Meet With Your Philanthropic Advisor Before the Start of a New Year

As 2022 comes to a close, it’s important to examine your philanthropic intentions to ensure that your giving plan still matches your priorities. If not, it’s a good time to sit down with your philanthropic advisor to discuss making adjustments. According to Blackbaud’s Charitable Giving Report, 20% of charitable contributions are made in December.

You might consider the following questions when setting your philanthropic intentions for 2023:

• What excites, and inspires you?
• What are the missions, and organizations that align most closely with the values most central to you?
• What change do you want in the world?
• What are the environments, locations, communities, or other spaces that you want to preserve for future generations?
• How do you want to be a part of the change or preservation you seek?
• How might your efforts and intentions be enhanced through volunteerism, advocacy, and making connections for the organizations that matter most to you?
• What resources do you have to give this year?

Once you’ve considered aspirational goals, perhaps consider a plan or budget for your time, treasure, talents, and ties.

Ongoing Support: For the causes you’ve supported in the past, how much will you give this year?

• What organizations do you want to have a deeper relationship with?
• With whom will you build trust in 2023, and how will you help those organizations reach their goals?
• How can you expand your support to new organizations in the same sector?
• Are there upcoming capital or other major campaigns that you want to support?

Supporting Your Network: How will you answer the call of friends and family pursuing their own charitable goals?

• From neighborhood door-to-door fundraising to attending signature events with friends, or volunteering with colleagues, how will you allocate your time, and financial resources to the causes that are important to the people closest to you?

Meeting Responsive Needs: In times of crisis, how will you empower nonprofits to meet the needs of those they serve?

• Will you set aside funds and time for responsive philanthropy?
• How can you hone your disaster-giving response skills?

Engaging in New Causes: How can you be intentional about expanding the array of causes you support?

• What have you learned recently that inspires you to support new organizations?
• How much of your philanthropic budget will be allocated to supporting new-to-you organizations?
• Who or what has influenced you to support these causes?

A Philanthropic Advisor Helps Navigate the How, What, and Why of Giving

Working with a philanthropic advisor can help you align your interests, and passions with your philanthropic donations.

• Philanthropic advisors give your the tools to examine interests, and facilitate discussions.
• They identify opportunities for potential grants.
• They can coordinate with financial planning experts to help identify the giving vehicles that are most important.
  • Donor-advised funds will likely continue to be the fastest-growing philanthropic giving tool. Donor-advised funds can serve as the perfect vehicle to organize, and maximize charitable giving.
  • Depending on tax implications, a charitable tax strategy paired with donor-advised funds may be strategic. Bunching allows you to continue supporting your favorite charities while still retaining the tax benefits by contributing multiple years’ worth of donations to a donor-advised fund in a single calendar year.
• Philanthropic advisors can also help manage expectations through an economic downturn.
  • Philanthropy is quite resilient, even when the economy is volatile. According to the Blackbaud Institute, most recessions over the last 40 years have not significantly impacted the sector.

If you are interested in talking to professionals about philanthropic giving, contact us at info@greaterhorizons.org or call 866.719.7886. We can help you establish a charitable giving strategy that meets your needs for 2023 and beyond.