The Trust Factor, and Why It Matters to Your Clients
Gifts to charity provide critical support for more than a million organizations helping to sustain the quality of life in our community every year. Philanthropy equates to 2% of GDP–that’s a little more than the home health care services sector. Before your clients decide to give to an organization, trust is growing as a “must-have” prerequisite, increasing from 63.9% to 69.9% between December 2021 and December 2022.**
Every day, Greater Cincinnati Foundation (GCF) works alongside our Governing Board, civic leaders, and nonprofit organizations to deeply understand the areas where the people in our community need the most help. Today’s most pressing needs might be for emergency assistance in response to a natural disaster. Tomorrow, our community might need scholarships for inner city youth or research investments to improve access to healthcare. GCF has our finger on the pulse of the community’s top priorities and the best way to address them through powerful connections, deep community knowledge and more than 60 years of convening resources in our community.
Individuals and families can establish multiple funds at GCF to meet all their various charitable giving needs.
For example, a family might establish a donor advised fund (DAF) to organize their regular annual giving, making it easy to track gifts of appreciated stock and support for many individual charities. A member of this same family might also set up a charitable remainder trust with GCF as the beneficiary to accept a gift of highly appreciated real estate and retain an income stream for life. They may explore additional options that include establishing a fund for Qualified Charitable Distributions or setting up an endowed fund that provides a generous tax credit for Kentucky taxpayers.
The family might use their DAF as a tool for their legacy planning. By naming the fund as a beneficiary of their estate, they can have multiple generations advise the fund, or GCF can steward their charitable giving plan according to their specific wishes. Often it is in this legacy planning that a
family might also establish an unrestricted fund or make gifts to existing funds that are specifically designated to address the most critical emerging needs of our community in perpetuity.
We know that everyone has their own goals for including charity in their financial plans. Some clients have well-crafted plans for their charitable giving, and others are just beginning a journey to explore their charitable interests. Regardless of where your client is on their charitable journey, the Philanthropic Partnerships team at GCF is your partner in helping your client fulfill their charitable intentions. Taking into consideration your client’s unique situation, we can work alongside you and them to develop a plan that maximizes charitable intent and makes a lasting difference in the community we all love.
** According to findings found in the 2023 Give.org Donor Trust Report: Donor Preferences Across Income Household Brackets.
