Giving Effectively: Incorporating Charitable Planning into Your Financial Strategy
Research tells us that there are certain resources most donors consult when starting to assemble a strategy for their philanthropy. These include peers, family, and well known, publicly-available sources of information on nonprofits like Guidestar or Candid. But among those top sources are also their existing financial advisors – people they already trust and are comfortable talking with about their finances. While many advisors may initially engage in financially-focused charitable conversations such as how much to give and the tax implications of various types of gifts, these discussions often become much deeper. They can include donors’ motivations and goals for giving, or the best ways to identify a cause or organization, and even how to involve their family in their charitable plan. So, how do you start these deeper conversations, whether you’re a donor or an advisor? And what does this sort of strategy entail? And – perhaps most importantly – how does all this planning help the organizations and causes that donors are looking to support?