PLANNED GIVING
ADVISING DONORS ON PLANNED GIFTS

Our March luncheon presentation by Margaret Holman on Planned Giving evoked important questions regarding the rules of ethics that limit a charitys giving financial advice to a donor, either through a staff member or through a financial planning consultant affiliated with the charity.

Many donors are not aware of the personal financial planning strategies that can reduce their taxes while creating opportunities to make philanthropic gifts. Assuming that a donor is already well-versed in your organizations mission and activities and that you have a solid relationship with the donor, you may be in a position to suggest that the donor meet with a planned giving expert.

An organizations planned giving officer or consultant should never take the place of a donors personal lawyer. The donor may begin to feel so comfortable with the organizations consultant, for example, that he or she may ask the consultant to draw up the related papers to implement these financial plans. An ethical consultant will quickly point out that the donor needs to have his or her own lawyer do this for him or her, so that there will be no conflict of interest. This will protect your organization from appearing to have exercised undue influence on the donor.

In the end, you want to be sure that a planned gift serves both your donor and your organizations needs and that it satisfies a complex set of legal requirements.