National Make-A-Will Month

Wherever your client may be in the stages of philanthropic planning, the team at the Community Foundation welcomes the opportunity to meet. And, considering that August is national Make-A-Will month, now may be the perfect time to get together.   

Here are five insights into what you and your clients can expect at these meetings: 

–You’ll get personal, dedicated service. Unlike financial institutions’ donor-advised fund platforms where access to a dedicated donor services team can be rare, the staff at the local Community Foundation is here in real life. We routinely meet with donors alongside their legal, tax, or financial advisors to assess the current situation and determine the best charitable tax strategies for the particular family. This includes evaluating the best assets to give to a fund at the Foundation, including publicly-traded stock and even other noncash assets such as real estate or closely-held stock.  

–We care about your clients’ intentions. The team at the Foundation wants to understand the areas of interest that are a priority for each client, whether that’s the arts, health care, social services, the environment, education, community development, or something else. This allows us to make local connections for your clients to learn about specific nonprofits and get involved in meaningful ways.  

 –We want to understand the next generation. We’ll talk about the roles your client envisions for the successor advisors named in the donor-advised fund documentation, such as children, who will make decisions about grant recipients when the client is no longer living or no longer able to manage the fund. In many cases, these roles will parallel the roles your clients’ have selected for children in their wills and trusts.  

–We adopt a holistic approach. We will help your client not only establish a donor-advised fund, if that’s a fit, but also establish additional funds to meet the client’s goals. Sometimes our team discovers during a meeting that the client’s wishes are best served through multiple funds. For example, a client may establish a donor-advised fund and also decide to establish a designated fund for a particular nonprofit organization or an unrestricted fund to support the Community Foundation’s mission in perpetuity.  

–We make the paperwork a breeze. As you know if you’ve already worked with a client to establish a fund at the Foundation, the paperwork is straightforward and not at all cumbersome. As we’re exploring updating an existing donor-advised fund, setting up a new donor-advised fund, or adding additional types of funds to a client’s portfolio, we’ll prepare simple documentation to capture a client’s wishes, collect important contact information, and work with you to address the client’s vision for their charitable impact both during and after the client’s lifetime.  

We look forward to getting together with you and your clients! Please reach out to Josh Dukelow (404.588.3208) anytime to get answers to your questions or get the process started.