Payout Panic: It's November! Tips for Making a REAL Difference with Your Year-End Grantmaking....While Making the IRS Happy!

Does your foundation struggle to meet IRS required 5 percent annual payout?  Do you wait until the last minute and then give to the same charities you’ve been donating to for years?  Do you have someone to turn to for quality advice and to strengthen your charitable outcomes?

 

Hoplin Jackson Charitable Advisors is a highly customized, boutique philanthropic advisory company which partners with high net worth clients to restore confidence and joy in the giving process.  To do this, we work closely together with our clients to ensure that their unique and special vision is understood and amplified through charitable giving.  Matchmaking clients and nonprofits is our specialty, and that requires expert evaluation, good judgement, and discernment.  Best of all, our fees count toward payout, and we are confident you’ll get far more bang for your buck when it comes to your giving by partnering with us. 

 

Until we connect, here are a few pro tips to get you on the path toward transformative outcomes:

 

1)      Call and speak directly with a representative of the nonprofit you’re considering.  Pay close attention to whom you are directed and whether the organization calls you back.  How does this individual talk about his/her colleagues and the leaders within?  This is a great way to get a sense for the leadership of the organization and its culture.

2)      Study a nonprofit’s website and its collateral materials.  Rectify what you read with what you hear.  Do they match?

3)      Evaluate a nonprofit’s financials—much in the same way you would your own company or personal finances.  Did the organization provide you with its audit willingly and quickly?  Even better, is the audit available on its website?  Does the nonprofit have an operating loss?  Pay attention to the finer details of the audit.  All the skeletons are buried in the notes. 

4)      When you look at comparable organizations, how does the staff size and expenses compare?  If you value efficiency and less bureaucracy, you’ll want to understand how nimble the organization is and the growth of its staffing/infrastructure over time.

5)      What is the nonprofit’s ultimate goal?  If it’s a human service-oriented nonprofit, chances are it hopes to seek government funding or turn some of its programming over to government agencies in time.  Assuming you believe private initiative solves problems better, quicker, and cheaper than government, this should be a red flag to you.

6)      Finally, if you do not have time for 1-5, call us! Hoplin Jackson can help you sort out the answers to the above questions and introduce you to new charities which effectively address the issues you care most about.  We work with charities ranging from public policy to human services to medical to educational to religious.    

 

We can help you save time and get great joy out of your giving!  Give Hoplin Jackson a call today or send us a note at nicole@hoplinjackson.com to see how we can help you wisely steward your precious philanthropic funds. 

Nicole Hoplin