we inherited. We intend to keep it.

Penny

A lifelong learner, Penny was never idle. She found purpose in helping people and organizations reach their full potential.

She was a founding board member of Summer Dreams, an inclusive camp equipped to welcome children of all ability levels in the same stretch of Hill Country this family loved. She led her Panhellenic association, volunteered with CASA, served her church and looked after her neighborhood.

Her family sums her up in two words: generosity and tenacity. Anyone who ever tried to talk her out of something she believed in can confirm the second.

Madelyn

At only 11 years old and the eldest of 5 grandchildren, it was hard to find something Madelyn wasn't interested in. Except bugs.

She read constantly. She swam and kayaked, sang in choir, played chess, built robots, played soccer, often completed 1,000 piece puzzles, and rode horses and shot archery at camp.

Her friends describe her as kind, funny, curious, and quick to forgive.

When she graduated from fifth grade, her MeMe, Penny, gave her a charm for her bracelet. It read Reach for the Stars. It was the last charm she ever gave her. Today, it reminds us why our foundation exists: to help others reach for the stars.

The Foundation

Led by the Jeffrey daughters

Alicia, Christin, and Rebecca founded the Jeffrey Family Foundation and serve on its board. For decades, they watched their parents give back to their community and make room for those in need. Now, they are building on that example, multiplying the good their parents began and creating new ways to show up for others.

The foundation is a Texas nonprofit corporation and a 501(c)(3) public charity. Contributions are tax-deductible.

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Three Pillars