Getting Started: Creating a Charitable Giving Plan

There are many models for creating and managing a giving plan.  The most important aspect of any plan is that you actually use it - plans should evolve as your life, interests and financial circumstances change.

"Keeping it simple" is also a critical feature.  I don't think a plan has to be particularly complex in order to get started.   A simple starting point is to just look at  your record of tax related charitable deductions or gifts to family members.  I suggest everyone start by gathering your records for as far back as you can and just listing all your gifts - start by looking at what you've actually done.   In my family we created a one page spreadsheet that just started as a list of charities, with columns for each year's gifts (see attached).  If we didn't give money, the column makes note of time given or "research" conducted that resulted in a decision to make a gift somewhere else.

Once you've got your historical list, you've got the opportunity to expand the columns to reflect anticipated future giving as well as any estate plan provisions you might want to contemplate.  Again, keep this simple.  At this point you don't have to figure out exactly how much you'd like to be giving - it's more to open your awareness that it's possible you might be giving to that cause for the next 10 years, or that you'd expect the level of giving you're doing now to drop off once the kids leave school, or your income levels flatten out with retirement.

Another thought provoking exercise is to add a column for estate gifts.  Even if charitable giving is a minor part of your estate plans at this point in your life, knowing your priorities will help.  It's also a great way to start looking at your giving as an overall percentage of your annual expenditures and comparing those percentages with your lifetime priorities.   All too often folks find they've fallen into giving patterns that were never really thought through - you respond to requests from friends, go to charity events, or react to the latest natural disaster without reflecting on how this giving can become part of your life story.  Setting a goal as simple as "Someday, I'd like to think I could give away 10% of my wealth to charitable organizations" will help bring some focus to your planning and sets the stage for a lifetime's involvement in building community wealth.