Philanthropy Magnified: Digest
March 2016
Donors
Heartstrings, connections from afar
Ted and Peg Hendricks
Ted and Peg Hendricks
In August 1996 we learned that we would be moving to Ithaca, New York. Another new community to call "home" in beautiful New York State, more career opportunities, new friends, new community activities, new adventures - we were excited even though we hated leaving our Ohio community, where we had lived and been very invested in our town and state for twelve years.

As part of the corporate culture of the 1970's through 1990's in America, we had learned early that moving was part of the package. We also had learned that wherever we might live, we wanted to call "home," not just a stop along life's path. To us part of calling anywhere "home" meant getting involved in all aspects of our community as if we would be there forever...
Why I give to the Community Foundation

Shared by Millicent (Millie) Clarke-Maynard
Retold by Amy LeViere
Millie Clarke Maynard
Millicent (Millie) Clarke-Maynard
"When my mom passed away, I wanted to carry forward her legacy and giving to the Women's Fund of the Community Foundation allows me to do that. My mom was everything to me; an ordinary person, doing extraordinary things, but in a quiet way. She is the one behind my success. She never went to college. I was the first one of our family to go to college.

She was very involved in her union and the tenants' association; kind of a community activist. My mother worked nights, but she made time to be a leader in the PTA, making sure that students had instruments to take music lessons, coordinating book fairs, field trips and little parties. She took us and the neighbor kids to the library...
12th annual Women's Fund Luncheon
Women_s Fund Luncheon
Millicent (Millie) Clarke-Maynard, Phoebe Brown, Jennie Graham
Thank you!  Because of your generous giving, the lives of women in our community are better. View the photo gallery  from the 12th Annual Women's Fund Luncheon, where more than $32,000 was awarded in community grants.
Nonprofits
Engaging youth in the love of reading at our rural libraries
Love of reading
Grants from this year's Library Grant Cycle total over $136,000 to 19 libraries in 5 counties.

These grants encourage youth to build a lifelong love of reading and learning and encourage youth to develop the habit of library use among the 33 public libraries of the Finger Lakes Library System, which serves Cayuga, Cortland, Seneca, Tioga, and Tompkins counties.

Our annual Library Grant Cycle was inspired by our Bernard Carl and Shirley Rosen Library Fund. This year, the fund will make over $120,000 in grants to 17 libraries with $16,000 in additional funding to two libraries from the Myrtle Dee Nash Memorial Fund.

This year's review team meeting was launched with a brief presentation by Amanda Schiavulli, Education and Outreach Librarian of the Finger Lakes Library System. See her PowerPoint presentation to learn more about changes in our rural libraries and to see pictures of programming that this grant cycle has funded.

With the vision of Dr. Rosen and this grant cycle, we have witnessed substantial changes in library services to youth. Successes have included previously unengaged schools now collaborating with libraries to subsidize transportation for youth to participate in library book clubs, to host author visits, and to promote summer reading programs. Because of the success of youth programming, we've seen local businesses get inspired to provide support with underwriting, free advertising, and donated prizes. We've seen new collaborations between local government (i.e. city parks) and the local library. We've seen scores of youth have access to favorite authors, in their library, in their schools and at the teen book festival in Rochester. Librarians report an increase in the number of books read, the number of minutes spent reading, and higher levels of engagement from preschoolers to teens.

Hundreds of books have been GIVEN to children, to surround them in their homes with easy access to adventures, imagination, and knowledge. The Letters of Support from school librarians and youth themselves have illustrated the enthusiasm and commitment of many stakeholders in the programming that has been inspired and sustained by these grants. Book clubs have not only encouraged more reading by youth, but have fostered a culture of sharing about reading, forming opinions about what has been read, and growing ownership in the planning of future featured books and of other programming that inspires continued engagement...
Professional Advisors
Trending in Legal Affairs: DAFs & Successors: Can't We All Just Get Along?
A community foundation recently contacted the Council on Foundation's legal team with an inquiry about naming a successor-or successors-for a donor advised fund (DAF).

In this particular situation, a potential donor wished to establish a DAF where his children are named as the successors-but was concerned that the different siblings may disagree about distributions from the fund when they acquired control as successors. The donor wondered whether the agreement for establishing a DAF could include a provision that would split the DAF into multiple, separate funds with his children named, individually, as a successor to each.

The legal team advised that including such a provision in the agreement was permissible, so long as the power for deciding to split the fund ultimately belonged to the foundation. For example, using language to indicate that: in the instance of having multiple successors named one fund, where the successors' interests are incompatible, the foundation may use its discretion to divide the fund into two or more funds, subject to the same terms and conditions as the original fund, and also subject to separate fees.

The legal team emphasized that the most important requirement here is that the decision-making authority to split the fund remain with the foundation rather than occur at the directive of a donor.

For more information on this or other tricky charitable matters, we will try to help, so please contact the Community Foundation of Tompkins County at [email protected].
Confidence and Trust
I wish I could lay claim to "win the confidence, create the desire." When you're authentic, you're compelling and you gain a client's trust. Hence, you build the relationship by winning the confidence! And fundraisers do that, too, by talking about vision and impact. It's not about "need" for us. For us it's about the impact a charitable gift can make and how enriched the donor will feel after making a gift. And in order to illustrate that impact, we talk about our organization's vision for the future. A plug for our vision: Tompkins County thrives thanks to engaged philanthropy.

At the community foundation, conversations with our donors aren't scripted. Nor are they scripted with professional advisors. We tell stories and here's a link to one donor's story showing a change from an initial strong opinion.

If "win the confidence, create the desire" doesn't sum up business relationships, whether it is in a non-profit or for-profit, what does?
Philanthropy News
Giving Helps the Giver Too

Huffington Post
Karl Zinsmeister
When I was in college I had a philosophy professor named Louis Dupre who told me a story I've never forgotten. He had a wonderfully generous friend from whom he eventually fell away for the most paradoxical reason: this friend was unable to let Dupre be generous to him in return. Receiving gifts and favors can be lovely, but there is also a potent and irreplaceable joy of giving that most people need to express.

This is not just an anecdotal claim. There is ample evidence that philanthropy does more than just help the recipients. It satisfies deep human needs in givers as well--opening avenues to meaning, happiness, and ways of thriving that aren't easily located otherwise. One must grasp that in order to understand why personal beneficence is such a powerful force in America...
The Seven Faces of Philanthropy (Why the Wealthy Give to Charity)

Forbes
Russ Alan Prince
In 1994, The Seven Faces of Philanthropy: A New Approach to Cultivating Major Donors was published. At the time it was a revolutionary practical methodology to address major and planned giving that continues to prove exceedingly effective today. The following are the seven distinct wealthy charitable donor personalities:

Communitarians are the most common wealthy donor personality. For them, doing good just makes sense. Communitarians are part of the local environment and are often business owners. They strongly focus on how to make their community a better place to work and live...
Discover your Community Foundation
Giving is Gorges
Giving Is Gorges 2016 is on May 4

Giving is Gorges was established by a collaborative group, including Community Foundation, Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce and AFP Finger Lakes, to celebrate the spirit of philanthropy in Tompkins County and surrounding areas.
You can find archived versions of our past newsletters on our website at any time.
Community Foundation of Tompkins County
200 E Buffalo Street, Suite 202
Ithaca, NY 14850

(607) 272-9333 | www.cftompkins.org

Philanthropy MAGNIFIED