Q: What is this blog all about? A: Creating charitable giving plans that work

The premise of this blog is that you don't have to be super wealthy to be a thoughtful participant in building community wealth.  In the same way our investment returns are higher if we "pick a winner," our charitable giving dollars will produce more impact if we create a strategic giving plan and then manage it to follow those opportunities that generate the best results.

My experience is drawn from the example of my life partner, Ric Weiland, who directed his executors to distribute the vast majority of his wealth - more than $160 million - to 20 charities after his death in 2006.  While his financial legacy may be unprecedented, his bequests were just another chapter in an investment and charitable giving plan honed through two decades of thoughtful reflection and careful research.  Central to his planning were two concepts (1) an appreciation of his own risk tolerance, and (2) the rigorous application of a straightforward investor's performance model  to guide both his annual charitable giving and his estate planning allocations.

As Ric's partner we often discussed ways our actions could encourage high impact philanthropy.  The bottom line was we understood that one of the greatest challenges given to people of wealth was the task to inspire others to give.  No matter how much wealth you steward in this life, it's never enough to create sustainable change - you need to work with others.  However, over the years, Ric had learned that his personal wealth (he was an early Microsoft employee), had grown so dramatically because of his willingness to take well informed risks.  Consequently, part of his focus as an investor and a philanthropist, was to study how the decision making tools he developed to take informed risks could be utilized by others in the donor community - regardless of the size of their wealth, or their unique contributions of time, talent and money.

My hope is that this blog will help others discover how they can use, or refine, some of these simple analytical tools, and perhaps find some of the happiness that comes from joining others on the path towards building community wealth together.  Stay tuned for more examples, I welcome your feedback.