PlannedGiving.com - Planned Giving

Roman Blum is living – no, scratch that – irrevocable proof that some people with the most to give never do, because they left one simple thing undone.

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Just returned from a visit to a university in New England. Had an interesting conversation with their e-marketing guru.

I asked about using social media to promote their foundation.

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Tell the truth – does Charitable Planning even show up on your radar?

It should.

With Charitable Planning, you can be a facilitator for good and generate revenue at the same time.

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By Viken Mikaelian

We hoped to reach out to the fundraising community with helpful news and analysis about the recent tax law changes, and informed opinion about what might be coming in 2013. Webinar attendees said we were exceptional, and many stayed overtime with their questions.

Though that’s not really a surprise, of course…

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By Brian M. Sagrestano, JD, CFRE

Due to the recent  uncertainty about whether the government would limit income tax charitable deduction as part of its effort to raise tax revenues, many high-net worth donors have made very significant additions to their donor-advised funds.

These donor-advised funds, particularly the ones at Fidelity, Schwab and Vanguard are now some of the largest charities in the world by capitalization.
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[Webinar on this topic - click here]

By Brian M. Sagrestano, JD, CFRE

On January 1, 2013, the Congress passed the bi-partisan, 157-page American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012.

This new law makes permanent several expiring tax provisions passed in 2001 and 2003 and includes a wide variety of other provisions, including “tax-extenders” (tax code rules that are usually re-authorized on a regular basis but not made permanent).

The Act does not renew a temporary payroll tax “holiday” for earners. This means that most working Americans will see a 2% decrease in take-home pay starting with their first paycheck in 2013.

You should be aware The Affordable Care Act of 2010 also imposes new taxes to help offset healthcare cost increases. Its significant provisions are also noted below.

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• The Mayan Calendar predicts that the world will come to an end before December 25, 2012.
• The U.S. Congressional Calendar predicts that philanthropic incentives may be legislated out of existence sometime soon.

Sure — somebody somewhere always thinks the world is coming to an end. But when the government starts playing around with the philanthropic benefits that donors can take to the bank, fundraisers tend to take it personally. Should we be concerned that there may be some unwelcome taxes or other legislation in our future?

Our take is: Fundraisers with their hair on fire don’t close gifts. We have better alternatives. Read more »

And I mean that. Really.

I’m pretty sure we all recognize that competition breeds excellence. You’ve got to keep getting better all the time to stay ahead of the other guy. So is there an ugly side to competition? Sure. It’s a jungle out here.

Big fish eat little fish. If there are going to be winners, there have to be losers. Welcome to the real world. Read more »

I recall a few years back producing a major gifts/planned giving brochure for a very large health system in Pennsylvania.

The VP decided to do the 20,000 piece mailing in-house. The brochure was accompanied by a cover letter that they produced, with each letter and matching #10 envelope addressed to a Dear Mr. and Mrs. Problem? All 20,000 recipients were medical school grads, so it should have said “Dear Dr. and Mrs.”

Oops. Chaos!

Well, not really. After I calmed down Mr. VP-Gone-Mad, he received 6 unpleasant complaining letters next week, each one loaded with a mighty check ($1000 to $6000).

The entire mailing had a 27% response rate. To this day I do not know why. But please, don’t try duplicating this error deliberately!

Playing Catch-Up is No Way to Start
By Jason Ketter

As nonprofits share best practices and reveal their most coveted success stories, you don’t often hear the word “competition.”

Wake up.

Competition is here and it is only going to get more intense. Read more »