In this issue...

• President's Message
• 2008 NCPGC Calendar
• Annual Conference Report
• Planned Giving Basics Course
• Virtual Seminars
• New Members
• Board Member Profile — Earl Blauner
• Member Profile — Carolyn Jean Mills Doelling
• Practical and Whimsical Marketing Experiences — Patricia Z. Cowden
• Marketing Your Endowment — Kevin Johnson, CSPG, CFRE
• Favorite Donor Story: What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas — Tom Horton

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2008 Council Calendar

MONDAY, AUGUST 18 
Last day to register for the Planned Giving Basics Course

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8 - OCTOBER 13 
Planned Giving Basics Course
A Six-Part course for Beginners (Refresher Course for Intermediates)

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13
Luncheon Meeting: TBA
Primer Program:  TBA

Please visit the website at www.NCPGCouncil.org for event details.

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2008 Annual Conference Report

The 16th annual conference, held May 1, was attended by nearly 400 people this year. The proceedings included a plenary session, 24 workshops, and a keynote presentation, all containing pertinent information to those engaged in all levels of charitable gift planning. Many thanks to the speakers, conference committee, and other volunteers who helped make this event so successful.

Mark your calendar for the 2009 conference which will be held on May 18. If you would like to volunteer please contact Greg Lassonde, conference chair, at (510) 4a href="#top"> Back to top

Basics Gift Planning Course Starts September 8

This introductory course in basic and intermediate gift planning has been popular and offered for about 10 years. The class continues for six consecutive weeks and each session is three hours. The cost is only $225 for council members and $275 for nonmembers. The class is limited to 40 participants and sells out each year so you will want to register soon. For more information or to register online by AUGUST 18th go to: www.NCPGCouncil.org.

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Virtual Seminars at East Bay Community Foundation

Thanks to generous underwriting from The Mechanics Bank, the East Bay Community Foundation is pleased to offer the entire 2008 series of Virtual Seminars from the National Committee on Planned Giving free of charge!

Please mark your calendars now so that you can join us for the sessions that interest you. A few upcoming seminars include:

September 17, 2008 10:00–11:30 AM
Beyond Basic Bequest Administration (aka Bequests Gone Bad) Beth McNally and Beth Ridout

November 19, 2008 10:00–11:30 AM
Realistic Tale of the Tape: Measuring the Performance of Gift Planning Officers
Joseph O. Bull and Elizabeth Ayers, JD

The seminars will be shown at the East Bay Community Foundation in downtown Oakland, and everyone is welcomed, although registration is required to ensure adequate seating. If you received Sara Dubois’s email about the seminars directly, you will be notified 2-3 weeks before each session and will have an opportunity to register then. In the meantime, feel free to contact Sara for questions @ 510-208-0817 or visit the EBCF website at www.eastbaycf.orgg.

East Bay Community Foundation is at:

De Domenico Building
200 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza
Oakland, CA 94612

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New Members

• Dale Anania, The Marine Mammal Center
• Donald Angel, A G Edwards & Sons
• Elizabeth Bacchetti, Asian Art Museum
• Jefferson Bass, RBC Wealth Management
• Barbara M. Beery, Law Office of Barbara M. Beery
• Molly Blackford, Earthjustice
• Jessica L. Blau, Spirit Rock Meditation Center
• Katherine Bonenti, Save the Redwoods League
• John Calaway, Sierra Club
• Patricia Colin, International School of the Peninsula
• Jane Cook, CTFA, Whittier Trust Company
• Tim Daniels, Telegraph Hill Neighborhood Center
• Paul T. Evanson, Concordia College Moorhead Minnesota
• Donna Faure, Telegraph Hill Neighborhood Center
• Carolyn Ogami Fuller, UC Berkeley, Office of Gift Planning
• Carolyn Hahn, Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health
• Martha Henderson, Park Day School
• Denise M. Howell, Foundation for California Community Colleges
• Sue Howell, Habitat for Humanity East Bay
• Karen Huff, Episcopal Senior Communities Foundation
• Kevin J. Hughes, Kevin Hughes
• Stacy Jackson, UCSF Foundation
• Elizabeth Leep, Chinese American International School
• Julia Ling, Chinese Hospital
• Claire Mash, The Mechanics Bank
• John Mitchell, Longyear Foundation
• Theresa A. Nagle, Folger Levin & Kahn LLP
• Richard Neuman
• Sr. Kathryn Ondreyco, SNJM, Sisters of the Holy Names
• Jessica Partch, The Trust for Public Land
• Janice Gow Pettey, Pacific Graduate School of Psychology
• Trina Planchon, Saint Mary's College of California
• Michelle B. Powers, Law Offices of William K. Holsman
• Jo-Ann Proudian, Pacific Vascular Research Foundation
• Sr. Shari Roeseler, RSM, Mercy Housing California
• Betty Shon, Chinese American International School
• John R. Tregenza, Whittier Trust Company
• Robin Venuti, Monterey Museum of Art
• Jennifer Weber, Global Fund for Women
• Steve Wilcox, Summit Financial Group
• Betsy York, Save the Redwoods League
• Jenny Zhou, HD Vest

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Board Member Profile — Earl Blauner Senior Director, Gift Planning and Endowment Northern California Public Broadcasting - KQED (San Francisco), KTEH (San Jose), and KQET (Monterey) Background:: B.A., Economics UCLA; J.D. UCLA School of Law

Please share with us your background before joining the planned giving world:
I first worked in corporate counsel positions with two major corporations, but quickly set my sights on working in the environmental non-profit world. My volunteer work developed into seven years coordinating the grass-roots legal program of Sierra Club and Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund (now EarthJustice). Then, for many years, I was “Of Counsel” to Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, working on various major projects, one of which was to help build a planned giving program. I learned in 1995 that KQED was looking for someone to establish a new planned giving program. I saw the incredible gift planning potential with KQED’s large membership and even larger audience and applied.

What do you enjoy most about your work??
Without question, it is building relationships, and the satisfaction that comes from bringing technical expertise and knowledge of my organization to help people define and implement their charitable objectives. For many, planning a charitable legacy is one of the most important and satisfying things they will do late in their lives, and it is wonderful to be a part of that.

Share with us your best planned gift story:
I’ll select a very recent gift commitment to make the point that sometimes all we need to do is provide a very small amount of critical information, and an already committed and perceptive donor can move quickly and simply to implement a planned gift. I introduced myself to a new board member at a small event we hosted to thank volunteers for their work. She asked me what I do, and after I explained, she asked how she could help. I suggested that she could set a good example as a member of the board by committing to her own planned gift. I asked if she had retirement plan assets, and when she said the “yes” I expected, I explained how easy it was to make a beneficiary designation for whatever amount she thinks appropriate. Her face lit up in a smile as she said she had never thought of that. She already fully understood the heavy tax hit involved in leaving retirement plan assets to an individual. She said “I’ll do it,” and within a few days she had made the beneficiary designation on-line, and I welcomed a new member to our Jonathan C. Rice Legacy Society. She told me in an email exchange that “ it feels good to be able to give a nice chunk, without having it impact your day-to-day!”

If you had to change one thing in the planned giving world, what would that be?
I would very much like to see the full version of the pending IRA rollover federal legislation to become law. It would authorize the rollover of IRAs to charitable remainder trusts and charitable gift annuities, in addition to the outright gifts permitted in 2006 and 2007. I regularly have to tell disappointed potential donors who want to rollover their IRAs into life income gifts that we are waiting for Congress to act. Donors are ready to move on these gifts as soon as they are permitted, and large amounts of new gifts will come to charities.

Your best resource people:
Underlying all, it is the staff of my organization, which provides the program services that donors support with a planned gift. I am fortunate to almost always begin the discussion about a gift with a donor who is already very committed to our organization, after many years of appreciating the value public broadcasting has brought to them, their families, and the community. Professionally, it is my own gift planning staff, a never-ending source of good work and effective new ideas. For brainstorming on the really tough gift planning issues, I turn to the staff of Kaspick & Company, our investment manager and trust administrator, and the attorneys and other professionals on our Planned Giving Advisory Council. As charitable gift planners, we are blessed with people all around us who recognize our charitable purposes and are willing to help.

Advice to new planned giving professional::
Tend to your marketing, build relationships, and be patient. Many prospective donors will take notice of your marketing now, but may not act on it for years, until they are truly ready to see to their estate planning. Take great satisfaction with the planned gift commitments that are made quickly, but have patience and persevere for the majority that take a long time.

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Member Profile — Carolyn Jean Mills Doelling Director of Philanthropic Services, East Bay Community Foundation Education: BA Pyschology, North Carolina Central University, Durham, North Carolina, Attended University of Colorado School of Law, Boulder Colorado, and University of Virginia CLEO, Charlottesville,Va. MBA Marketing Research, Golden Gate University, San Francisco.

Please share with us your background before joining the planned giving world:
Just prior to joining the East Bay Community Foundation (EBCF) I was a content, bon vivant, a purveyor of arts and cultural events, a member on several local boards and a volunteer in the K-12 education arena in Berkeley and Oakland. I was also making the most of any free time by managing the lives of two very special teenage kids who have subsequently made good of themselves by matriculating in two great colleges.

My professional career has all been in corporate America: AT&T, Bank of America and my own consulting firm, providing strategic marketing and sales expertise to Fortune 500 financial services firms. I am a descendant of a line of entrepreneurs in North Carolina. My grandfather was an independent farmer and rancher and my Dad was the local barber in a small and terribly poor town in North Carolina — a very smart guy who taught me, among other things the value of education and how to critically evaluate the news media. This is still one of my hobbies today. I learned all I know about baseball and Walter Cronkite from my Dad’s barber shop. Anyone who has ever spent more than five minutes in a Black barber shop will know how special that experience was..

In 2004, Mike Howe the CEO of EBCF at the time, convinced me that by joining a community foundation, I might make a meaningful contribution in influencing the outcome of the lives of African American males who are being destroyed by a lack of education , poverty and the ensuing penal system. I am still working towards that goal both externally and internally.

What do you enjoy most about your work?
The parties! The luncheons, receptions and dinner events are where you really get to know more about peoples’ lives and can lever connections between funders, donors, and CBOs. I have learned so many terrific people over the past four years: Staff of other organizations, professional advisors, grantees, other foundations and the most incredibly interesting philanthropists you could ever imagination. Each is about two degrees of separation from each other. I love connecting the dots.

Share with us your best planned gift story::
One January night I was attending the San Francisco Symphony. There was an emergency call for paramedics. Some gentleman had passed out in the Orchestra section. It was not until nine months later that I discovered that the gentleman had a fatal heart attack and that he was a donor who had made a “silent” bequest to the East Bay Community Foundation with instructions to give his estate in the areas of social justice, Jewish causes, women’s violence issues, arts education and symphonic music. Our grants staff used their community knowledge to create a terrific list of organizations that met his criteria.

We held a great luncheon party (of course) for the thrilled recipients who each received a “surprise” $40,000 gift in the presence of the donor’s niece, her husband and their lovely four year old girl and six year old boy who had already begun to save his piggy bank money to give to Tsunami victims. The gentleman was a former musician and conductor for Canadian orchestras, lived a modest life and desired to make an anonymous gift to perpetuate his passions. This type of selfless donor is the highlight of my daily experience.

If you were able to change one thing in the planned giving world, what would that be?
Let’s redefine the concept of planned giving and get more donors engaged now by doing more site visits. I would love to see planned giving experts make themselves more familiar with the organizations on the ground doing work that is transforming lives. There is nothing like the light in a donor’s eye when they meet the recipient of their generosity.

Your best resource people:
By far, my first response to that question is the gracious Jill Dodd. For a busy person she is incredibly accessible and willing to take on the most mundane questions, even if you have asked that same question for the umpteenth time. (Hmmm, do you think she is charging me for those dumb questions?) I’ll check and get back to you. Seriously, she is the greatest. After that I would say the staff at EBCF, many of whom have been with the organization long enough to collectively have all of the answers.

Advice to new planned giving professional: Drink plenty of coffee and bring the No Doz, to your first few planned giving luncheons or workshops. It’s not that easy to stay awake. All of the presenters speak a foreign language CRT CLT UBIT PPA UMIFA UPMIFA and unlike at the opera there are no overhead subtitles. It takes awhile to catch on, but stick with it. It will begin to make sense and you will be astounded at how much you have absorbed when you meet with a potential donor.

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Practical and Whimsical Marketing Experiences
by Patricia Z. Cowden, Planned Giving Professional

One of the things that I like about planned giving is the element of surprise. True, our Executive Directors and Comptrollers would really like to be able to predict what is coming in and when; I understand the importance of this. I do. However, when an unexpected bequest arrives it is such a thrill that it feels like a birthday present. Keeping in mind both the practical and the surprise elements of planned gifts, I find that there are two pieces to consider when writing about the best marketing piece of my career. I also need to add that whenever I have produced the piece that makes me proud, I see someone else’s piece that puts mine to shame. It’s just the nature of the business.

First the practical: targeted mailing. It is always a concern that sending too much mail will alienate people and targeting your audience is one way to avoid that, as well as making your message most effective. For me, working at a university gave me the distinct advantage of knowing the ages of the majority of people in our database. I strongly favor having a person who is already a planned gift donor give a testimonial and I think my most effective piece featured an alumna whose youngest child was a recent graduate – God bless databases! She spoke about her gratitude to the University for enabling her to provide well for her children and assist them with their educations. She also stated that she had changed her will to show her gratitude now that she no longer needed to provide for children. I wrote about how gratifying the time of life is when all your children are independent, and incredibly liberating, too. I said that this is typically a time when people will add causes to their wills – causes that they consider important and that they would like to foster for future generations. What better way to touch the future than to support S University through an estate gift!

Sending a letter like this at the end of each term was designed to put the idea of charitable planned gifts in front of prospective donors. Continuing contact with short, catchy pieces was intended to keep S University in the minds of people who were at a logical time of life for a revision of their estate plans. We were never at a shortage for planned gifts at the University and assume that our plan worked.

• “We offer an endowment; it’s our savings account for the future.”
• “We have smart board members who manage it. Overall, we manage our funds well; just take a look at our audit.”
• “More people should use this because it means that we will have to do less fundraising if we have endowment income.”
• “We’re going to target older donors because it seems like they would be the mostly likely to give to this fund. They’ve been with us a long time and really SHOULD give to this fund.”