HOW TO BE A PHILANTHROPIST, CONTINUED
How and what you give should correlate with the
and you might begin offering gifts before being
impact you hope to make with your philanthropy. Do
asked. Eventually, you may be involved in highly
you like to make small gifts for many organizations
personalized solicitation/negotiation/acceptance
or large ones for a chosen few? Do you prefer to give
processes involving financial and legal advisors.
alone, on your schedule, or do you like the idea of leveraging your gifts with others by responding to challenges or partnerships? Do you want your total donation put to immediate use (operations), or would you like to have most of it saved, with a specified portion doled out annually (endowment)?
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Ms. Melissa Mencotti Director of Gift Planning Allegheny College 520 N. Main Street Meadville, PA 16335
How you give will also depend upon the activities you wish to support, your resources, your age, and your financial goals, as charitable gift planning can
Heiress Tracy Gary, the author of Inspired Philanthropy, writes that “the three essential ingredients for philanthropy are giving, caring, and intention.” Intention is a guide for action, and there are a
This semiannual newsletter, named for M. Ella Nash, Class of 1873, the College’s first female graduate, celebrates women’s philanthropy.
Fall 2022
How To Be a Philanthropist
host of reasons for making charitable gifts, including: • Desire to help
• Tax avoidance
• Gratitude
• Obligation
• Faith and family traditions
• Family wealth planning
• Supporting one’s values and interests
• To be remembered
• To associate with like-minded others
• It simply feels good
• Social pressures and rewards
• Because you are asked PHILANTHROPY IN ACTION
Smaller gifts will have greater buying power when
are solicited through mass communications, and
put to current use, for endowments last in perpetuity
are usually made from readily available cash and
by making only a minimal percentage available for
equivalents. Major gifts stem from personalized
annual spending. Generally, making larger gifts to
solicitations for specific initiatives. They come from
fewer organizations will have a more significant
assets that have increased in value over time, such
impact, yet many organizations like Allegheny are
as bank accounts, stocks and bonds, individual
judged, in part, by their number of donors and are
retirement accounts, donor-advised funds, private
thus grateful for annual support regardless of gift size.
foundations, real estate, and other tangible items.
You may respond to solicitations from friends, family members, neighbors, employers, and fundraising appeals. In time, you may develop relationships with organizational staff and volunteers, perhaps increasing your involvement as your financial giving expands.
Estate and legacy gifts are made through wills, retirement accounts, life insurance, real estate, beneficiary designations, and charitable annuities and trusts (that pay donors income during life, with the balances put to organizational use at their deaths).
Your philanthropy may become more targeted, even
Returning to your “why” may help you to clarify
within the organizations you have long supported,
what, if anything, you would like or expect in continued on inside right
Ella Nash Society Inspiring Women, Informing Philanthropy
help with tax and wealth management issues. Most annual gifts to charity support general operations,
The
We feature Sarah Cochran in this issue because of
to specific nonprofits, or that your gifts do not align
her tremendous, yet little-known, impact on the
with what you consider important because you give
College. Sarah was a philanthropist in the way we
from a sense of obligation. Perhaps you have not yet
traditionally think of them: she accomplished all she
been a donor. This assessment can help you to focus
did for Allegheny and others from a position of great
on the charities and causes that are most meaningful
wealth. Yet, the only real difference between her
for you.
A Love of
Learning Pre-pandemic, about 35 students
bring out our inner philanthropists (donor, volunteer,
Hanson fostered a love of learning
per year studied abroad at one of
or both) and create a financial giving plan through
at Allegheny for 40-plus years as
20-plus Allegheny-vetted institutions.
self-reflection, an understanding of our ability to
a teacher, chair of the modern
Meredythe Baird ’23, a dual major in
give, and knowledge about the organizations whose
languages department, faculty
business and Spanish, is in Seville this
missions align with our interests. Read on.
it seems that we hear from all of them! — so a bit of
secretary, live-in residence hall
fall with support from the Hanson
Reviewing your current and past gifts to charity is a
identify possible recipients by talking with friends
great first step. Look at the organizations and causes
and family, financial and legal advisors, librarians,
you supported, what and when you gave, and how
community foundations, United Ways, and the Better
you got to the gifts. Were you asked for them, or did
Business Bureau’s Wise Alliance, and by searching
you give them proactively? Were they planned, or
the Internet. Websites like www.charitynavigator.org
did you give as inspired? Are there patterns? What
and www.GuideStar.org provide information about
might they suggest? You may find that you gravitate
organizations’ financial health and practices.
The late Professor Emerita Blair
advisor, and friend. Students were immersed in
Scholarship. She wrote that immersing herself as
languages and culture on campus and abroad
much as possible in Spanish culture will help her
under her leadership. Colleagues, friends, and
to better understand others and their worldviews,
students honored her when she retired in 1981
which will be important to her career. Meredythe
with the Blair Hanson Scholarship Fund to help
carries the memory of Prof. Hanson, whom she
defray students’ expenses for studying a foreign
describes as a kindred spirit, with her this year,
language abroad.
grateful every day.
and most readers is the scale of her gifts. We all can
Your “why” will affect where, how, and when you make your gifts, and it will likely change with time and circumstances. There are millions of registered charitable organizations in the U.S. — and sometimes research will help you to narrow the field. You may
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