We journeyed to St. Louis in early April to present our new Partner Program to attendees of the Heartbeat International annual conference. We were blessed to share our ideas with 53 souls eager to learn how to cultivate major donors willing to maximize their charitable gifts.
As our attendees learned, it’s non-cash gifts that sustain and transform the mission of a pregnancy help center. For donors, these gifts last well beyond the year they are gifted. Beneficial tax laws for major donors have been around for decades, but employees and volunteers in small centers lack the skills to cultivate large gifts.
Non-cash assets usually comprise 80-90% of a donor’s wealth. Letting this resource go untapped is common, considering that it takes advanced estate planning techniques. Rarely do non-profits have those capabilities in-house.
In our workshop, we explained that because we are a 501(c)(3) public foundation, we can meet with families who have private foundations to explain how they can quietly and anonymously give to a pregnancy help center. We demonstrated to those tasked with donor development to ask specific questions of their cash donors in order to generate an interest in using their assets today to avoid taxation later. We explained how certain charitable planning tools can provide residual income for donors during their life time, a more secure inheritance for their heirs, or form the basis of a family legacy.
An integral cog in our Partner Program wheelhouse is our financial investment partner. Our parter understands our vision and mission and adheres to our strict pro-life, pro-family, anti-pornography investment policy. They offer investment portfolios that are 95-100% supportive of pro-life causes and that avoid investments at odds with the fundamental Christian faith on which we built our Foundation.
Those who attended our workshop were pleased with our approach to partnering. For example, we don’t change current fundraising procedures; we add a bold new layer of morally responsible investing rarely seen in the philanthropic world. We work with donors’ existing financial professionals as long as our values are respected and implemented. Our modest fees respect the slim operating budgets of our partners.
Knowing that we work on behalf of the director, staff, and board members, and alongside current outside advisors and professionals provides an important level of comfort. Our program provides training workshops, donor motivation seminars, webinars, and other education and hands-on participation to make non-cash major gifts a reality. If you have questions about our Partner Program, contact Executive Director, Jim Kebe: 614-582-5056, jimkebe@stewardshipworks.org.
For several years now we have been blessed to partner with Heartbeat International whose mission is to provide pro-life pregnancy resource centers in the U.S. They represent the very touchstone of the foundation’s mission. In past years, we’ve always exhibited at their annual conference, but this year we are additionally blessed with the opportunity to present a workshop at the 2015 Annual Conference in St. Louis, April 7-10.
For starters, what is a DAF? It’s an acronym for Donor Advised Fund, a charitable giving vehicle administered by a qualified public charity, like the Stewardship Foundation, for the purpose of managing charitable donations on behalf of an organization, family or individual.