From Donor to Philanthropist

Excellent post on "Turning Major Donors into Philanthropists" by Sean Stannard-Stockton at onPhilanthropy. Organizations like the Nature Conservancy, Children's Hospital of Oakland, and Harvard encourage major donors to construct an overall giving plan within their estate and financial plan.  Explaining the process of overall planning to a Planned Giving Officer recently, he said, in effect, "Sounds like it would help the donor and lead to long term gifts to our organization. But we need to raise $20 million within the next 6 months. Maybe we could have our giving officers raise the subject after they get a gift commitment." I can see his point. Many in financial services feel that way too:  Sale first, then plan.  You have to admit, though, that the logical order is Goals - Plan - Implementation, where the implementation includes financial tools, legal techniques and giving vehicles integrated into an effective and efficient whole, consontant with the donors big picture goals. Yes, we are all busy. Everyone is in a rush. The social end result is that we have many donors, few wise philanthropists. Maybe we all have a stake in raising the standard.  (After we close for the next $20 million.)