Meeting with Robert Sharpe

I drove two hours today to meet with planned giving guru, Robert Sharpe.  He also drove two hours for the meeting. Over cheese enchiladas in Tyler, TX we discussed for four hours the state of planned giving and major gift planning.  We agreed that donor motivation and education is key. The planned giving officer or major gifts planning person cannot be expected to raise the largest questions of meaning and purpose in a donor's life.  Likewise, most tax, legal, and financial advisors do not carry the conversation about meaning, purpose, obligation, privilege. The gift planners are there to solicit a gift to their institution. The advisors are there to serve the client/donor's aspirations and goals. But it is up to the donor/client/citizen to ask and answer the larger questions of purpose.  "Do I want to found a Dynasty that will last one hundred years, with financial and social benefits for family being the paramount concern?" If the answer is yes, and you have enough money, I can refer you to those who specialize in that effort. If the answer is no, then what will you do with your resources, for the benefit of society as well as for self and family? Charity may start at home, but what do we owe back to other than our kith and kin? What will be the crowning achievement of a life or a family? How we convene such large-minded conversations among our fellow citizens, I do not know. So, I hang out like Diogenes naked in my Dumpster and talk with whomever comes by. Robert met me through Gifthub; I am pleased he did.

Comments

[Gerry]

I think you do have some idea how to convene such a conversation. There must be a key group within your network with the connections to make it happen.

If such a conversation is conceived of not as a single event or forum, but network fashion in not one but many series of events coordinated by online forums and advanced new media tools, then we might recognize that it has already started. You are in a unique position to catalyze events and forums in the domain of philanthropy. You know the people who can make it happen, or they know them, and you are known as a leader in the online space. You do know that you command an invisible ragtag army of creative types. Well, command is not the right word for herding cats, but you know what I mean.