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Largest Single Gift – $6.24 Million – to Henry Street Settlement

This very nice woman was a legal secretary until age 96 – probably never someone who stood out for fundraisers to fawn over. (CLICK HERE OR THE PICTURE TO SEE THE STORY IN THE NEW YORK TIMES)

Yet, she just left close to $9 million to fund scholarships, with the Henry Street Settlement receiving $6.24 million, their largest single gift (probably by far) via a charitable bequest (i.e. one of the many unknown planned giving donors who quietly make a huge impact after their lives).

Check your nonprofit org’s records. Who’s made the 5 largest gifts to the institution?

I would be surprised if bequests or other planned giving options don’t comprise at least 4 out of your top 5.

Fundraisers and heads of nonprofits – take note! Sylvia Bloom – the woman in the picture – actually left most of her estate to be used for scholarships at the discretion of her niece (who happens to be on the board of the Henry Street Settlement)!

Sylvia and her niece are both incredible people. But, just think about this. What if Sylvia had been one of your long term direct mail donors – I am guessing that she supported plenty of charities during her life.

Imagine if your org had any planned giving efforts – maybe planned giving newsletters or other marketing that encouraged Sylvia to consider your organization as a recipient of her legacy giving. Then image if your organization didn’t do anything in planned giving.

Think about the missed opportunity. Sylvia probably didn’t receive much direct planned giving content and opted to allow her niece full discretion over her legacy.

For nonprofits in America who been around awhile (15 or more years) to not engage in any meaningful planned giving efforts is just irresponsible.

The country is aging fast. Your data base is probably aging faster. Planned giving is really the only sensible way to make sure your institution has a decent chance to share in estates like Sylvia’s.

So where do you start? Check out our Planned Giving Boot Camp 6-part webinar crash course by CLICKING HERE.

Or, our Summer 2018 line up of training programs! CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE

Ok, so I have to plug more courses at any chance I have. Seriously, these courses are all designed to put immediately useful tools and ideas into your hands. You’ll learn about creating your own Legacy Opener (patent pending;). I’ll tell you which planned giving marketing options work and which don’t! Which vehicles are appropriate and which are not! And, not too much on the technical end!

Thank you for making it to the end of this post! I wonder how many readers actually get this far!

Tax Deal: Does it impact fundraising?

Image result for tax plan cartoon It looks like we’ll have a tax bill signed any day and now we are left trying to figure out what impact, if any, this may have on nonprofit fundraising.

While many final details are still to be revealed, here are the main items that may impact our donors and their giving:

“[T]he corporate tax rate would be cut to 21 percent, while the top tax rate for individuals would drop to 37 percent from 39.6 percent. The new rates would take effect next year.” – Highest earner get a bit of a break (but might very well get hurt by other things in the bill). For example, if your AGI is $500,000, you just saved approximately $13,000. You will probably lose more than that if you live in an expensive neighborhood with a really big mortgage (i.e. your real estate taxes are more than $10,000 a year and your mortgage is over $750,000 – see below).

“The deduction for state and local taxes would be capped at $10,000 and taxpayers would be able to choose to deduct their property or income taxes, source said.” – Is the $13,000+ break from bullet point # 1 enough to offset the loss from this bill if you pay more than $10,000 in real estate taxes? The irony of this point is that it really hurts the wealthier sector – something not reported in the media very well.

“The standard deduction would be doubled under the deal, to $12,000 for individuals and $24,000 for families.” – This may actually put more money in the pockets of your middle and lower middle earners! Again, not reported in the media very well. Still, the question is if this disincentivizes charitable giving for those who now will no longer need to itemize? I suspect not but I am ready to start touting the IRS rollover giving provision in a big way for those 70.5+. You know what, I will be shocked if this hurts charities at all.

“Republicans senators leaving a GOP lunch told NBC News that the agreement would also set deductions for pass-through income at 20 percent.” – I am not sure what this means!

“Under the deal, the mortgage interest deduction would be allowed on loans up to $750,000, the sources said.” – Again, hurts our wealthiest sector. Ironically, nonprofit fundraising could be hurt if this sector is feeling really poor after they finally realize what happened. Not sure it will impact charity!

The verdict?

Still out. I am leaning towards people on the higher wealth/earning end looking for more deductions and therefore more charitable giving! Ok, I am an optimist. Most likely result for nonprofits: no change.

Look for more posts on this topic as the final details come to light.

Planned Giving in 2017?

Image result for planned giving

I refuse to jump to any conclusions regarding this year in planned giving (or any year!).

Will Congress/President somehow waterdown or eliminate the charitable deduction?

Possibly but it’s possible that the charitable deduction will be more valuable to your donors than ever before if they limit other deductions but not the charitable one. (Treasury Secretary Mnuchin already said there will be no tampering with the charitable deduction contrary to Trump’s campaign “tax plan”)

Will there be anything new and exciting for fundraisers to bring to donors?

This doesn’t look like a great year for creative charitable legislation. Let’s see if they really “fix” Obamacare or the tax code.

But, there are a few things I can guarantee will happen: the oldest baby-boomers start turning age 71 this year, the age when required minimum distributions (RMDs) from IRAs and other qualified retirement accounts start. There are a lot more boomers than their predecessors, with a lot more IRA funds – IRA charitable rollovers and beneficiary designations should be high on every fundraiser’s wish list.

Bottom line: Planned Giving is turning a corner, Boomers are finally and officially Planned Giving Prospects. Maybe it’s time you and/or your organization realized that it is “now or never” for the Boomers? Train up the staff, invest in the Planned Giving program.

Oh, and check out our 3-part Planned Giving Boot Camp for Major Gift Officers! Next sessions start March 15, 2017 – click here to see how affordable it is to train up to 15 staff members in planned giving!