Planned Giving Coaching - Part 1 |
Oct 15, 2009 |
I just read a great book, second time over, called The Eternity Portfolio by Alan Gotthardt. If you haven't read it, you need to add it to the top of your list to read, not just for yourself but also for how you coach your champions when talking about planned giving.
One of the Christian values Gotthardt spends quite a bit of time on is our responsibility to invest in our family and invest in others. I find that most people are pretty good at the former, but not so good at the latter. Not because they don't want to be, but more because they've just not thought enough about it. Case in point, listen to what I learned from an estate attorney I met a few weeks ago:
She shared with me how most people she advises assume that all their assets should just be given to their kids. (Is there an unwritten obligation about this somewhere that I can read about??) She doesn't let them get away with this thinking though, and asks "Is that how much they need?" The response is almost always, "Well, no..." From there they go back to the drawing board and determine how much they really do need, and then just see what's left over to give away for other purposes. Surprisingly, there's a nice sum of money to be able to give away. The next question is "Is there a cause that you've been a part of that you'd like to give to?" And almost always she hears back a resounding "Why Yes!"
Sidebar: Interestingly, there was a survey done by Third Sector in the UK and which found that nearly 9 out of 10 people would be "proud and pleased" to see their parents leave money to charity in their wills after they have looked after their family. Why the perception gap? Maybe us older children need to not be so shy about TELLING our parents such things, eh?
I appreciate this attorney's approach because one of the things we know to be true in transformational giving is that giving and giving well is something we have to learn how to do. It just doesn't come natural. She's nicely coaching those who come to her to be better givers and do so in a way that reflects their values. This is precisely what we should be doing in our nonprofit work - coaching champions on how to give so that it reflects their Christian values AND becomes an act of trust in God and a faith building exercise. The Lord has put many things in our possession (tangible and intangible, financial and nonfinancial) and we should be coaching champions on what it looks like to pass these things along not just to family but to the body of believers.
