Planned Giving and Big Gifts Go Hand in Hand

​The news about large gifts keeps coming! And “big bet” philanthropy in general has been in the news recently, reportedly because donors’ approach to giving at scale is changing thanks to a greater focus on relying on the experts in organizations to deploy resources for maximum impact and trusting them to do so. It’s also encouraging that donors are trending toward giving gifts in dollar amounts that are appropriate to tackle the scale of the challenge to be addressed rather than basing donations solely on the organization's current capacity and budget. 

The team at the Community Foundation can help you maximize your ability to receive large gifts to your reserve fund or endowment fund. We do this by offering structure and services for you to house your fund with us. This, in turn, allows our team to help you with crucial fundamentals for planned giving tools to attract and accept large gifts, including:

• Support to accept complex gifts of alternative assets, such as real estate, closely-held stock, and even large blocks of publicly-traded stock
• Support to establish and administer charitable planning vehicles to benefit your organization, such as charitable remainder trusts and designated funds
• Support to help a donor establish a bequest to your organization in a will, trust, or–and especially tax-savvy for the donor–via beneficiary designation on an IRA or other qualified retirement plan

Indeed, planned giving, especially via bequests, continues to be an important source of funds for nonprofit organizations across the country. Some researchers have estimated that the historical average size of a charitable bequest falls somewhere between $37,000 and $78,360. That’s hundreds of times larger than the average one-time donation a living donor typically makes, which historically has been identified as hovering a bit over $100. 

Please reach out to the team at the Community Foundation to learn how we can help you grow your organization’s endowment or reserve fund. If your organization has not yet established its fund with the Community Foundation, let’s talk! Now is the time to make sure your planned giving and endowment infrastructure is firmly in place so you can lean into the “big bet” philanthropy trend. 
 
This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not intended as legal, accounting, or financial planning advice.