Giving Advice: Winter 2007

In This Issue:

Featured Links:

A Newsletter for Professional Advisors from the East Bay Community Foundation

____________________________________________________

FOR RETIRED CLIENTS: STAY ENGAGED

As baby boomers age and the ranks of retirees swell, more people are exploring ways to stay engaged and active in retirement. That doesn’t just mean physical fitness or travel. It means mental engagement and doing things truly meaningful.

We can help you and your retired client with opportunities to make a difference through charitable giving. We can provide an opportunity for you to involve children and grandchildren in a family tradition of giving. Creating a vehicle for giving gives everyone a chance to talk about the values that are important to them individually and to the family.

A donor-advised fund at a community foundation or other sponsoring organization can be opened quickly with a relatively small initial gift of $10,000. With minimal fees, we provide back-office support your client needs and the community knowledge your client wants.


IRA ROLLOVER OPTION EXPIRES AT THE END OF 2007

Through the Pension Protection Act of 2006, Congress opened a window allowing people age 70½ or older to make tax-free distributions to charitable organizations from their traditional IRA accounts of up to $100,000. Although it’s possible legislation will extend the window, these charitable IRA rollover gifts are currently allowed only through the end of 2007.

For more information on the lobbying efforts to extend and expand this opportunity, or to learn how this option can work for your clients, please call Development Officer Sara DuBois at 510.208.0817 or sdubois@eastbaycf.org.



RETIRED TEACHER COUPLE’S $3 MILLION SCHOLARSHIP FUND

A long-time married couple – both retired school teachers – has established an anonymous $3 million testamentary scholarship fund at the Foundation to provide scholarships for graduates of Oakland’s “McClymonds Educational Complex” who go on to college or trade school.

The McClymonds complex consists of BEST High School and EXCEL High School, both college preparatory schools.

After meetings with Director of Philanthropic Services Carolyn Doelling to share their plans, the developing relationship and our passion for educating youth convinced the couple to open the fund with us. Since retiring, the couple has been mentoring young African-American students.

SF CHRONICLE EDITORIAL: OUR “MAGIC WATER”

We’re pleased to be recognized by the San Francisco Chronicle in an extraordinary editorial published March 26 praising our capabilities to attract Nobel Prize winners as fund holders.

The editorial speculates that “clearly there’s some magic water flowing into the taps” of our marketing department because we’ve attracted the likes of physicist George Smoot and economist Daniel McFadden, both Nobel laureates at the University of California, Berkeley. Smoot and McFadden both converted their Nobel winnings into charitable funds with us – Smoot earlier this year and McFadden in 2000.

Although we’d love to have some, “magic water” isn’t the reason. We worked with them in the same way we work with all our fund holders and their advisors — whether they’re famous or not.

We go out of our way to help you help your clients. We offer the right services and tools for charitable giving. We personally work with fund holders and advisors to provide the customized package you want and need. And when fund holders are on board, our priority is to keep them happy by meeting and exceeding their expectations.

To view full editorial click on: http://www.ebcf.org/nobel.pdf

REPRINTS: CRTs IN MIDLIFE CRISIS

Because of the response to a seminar we held recently focusing on Charitable Remainder Trusts (CRTs), we are offering reprints of materials distributed at this interesting session conducted by David Wheeler Newman of Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp LLP.

Newman’s message is that planners need to know alternatives available if a course correction is required during the very long term of a CRT. Donors’ income requirements and philanthropic objectives may change over time, and it may be desirable to explore ways to change the arrangement to fit changed circumstances or simply to correct a mistake.

Newman’s presentation addresses issues that arise when clients/donors complain that their CRTs no longer fit, and he illustrates responses and solutions while analyzing the tax consequences of each alternative.

For a copy of the written materials from this presentation, please contact Development Officer Wendy Leiderman at 510.208.0844, wleiderman@eastbaycf.org.

The session was co-sponsored by Children’s Hospital and Research Center Foundation.