There’s always been a connection between the nonprofit sector and professionals like lawyers, financial planners, insurance agents, and accountants, but usually it’s been at the board of directors’ level. There is, however, a small but growing association between nonprofits and these professional groups in the area of planned giving. When both sides work together, nonprofit organizations gain an important source of future revenue, while the clients of the allied professionals gain important tax advantages.

The Canadian Association of Gift Planners (CAGP) is very interested in fostering a closer connection between nonprofit organizations and allied professionals. Executive director Diane MacDonald encourages allied professionals to talk to their clients about philanthropy when discussing estate planning, wills and life insurance, for instance. She wants these professionals to see that planned giving makes sense from a business perspective and to understand important planned giving strategies. To this end, CAGP holds an annual conference – open to both nonprofit organizations and allied professionals – as well as a symposium every other year with advanced planned giving topics and a think tank session. In addition, 21 roundtables in communities across Canada host local educational opportunities.

Strategic planned giving benefits the donor and the organization

CAGP member Jonathon Neale – who is also vice president and branch manager with Assante Capital Management in Halifax – is a planned giving convert. He’s been in financial planning for 25 years, and for 24 of those years he’s been an active volunteer with various nonprofit organizations. Still, he never really made the connection between his professional work and his association with these nonprofits until three years ago when one of the nonprofits sent him to a CAGP conference.

That experience turned him on to planned giving. Now he says, “my long-term job is to introduce my clients to the whole concept of gift giving and let them find the charity they want to associate with. Then we create a package that gives my client the tax advantages and the most dollars for the charity as well.” It’s fairly straightforward, yet these strategies that help Neale to help his clients are relatively new to a lot of allied professionals. That’s why CAGP has a very important educational role to play.

Counsel vs. Council

The Planned Giving Counsel of Simcoe County is a local initiative that has connected and educated local nonprofits and allied professionals about planned giving since 1999. The play on words – counsel instead of council – is very deliberate. The idea was to create a forum for the two sides to meet and provide ‘counsel’ to one other.

Ann Andrusyszyn is the current chair of the counsel and also the development officer for the Barrie Public Library. From her nonprofit perspective, what’s important about the counsel is the education roundtables and the opportunity to share information and experiences. She gains technical expertise from the allied professionals and learns from her nonprofit colleagues about how they’ve handled similar situations. “One of the things people find surprising is that we don’t look at each other (i.e. the nonprofit organizations) as competitors. We come to counsel and share our knowledge. I think that’s more surprising to the allied professionals because it could look like we are in competition for their clients,” remarks Andrusyszyn.

David Bumstead, managing partner of Wise Riddell Financial Group, is the co-founder and past chair of the counsel. For him, “the concept of the counsel is that more people would give if they knew how. Research says the biggest reason why donors haven’t made a planned gift is that no one ever suggested it. The counsel’s role is to raise awareness of the opportunities that exist to all the related potential audiences.”

Recognizing the need to inform donors

Financial planners partnering with nonprofit organizations is not new to Christian Stewardship Services (CSS). Since 1976, CSS has connected donors, charities and ministries. “The germ of the idea came from a group of ministry charities that had a common root and they realized there was a real need for donors to be informed about planned giving opportunities,” says Henry Eygenraam, executive director of CSS. “It was somewhat self-serving. The thought was, ‘if we get together and provide planned giving and financial and tax advice to our donors they’ll be in a better position to support us’.”

The small group of ministries and charities collectively employed a staff person whose job it was to visit donors on behalf of the charities and to talk about estate planning, wills, powers of attorney, etc. Right from the beginning, the service was national in scope but remained a one-person operation for a long time. Today, 40 charities and nonprofit partners, plus 100 Christian schools, pay a fee to support five full-time equivalent staff.

Helping donors support what they care about

People typically hear about CSS through one of the ministries that support the work of CSS and arrange for a meeting with a representative. “We’re a conduit between charities and donors,” explains Eygenraam. “We’re not financial planning in terms of selling products. We work with the professionals the family is already involved with. Families have issues they want to deal with and we ask a lot of questions to help them. We get to meet and visit and work with individuals who are motivated and who make use of the tools – insurance, financial planning, etc. – to support things they care about. You get to help them do what they want to do.”

Planned giving generates necessary funds for nonprofit organizations and important tax advantages for donors, and there is much to be gained when allied professionals and nonprofit organizations work together. However, it’s a slow process when you consider the thousands of allied professionals in Canada. But MacDonald is hopeful. “About 10 or 12 years ago, the government changed charitable giving laws and we gained powerful estate planning laws. It’s taken about 10 years for the changes to filter through. Corporately there’s been a real change in the banking and insurance industry, so it’s on their radar, but it takes a while to filter down to the local branches where they meet with the clients.” When it does, it will be a boon all around.

Louise Chatterton Luchuk is a freelance writer and consultant who combines her love of writing with experience at the local, provincial and national levels of volunteer-involving organizations. For more information, visit www.luchuk.com.