Part 1 of this article shared the first five steps a donor can take towards becoming an entrepreneurial philanthropist. The final steps (geared towards business owners, but many work well for individuals too) can help donors move from accidental philanthropy to being intentional, strategic philanthropists.
A recap on types of donors
Giver #1: Keep me anonymous—Some givers want to keep their donations private. Maybe that’s because they don’t want to publicize the fact that they have wealth. They may also believe that staying anonymous keeps their gift pure since it’s made for no other reason than generosity.
Giver #2: I’m setting an example—Givers may be primarily motivated by encouraging others. They may want to instill the values of philanthropy in the next generation. Or they may want to rally people in their community to change lives for the better together.
Giver #3: I want my name to live on—These are the givers who provide large donations that allow them to add their names to hospital wings, university buildings and prestigious awards. They understand that public philanthropy provides a kind of immortality.
Giver #4: I want to reduce my taxes—Giving to charity, especially when done strategically, can be an excellent tax minimization strategy. Donations can be integrated with other corporate and personal tax planning to provide the greatest possible relief from taxes.
Giver #5: It’s great for business—Now, more than ever, business owners know that customers prefer to deal with companies that are good corporate citizens. Demonstrating a commitment to a charitable giving program can give a boost to your brand and your business.
Taking a strategic approach to philanthropy
Step 6: Get staff engaged
Identify champions who can share your charitable vision widely across your organization and get your board, senior leadership team and employees excited about contributing to a larger goal. Matching programs can work extremely well, where the business matches employee contributions to the charities everyone chooses, or to charities that are selected through an employee survey. The business could even match the premiums employees pay on donated Life Insurance set up to create even more transformational gifts to charity.
Step 7: Talk to your suppliers
Share your charitable goals with the businesses you work with and explain how they can help you achieve them. We ask many of our own suppliers to give a percentage of what they make from us to our charitable foundation. They get the charitable receipt, and we direct the funds towards the causes we care about. Suppliers who would once have given us gift baskets and sports tickets prefer to thank us for doing business with them through charitable donations and are happy to redirect those funds towards a gift that really matters.
Step 8: Tell your clients
Promote what you are doing to your customers and clients. Tell them that simply by choosing your products and services they are contributing to your revenues and therefore your charitable giving campaign. You may want to make the link even more direct by donating
a percentage of each client’s business revenue to a charity or a flat dollar amount for every transaction, or direct those funds to their favourite charity, charitable foundation or donor advised fund.
Step 9: Communication
Get some help to determine the best way to communicate your charitable campaign both internally and externally. Your messaging should be clean, clear and elegant. It should be unified and unifying. Each segment of your charitable strategy needs to be integrated. This part of the planning should be a lot of fun to produce.
Step 10: Integrate it all
Charitable giving shouldn’t be an afterthought, or a sporadic cheque here and there. It should be planned. That way, you can make a bigger impact, channeling money that would otherwise have gone to taxes towards your favourite causes instead. Fundamentally, an approach that integrates your business and personal financial planning with a charitable giving strategy enables you to contribute to the social good more efficiently and effectively.
Mark Halpern, CEO at WEALTHinsurance.com is a well-known CFP, TEP, MFA-P (Certified Financial Planner, Trust & Estate Practitioner, Master Financial Advisor Philanthropy) Mark@wealthinsurance.com
