Sharpe Blog

In my experience, planned giving is affected by some things and not others. Interest rates: The biggest influence on how gifts are made is interest rates. For example, low interest rates provide an incentive to set up gift annuities. High interest rates (traditionally associated with high inflation) provide a disincentive to set up fixed payment …Read More

In my blog post of May 27th (An Era of Heightened Scrutiny Arising for Donor Advised Funds?), I noted the case of the Fairbairns versus Fidelity Investments Charitable Fund (Fidelity). Their complaint alleged Fidelity failed to follow their investment recommendation on a liquidating strategy of a $100 million gift of lightly traded stock representing 10% …Read More

It’s well known in certain quarters that a charitable lead annuity trust (CLAT) works well in a low-interest-rate environment. We’re in such an environment, so let’s drill down into the CLAT. First, the big picture. A CLAT makes an annuity payment to charity for either a fixed term of years or a life. The life …Read More

Throughout 2020, Americans have revealed the depth of their generosity, giving to causes crucial to surviving the impacts of the pandemic and organizations that matter to them. However, the economic crisis impacted many donors’ ability to give, and continued economic uncertainty could impact giving into next year. October, November and December are traditionally the three …Read More

What problem? The problem, in my opinion, is that flawed software pervades society. Cut to the chase: The problem extends far beyond charitable fundraising, but let’s focus on a major difficulty facing charities today. It’s getting an IRA beneficiary distribution from a financial institution. You may ask, is this a software problem? Answer: Yes. The …Read More

One of the challenging, yet rewarding, aspects of development work is understanding the motivations of donors, especially those capable of significant gifts. Here I offer four examples of major donors, “hidden in plain view,” addressing an identical problem with slightly different motivations. For each of these examples, the need being addressed is the disruption of …Read More

Language If you’re a PG (planned giving) officer, you work on situations involving older individuals. Typically, individuals north of age 70. These individuals are, for the most part, what I call “traditionalists.” In particular, most of them were educated in the traditional use of the English language. In traditional use, one does not write, for …Read More

Sharpe Group’s new Online Academy debuted last week with Planned Giving #101—An Introduction to Planned Giving, featuring presentations by Sharpe Group Senior Consultants and Senior Vice Presidents Joe Chickey and John Jensen, and me. Development professionals across a broad cross section of charitable missions joined us virtually to learn the tools of charitable gift planning …Read More

Form 8283 is really two different forms having two different purposes. The main purpose of the first page (Section A) is to report gifts of marketable securities having a value greater than $500 and other gifts for which a “Qualified Appraisal” is not required. The main purpose of the second page (Section B) is to …Read More

You may be wondering if there is really a need for one more report during the pandemic. Though we are inundated with figures and graphs and charts and tables these days, we think there might be room for one more … one that comes directly from you and your peers and shares what life looks …Read More