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.)

Comments

[Sean Stannard-Stockton]

Glad you liked my article. I think your "logical order" of "Goals - Plan - Implementation" is right on the mark. I posted my own seven-step process for engaging in Tactical Philanthropy on my blog today.

You say "The social end result is that we have many donors, few wise philanthropists." Overcoming this issue is at the heart of the transition from Major Donor to Philanthropist. I think of Major Donors as people who make large gifts and Philanthropists as people who make wise gifts.

[Phil]

Thanks for the pointer, Sean. I blogged your post.

[Dan Bassill]

I've posted messages below showing that the Tutor/Mentor Connection is seeking to increase the resources (volunteers and dollars) available to fund multiple tutor/mentor programs in the Chicago region.

Yesterday the Chicago Sun Times donated $2 million to the Abraham Lincoln Marovitz Lend A Hand Program (http://www.lend-a-hand.net) which provides grants to tutor/mentor programs through Chicago. This is the result of work done over the past 13 years to help the Lend A Hand take this leadership role.

I wrote about this at http://tutormentor.blogspot.com

I hope the size of this award gets the attention of others who might work with the T/MC to have this type of giving duplicated in other Chicago industries and professional groups, as part of their own goal of duplicating the strategy in other cities around the country.

[Gerry]

Congratulaton, Dan.