Legacy Giving Programs

Prosperity infused with purpose is the new standard, and Family Offices are defining it. Over the next three to five years, the term Family Office will be everywhere. While many still picture a wealthy individual or legacy fortune, the reality is that Family Offices have the power to drive meaningful action. Some are already doing so, others are beginning to move in that direction, and the next generation will take this even further. They are constantly moving towards the intersection where capital meets conviction, guided not by accumulation alone but by responsibility to address global challenges. The upcoming transfer of wealth is not simply about preserving assets. Today’s heirs are determined to direct resources toward climate resilience, healthcare innovation, education, and systemic solutions that institutions struggle to address quickly enough. Family Offices hold a unique advantage because they can act with patience, speed, and vision, operating outside the short-term pressures that constrain traditional organizations. With trillions of dollars moving into the hands of a generation that values accountability and impact, Family Offices are becoming a vessel where prosperity and purpose are inseparable. Their legacy will not be measured only by the fortunes they stewarded but by the futures they chose to shape.

Player Development Tip #50 (Alumni Edition): Have Your Players Write Letters to Former Players Who Wore Their Jersey. One of the most powerful ways to build alumni connection is through jersey legacy. If I’m Ed Jones wearing number 91, I want to know every former #91 who came before me — and then reach out. At Kansas, we ran this initiative, and it was a hit. Here’s how to do it: Get the Names: Work with your Letterwinners Club, development staff, fundraising office, or alumni engagement staff to gather rosters and names. Collect Addresses: Tap into your athletic department’s alumni database and contacts. Write Personal Letters: Have your current players write handwritten letters to those alumni. Simple, genuine, and personal. Mail Them Out: Send the letters — and watch the impact unfold. The response? Incredible. Alumni felt honored, connected, and proud to see the tradition of their number carried forward. Players learned humility and appreciation for those who paved the way. This program is simple, memorable, and deeply impactful for alumni engagement. I’ll always recommend it. 📥 Want more practical strategies like this? Download 100 Player Development Tips here: https://lnkd.in/gXyxvy4H #PlayerDevelopment #BeyondTheField #PlayerDevelopmentTips #AthleteDevelopment #AlumniEngagement

The traditional philanthropy funding model is broken. Here are three reasons why: 🛠️ High dependence on small-scale fundraising efforts (e.g., sausage sizzles, fun-runs). These place huge administrative and marketing burdens to raise only a tiny percentage compared to the philanthropic capital available from institutions, HNWIs, and structured giving programs. 💰 Reliance on high-cost financial advisors to manage philanthropic capital. These advisors often charge excessive fees relative to charitable distributions, and their "approved product lists" frequently include non-socially responsible and non-ethical options. 🔗 Lack of coordination in fundraising and financial management among the largest philanthropists and charities. This leads to wasted resources and missed opportunities for synergy that could scale societal-wide impact. 💡 Here’s where visionaries like Gary Scallan from Future Australian Impact Foundation (FAIF) step in. Tired of the traditional philanthropic model—especially around capital management—he’s determined to flip it on its head with innovative, simple solutions. 📈 Here’s one example I love: If ~70% of $1M in donated funds were invested, you'd recover the original capital in 5 years (assuming ~7.5% fixed income returns), allowing another ~30% to be donated. This cycle continues, multiplying funding while preserving the original capital. There’s much more of this thinking to come from FAIF and Samach Private Wealth! Looking forward to leveraging Wholesum's capabilities with our SME credit fund fixed income solutions for the philanthropy sector. #Philanthropy #ImpactInvesting #ResponsibleFinance #SocialImpact #InnovativeGiving

📘 𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝: 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐈𝐧𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐨𝐫’𝐬 𝐆𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐭 𝐁𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧 𝐈𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐑𝐢𝐬𝐤 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐅𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬 By Mahir E. & Noemi Poget The great wealth transfer isn’t only a tax and structuring story. It’s also about what happens inside the room when successors don’t feel they fully deserve the capital they’re being asked to steward. In our new piece for Family Office Strategist, we look at how an inheritor’s guilt quietly shows up in portfolios as: - Chronic cash hoarding and “untouchable” legacy assets. - Guilt‑driven philanthropy that sits outside any agreed rubric. - Slow, hesitant investment decisions—even when the data is clear. This one is for principals, next‑gen leaders and FO executives who sense emotional friction around decisions—and want a governance toolkit, not therapy language. #FamilyOffice #NextGen #WealthTransfer #Governance #Legacy #BehavioralFinance #SuccessionPlanning #FOStrategist

           Half of all charitable bequest dollars will come from people passing at this age and older: 89.            The big wealth transfer is big news. We see it in presentations, articles, and posts. But there’s also a big misunderstanding about it. Confusion about the wealth transfer comes from a simple misunderstanding. Wealth doesn’t transfer when people die. It transfers when people WITH WEALTH die. And those are two very different ages. Suppose someone is nearing age 60. If they’re in the top 10% of wealth, they’ll live 13.5 YEARS LONGER, on average, than if they were in the bottom 10% of wealth. Beyond this, charitable people live longer than others within their same wealth category. This all leads to our statistic of the day.            Why were charitable bequest dollars essentially flat for the first 20 years of this century? Because that’s when the Depression Era Baby Bust generation dominated the key age ranges of 85-95. (That’s when most charitable wealth is actually transferred.) And what about the Baby Boomers? The impact has already started, but it won’t peak for years. The oldest Baby Boomers won’t hit 85 until 2031.            So, what does this mean for bequest fundraising? Don’t ignore your oldest friends. In an Australian national study, 77% of charitable dollars were transferred by documents signed in the 80s and 90s. A U.S. study showed that these final documents usually contain changes in the charitable component. And if you’re communicating with your oldest friends based only on recency of donation, you’ll go silent right when they’re signing the controlling documents. Charitable estate decedents typically stopped donating in the last 3 to 5 years of life. In a study of Australia’s biggest charities, 40% of legacy society members had no communication from the organization in their last two years of life. No surprise, this ignored group was 2X more likely to leave the organization out of their final will documents.            Working with older people is essential to success in bequest fundraising. And yes, age-related issues can make the work harder. But the wealth transfer isn’t going to be making young people wealthy. (People aged 65 are still net recipients of estate wealth, not net transferers.) Of course, getting in the will early is powerful. It leads to larger estate gifts and larger current gifts. But we can’t just count it and forget it. The charitable bequest winners will stay connected with their oldest friends.            References: See research article links at https://lnkd.in/dAP9ZPVV See also https://lnkd.in/guhGuSXf

🌟 Sometimes the simplest ideas create the most meaningful impact on our students' lives and institutional culture... When I was Director at Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT) Manipal, I noticed a significant gap in how we recognized student achievements outside academics. While we had structured systems to reward academic excellence, the incredible work students were doing through student clubs, NGOs, and personal initiatives often went unnoticed. During a team meeting, a colleague suggested something beautifully simple - inviting these students for "Tea with the Director" to share their stories. We launched this initiative with some uncertainty about how it would be received. To our pleasant surprise, students embraced it wholeheartedly. Each session allowed them to take the stage and share their experiences - what they had created, challenges they overcame, and the impact of their work. I'd appreciate their efforts, take photos with them, and share these achievements on social platforms. When I later became President (Vice Chancellor) at Manipal University Jaipur (MUJ), Rajasthan, we continued this tradition as "Tea with the President" with equal success. I thank the student welfare team in both organizations for their excellent coordination. What began as a simple recognition opportunity evolved into something far more meaningful. Students included these recognitions in their CVs, which employers and universities abroad valued. We built comprehensive records of student achievements beyond academics, strengthening our institutional narrative for accreditation. Most importantly, I observed these students developing stronger self-esteem, performing better academically, and forming deeper connections with like-minded peers and their institution. Key takeaways for educational leaders: 1. Recognition doesn't always require elaborate systems - sometimes informal, genuine appreciation creates the deepest impact 2. Celebrating co-curricular and extra-curricular activities strengthens student engagement with their institution 3. Simple acknowledgment often fuels continued excellence and innovation 4. Recording non-academic achievements significantly strengthens institutional quality narratives 5. Creating platforms for students to share their stories inspires others to pursue their passions Have you implemented any unconventional recognition systems at your institution? What simple practices have you found most effective in acknowledging student achievements beyond academics? #HigherEducation #StudentRecognition #AcademicLeadership #StudentEngagement #InstitutionalCulture #EducationalInnovation

Are We Prepared For the Rising Tide of Philanthropic Thought? A 2023 study of why the affluent give, conducted by the Bank of America and the Lilly School of Philanthropy, shows a significant shift in philanthropic thought. Younger affluent individuals (those born in 1981 and after) are creating a philanthropic agenda that differs significantly from that of Baby Boomers and the Silent Generation. If present trends continue, younger individuals will establish education as the greatest cause, displacing religion, the dominant reason to give for older individuals. Following close behind in younger individuals' philanthropic priorities is climate change. The top two preferences of younger individual eclipse all other preferences of older individuals including healthcare and veterans affairs. The chart below shows the need to harvest the goodwill that has accrued to the favorite causes of older generations while increasingly feeding the appetite of rising generations. Organizations like colleges and universities need to be avoid misdirecting their appeals - such as trying to get older individuals to respond as fervently to climate change or assuming younger individuals will be as passionate about healthcare. Even more important is for all organizations to understand donors are increasingly likely to attach themselves to causes, then find the organizations that best advance them. Therefore, they are less and less likely to begin as or become institutional loyalists. Their cause orientation will make them less receptive to appeals to subsidize operations and more focused on specific ways to advance their favored causes to the betterment of society. One need only look at the many appeals made by institutions of higher learning to see how so few understand current and emerging philanthropic realities. So many are still stuck on antiquated ideal of alumni "giving back," never mind the indebtedness of many or the unevenness of economic opportunity that constitutes their reality. Many persist in those antiquated constructs despite a 38 year decline in alumni participation and the fact that now less than one in 10 alumni "give back." If institutions wanted to attract more philanthropic energy, their leaders will have to grasp the simple fact that they must behave, respond, and organize like a cause and stop acting like a fixed-in-time, entitled institution.

Boomers are funding your mission. We’re in the middle of the biggest wave of donors in history. This generation isn’t just generous—they’re massive. There has never been a donor class this large before, and there likely never will be again. But we’ve got about a decade left before they start aging out. Then comes Gen X and the Millennials. They give less often. Their average gift is smaller. And they’re harder to retain—for now. That’s not a crisis. It’s just where they are in life. Every generation gives more as they hit their late 60s. There’s no reason to believe this one will be any different. But here's the catch: there are fewer of them. So what do you do? First, meet Boomers where they are. They prefer direct mail. They value face-to-face relationships. They write checks. They’re funding your mission today Don’t expect them to be digitally native. That’s like asking me to use TikTok. Not going to happen. But do use their support to build what’s next. Invest in systems that will resonate with the next generation: • Test new digital tools • Adapt messaging • Build out your data • Layer in multi-channel strategies Just don’t make the mistake of abandoning your core donors to chase a future one. The nonprofits that thrive in 2035? They’re the ones using today’s momentum to prepare—without forgetting who got them here. #Fundraising #DonorRetention #NonprofitLeadership #DirectMail #NonprofitGrowth #EngageUSA #DonorEngagement #MultiChannel #GenerationalStrategy

Something incredible is happening in philanthropy… I've been immersed in the new Bank of America Private Bank Study (a goldmine of insights!), and it's revealing a seismic shift in how the next generation approaches philanthropy. Here's what caught my attention: 1. The next gen isn't just writing checks - they're completely reimagining philanthropy. A staggering 91% made charitable contributions last year, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. The REAL story? They're bringing philanthropy to the boardroom before they even talk investment strategy. Check out these mind-blowing stats: --88% want direct involvement in causes (not just passive giving) --92% integrate giving into their early financial planning --73% are actively seeking innovative giving vehicles --86% believe they'll be more effective than previous generations One quote really resonated: "Philanthropy plays such a core role in their wealth goals that three in 10 wealthy people say they discuss it with their financial advisor in their earliest conversations, before they've even developed an investment plan." What This Means for Nonprofits: --Traditional donor engagement? Dead. --Impact metrics? Non-negotiable. --Digital engagement? Essential. --Passive giving programs? Time for a remake. I'm seeing this play out in real-time with organizations I assist. Those embracing this shift are seeing unprecedented engagement. Those clinging to old models... well, they're struggling. Here's my burning question for you: How is your organization adapting to this new breed of philanthropist? What's working? What's not? Drop your insights below - let's learn from each other! 👇 #PhilanthropicLeadership #NextGenDonors #NonprofitInnovation #SocialImpact #FutureOfGiving

As humans, we all face obstacles to taking action. For philanthropists, these barriers are often psychological, unconscious, and can stall their fundamental desire to give. In this moment of compounding crises, failing to move resources puts communities and the nonprofits that support them in a perilous position. When the stakes are this high, three specific barriers from our recent research feel particularly important: 1️⃣ Too Many Choices The complexity of modern social issues creates endless choice points. In a moment where everything feels urgent this can lead to total paralysis. ✅ Start with just one grant. Making one learning grant—even an imperfect one—can help a donor get unstuck. Use it to gain clarity and inform future giving. 2️⃣ Fear of Public Scrutiny Donors often fear being judged for their values or the potential failure of a high-profile grant. ✅ Take risks. Philanthropy has the unique privilege of taking risks that others cannot. By setting public expectations that you are experimenting, you normalize the learning that only comes from taking those risks. Uplift your successes too and help change the narrative that projects fail more than they succeed. 3️⃣ The Worry That You Need to Learn More to Make Good Decisions  Accomplished leaders are used to being experts, but uncertainty is inherent in grantmaking. As a result, funders tend to seek out opportunities that seem accessible, easily understood, and certain. Facing a sea of jargon and divergent expert views, many donors stall, believing they lack the competence to make a risky bet. ✅ Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Make one grant to get started, create a learning agenda, outsource the research when needed, and learn with others when you can. Adopting a learning mindset means realizing that you will never feel 100 percent prepared, but you can always be 100 percent committed. Overcoming Psychological Barriers to Giving by the National Center for Family Philanthropy (NCFP) explores the ten most common barriers to giving and provides actionable ways to move past them. I recommend that donors and advisors alike dive into these findings to understand how we can better get out of our own way. In a time of crisis, the most effective thing we can do is recognize these barriers, acknowledge our privilege as stewards, and move resources forward.