Addressing charitable giving priorities with clients does not need to be hard. The key is to be interested, informed, relevant, and authentic. Here is a tip for each.

Show genuine interest.

Dale Carnegie’s maxim, “To be interesting, be interested,” is good advice for nearly every social or business encounter. Showing interest is especially important with charitable giving topics because giving can be very personal and emotional. When you are reviewing a client’s tax return, for example, ask about the charitable organizations the client supports.

Provide information.

Many of your clients may want to donate but they might feel overwhelmed about making the correct choices. Encourage clients to look at being philanthropic through CFAAC. The staff at CFAAC can explain the tax advantages and the flexibility a Donor Advised Fund (DAF) provides. For example, your clients can distribute their philanthropy to the nonprofit organizations they love on their own timelines at their own pace through a DAF or bundle their contributions into one year. Philanthropy can also be achieved through estate planning, designating DAFs to receive funds and endow them to go on in perpetuity. 

Stay relevant.

Tax reform is on the minds of many clients. This gives you an opening to talk about potential changes to the tax rates and what might happen to capital gains treatment. Explore each client’s balance of charitable interests versus leaving inheritances to family members. Charitable clients will be glad to know you are up to date on lobbying efforts of nonprofit sector leaders. Many charitable clients serve on nonprofit boards whose members also would find this information useful. For example, in its April 16, 2021 letter to Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen, the Charitable Giving Coalition noted that the charitable deduction is “unique” and “promotes a selfless act, incentivizing taxpayers to give more funds to charities than they would otherwise give.”

Be authentic about COVID-19.

Nearly everyone has been affected by the pandemic. Sharing your own experiences can encourage clients to open up. Charitable giving is a natural topic of this conversation. According to a study conducted by Candid, U.S. foundations, corporations, and individual donors stepped up by granting more than $10.7 billion as of early 2021 to address pandemic-related challenges. CFAAC, alone, granted $1.3 million to 240 nonprofits through its Community Crisis Response Fund in 2020. “There is no doubt that philanthropy has responded to COVID-19 on a scale not seen before,” noted the study’s authors. Inspiring statistics like these bring home the importance of charitable giving as part of a family’s overall financial and estate plan. Find out how CFAAC’s board, staff, and donors are rallying to meet the COVID-19 challenges in our own community by contacting our Development Department at 410.280.1102 x102 or via email at Amy@cfaac.org.