Why HCF – Planning

With 84% of Canadians contributing to charity on an annual basis*, charitable giving is becoming an increasingly important part of your client’s overall financial plan.

Community foundations are a resource for advisors

Lawyers, chartered accountants, financial planners, brokers, insurance agents, and other professional advisors are turning to community foundations to help enrich the charitable giving strategies of their clients. Here’s why:

• Community foundations are neutral experts with technical information on a range of planned giving options — from executing gifts of real estate, stock, or personal property to establishing Donor Advised Funds. Community foundations help advisors provide their clients with the best charitable giving strategies based on each client’s unique financial situation, tax status, and giving goals.
• Community foundations have in-depth information on local needs and non-profit organizations. When clients ask, “how can I make sure my charitable gifts will make a difference?” many advisors turn to community foundations for information on the programs and organizations that are working effectively in the areas of interest to their clients. Community foundations are in touch with local organizations addressing the broad spectrum of community needs — ranging from the environment, arts, education, and social services to special programs for youth, families, and seniors.
• Community foundations serve as the vehicle for giving many advisors seek for their clients. For example, community foundations can establish Donor Advised Funds — a very popular mechanism through which a client can make a charitable gift and stay personally involved in suggesting uses for that gift over time. Community foundations are frequently named in bequests as stewards for assets that a client wishes to direct to specific areas of community need in perpetuity. Giving through a community foundation also provides a client with the resources to evaluate potential grant recipients, as well as the ability to give to multiple charities with a single gift.

Here are ways that we can help

Community foundations can support you and your clients at every step in the charitable giving process. We can help you:

• Identify your clients’ charitable giving interests and motivations
• Match personal charitable interests with tax planning needs
• Create and implement charitable plans that are integrated into major business, personal and financial decisions
• Facilitate complex forms of giving such as stock transfers
• Provide information on community needs — and on the local agencies and programs that make a difference in the areas your clients care about most
• Deliver grant making expertise and a range of administrative services related to charitable giving

* Note: Source: Caring Canadians, Involved Canadians: Highlights from the 2007 Canada Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating, Michael Hall, David Lasby, Steven Ayer, of Imagine Canada and William David Gibbons, Statistics Canada, 2009.