Give and Take

Says the panicked board member… until you show him a better way to lower risk.  Has this ever happened to you? A board member or finance officer who is unfamiliar with gift annuities sees a big liability on the books and panics. “Why are we doing this?” they ask. Their concern is understandable. A charity normally pays a donor around 40-60 percent of the original gift in interest. For someone who isn’t familiar with gift annuities, that seems like a very bad way to raise money. Unfortunately, the knee jerk reaction is all to often to pull the plug. Stop issuing CGAs and let the existing pool run its course. But there couldn’t be a riskier solution. Without newer contracts coming in at lower payout rates, it is an actuarial certainly that the program will eventually run out of funds. Then the generous gifts your donors made will be all for naught. Reinsuring does nothing to offload risk.  Non-profit organizations often receive

Donors often do not know the exact structure or details of their own planning, charitable or otherwise. They depend on their advisors. This is one reason it is so important to partner with advisors when working with donors.

First, a Thank You For those of you who are reading this and are clients of mine, I truly thank you for your business. When I started in 1998, I did it with the goal to make planned giving accessible to your average prospect. At the time, planned giving was so bogged down with legalese and mind-numbing details that fundraisers were intimidated and donors befuddled. We’ve come a long way since then, but there’s still a shocking number of fundraisers taking calculator courses and fretting about tax codes while ignoring the relationship part of their job. Not you. You’re among the top 5% who get it and take the lead. As our client, you know that planned giving is a people business and simple is best. In 2000 when I introduced the planned giving postcard, a competitor who was (and still is) in the business of printing lengthy planned giving newsletters,

I wonder if anyone’s ever done a study to see when gyms are more crowded—in January (post new year’s resolution season) or in the spring (pre swimsuit season). I’d put my money on January.