Volume 1.2 — October 2011

favorite causes. What is important to you? What purpose has God placed within your heart? In your quieter moments of reflection, what vital issues do you find yourself thinking about?

Your Desired ChangeNext, get more focused as you specify the difference you seek to achieve with your cause. What exactly do you want to see happen? Beyond, “I want to see things get better”; what kind of better? What does better look like? And where in the world do you want to make that difference? Local, national or international?

Perhaps it is confronting at-risk youth across America with the transformative power of the gospel, or providing resources to struggling families in your city, or whatever is important to you. Here you move from the “general cause” to the “specific change” you seek, the impact you expect.

Your Partner Organizations Now it is time to carefully select the organizations with which you will partner to make the difference you seek. Chances are that you already know organizations that function well in your cause area and work toward the change you seek, but sometimes you might want to find additional ones to compare or diversify.

Occasionally, this approach yields a conclusion that there is no organization with which to align, and you want to start an organization (or a program within an existing organization).

(continued on next page)

GivinG Well, DoinG Well

By Calvin W. Edwards – Founder of Calvin Edwards & Company

It is not hard to do good with our giving. But giving well rises above merely doing good.

Giving well is about being a good steward of the resources that God has entrusted to us. In my work, I have been asked numerous times whether a certain ministry is a “good organization.” The assumption is that if it is good, it would be right to support it.

But there is a more profound approach to effective giving, beyond just giving to good organizations and hoping that the checks do some good.

Here are five steps to move toward more effective giving.

Your CauseIdentify the cause in which you would like to make a difference. The question here is very different from, “Is this a good organization?” It is, “What issues align with my God-given interests, values and convictions?”

Start with the big picture. Focus on your

Giving well is about being a

good steward of the resources

that God has entrusted to us.

We’ve all heard the saying, “A family that prays together, stays together.” How about “A family that gives together, thrives.” Giving together can bring vibrancy, joy and great family meaning. We’ve heard great ideas from families like yours over the years and thought we’d share.

Buy the farm: Buy goats, cows and chickens for those in need through charitable gift catalogs. Together, give a farm to a family in need. One family business who took this approach, rather than sending typical gifts, reported many stories of recipients calling to acknowledge their gratitude for the company’s thoughtful generosity to purchase farm animals in their honor.

Spend a day in service: Local shelters are in great need of volunteers during the holidays. One family cites this experience as the best Christmas Day ever. They said that they didn’t remember what gifts they received that year, but they still remember the faces of the men coming in from the cold to receive warm food and clothes.

Gift of travel: Secure a family mission trip. Now a family tradition, one family began taking a medical mission trip together to South America. They report that serving together in their strengths has built deep family bonds.

Open your home: Invite a missionary to your home during the holidays. Listen to their stories of life on the front lines. One family cites this as the impetus for their child choosing international work.

Creative Ways to brinG freshness into family GivinG this holiDay

By Royce Bervig, Senior Gift Planning Officer,Focus on the Family

®

Your adult children have followed in your footsteps. Both exhibit a generous heart. How did you and Judy instruct your children in giving? When our children were young we taught them the biblical principles about giving, encouraging them to tithe their allowances and earning from work at home and teenage employment. Judy and I set an example by tithing to our church and giving to missions. We were faithful with our church. Our church also provided good biblical teaching about stewardship. I don’t know that we were particularly intentional in how we taught; we just modeled what we believed.

As your family has been on the journey of giving together, you’ve had several defining moments. Can you tell us about them? The first was in the early 80s. Our children were in college at the time and were aware of the ministries we were supporting as a family. We had made a significant faith commitment to our church. The commitment made us uncomfortable and the commitments were public. We watched God provide way beyond our expectations. It taught us to understand sacrificial giving and changed our giving journey.

Another significant point in our giving journey came when we attended a Generous Giving® conference in Phoenix. Hugh Maclellan spoke and challenged the group to invest now for an infinite return. It changed our whole focus. We had a financial plan in place, but it relied on others to give for us after our death. We committed to do things differently and to give while we are living, investing in Kingdom work while we can. We trust our children to give, but why not invest it now?

In 2008, we reached another milestone in our journey. In our financial plan years

earlier, we had established a family limited partnership. When we put the assets into the partnership, we had no idea they’d grow that much. A parcel of land in the partnership had attracted the attention of a commercial buyer. Given that our two children were 49% owners, we asked the kids what they wanted to do. I believe it was our daughter who first suggested it, but they both wanted to give the property to Kingdom work. After the gift was made in November 2008, the property closed. The proceeds of the sale went into three donor-advised funds–one for our daughter and son-in-law to give, another for our son and daughter-in-law to give and a third for Judy and me to give.

Your family has grown beyond your two children. Tell us about your family. We have nine grandchildren; the oldest granddaughter has just recently married. Several years ago, we welcomed two new granddaughters from China. The other six are grandsons. Both of our children and their spouses are active in their churches and involved in local ministries.

As you look into the future what do you see regarding your giving? We’d like to give it all away before we are gone. We focus our giving singularly on Kingdom work.

We don’t have it all figured out. But we do know it all belongs to God. Our only regret is that we didn’t give more, earlier in our journey.

What would you say to encourage others in giving? Trust God. Exercise the gift God’s given you, then watch what He does with it. You will be blessed.

DefininG momentsFOCuS ON THE FAMILY rECENTLY SAT DOWN WITH HArOLD VICK TO TALK ABOuT HIS FAMILY’S STOrY OFGIVING. THE FOLLOWING IS TAKEN FrOM THAT CONVErSATION.

(from page 1)

Your Assessment Once you’ve invested, check whether it is working. Effective giving requires vigilance and a strategy to assess whether your selected organizations are creating the desired changes. ranging from the simple to the complex: you can read the organization’s annual report and other literature, check its Form 990, interview senior executives and field staff, or study metrics and evaluation data provided by the organization.

Get Your Family StartedYou can do good, and you can give well.Your family can work through these four steps together and create a strategy to steward your resources in a manner that truly honors God.

Calvin Edwards & Company is a philanthropic advisory firm based in Atlanta, GA, helping high net worth donors

“Maximize the Good of Giving” in the ministries they support.

CalvinEdwardsCompany.com We’d like to give it all away

before we are gone.

VOLUME 1.2 — October 2011

Did you know, what you give can be as important as how much you give or where you give? Consider an example: Two families with the same financial situation each make a gift of $100,000; however, Family I gives cash and Family II gives capital gain property. The decision of what to give allowed Family II to save $21,000. Certainly, it is often easier to give from the checkbook and so the majority of gifts are made from cash (an estimated 80%). However, taking time to ask a few questions before giving can save the family a considerable amount.

Appreciated Assets: Are there appreciated assets you’ve owned for a year or longer which you may sell in the future? Consider giving these assets before you give via your checkbook.

• With the increases and fluctuations in the stock market, will your advisor rebalance your family stock portfolio?

• Is there family property that has grown in value that you’d like to sell?

• Do you have ownership in a business that has grown in value?

Percentage of Income: What percentage of your adjusted gross income (AGI) do you plan to give this year?

• If you will give less than 30% of your AGI, lean toward giving from appreciated assets.

• For amounts over 30%, give cash.

Income Producing Assets: Do you own income-producing assets that produce income in excess of the family lifestyle? You may be

GivinG basiCs

Many business owners would like to give more to their church and favorite charities, but pressure on cash flow and increasing taxes leaves them feeling as though they can’t. What they don’t realize is that they can unlock more resources for Kingdom impact through a “charitable shareholder” strategy. By giving a non-voting interest in the business to a donor advised fund, the business owner opens the door to: • release more dollars for ministry now,

without needing to wait for a sale event.• Increase cash flow as they receive a

significant tax deduction based upon the

teChniCal tip

able to make a gift from these assets to charity so that the income can go directly to charity without flowing through your personal return.

• Are you at the age where you must take mandatory retirement withdrawals?

• Is there an income-producing asset (like rental property), which creates income in excess of lifestyle?

Choosing what to give empowers you to optimize your giving and your savings.

fair market value of the contributed shares.• Move income directly from the business

into charity without first being taxed at the business owner’s personal rate.

• Eliminate estate taxes on the gifted portion.

• Open up innovative redemption opportunities for next generation, third parties, key employees, etc.

Who should consider this? • Business owners who are giving more to

charity each year than they can deduct. • Business owners who are receiving more

income than their living expenses and thus paying unnecessary taxes.

• Business owners that would like to memorialize or dedicate their business to God.

• Business owners that will sell the business in the future.

The tax savings are exciting, but only insofar as they are captured for Kingdom impact! The strategy ultimately collects the net income from the company’s ongoing profit distributions in the family’s donor- advised fund. The family then has the joy of recommending grants from their fund to the churches and charities they desire to bless. Capturing the business income and tax savings for Kingdom giving can fund life-invigorating generosity in generations to come!

Watch an interview with a business owner who found tremendous value in the strategy at FamilyWiseWebcast.com. ready to talk with an expert about how this strategy might work for you?

FAMILY I FAMILY II

Gift to Charity$100,000

Gift to Charity$100,000

Cost to Give$100,000

Cost to Give$79,000

Capital GainTax Savings$0

Capital GainTax Savings$21,000

By Pam Pugh, founder, Reaching Forward, ReachingForwardLLC.com

Opening Doors to New Possibilities

By Jeanne McMains, Vice President, National Christian Foundation. Serving Focus on the Family.

© 2011 Focus on the Family | FocusOnTheFamily.com

CONTACT uS

1-800-782-8227

FocusGiftPlanning@fotf.org FocusGiftPlanning.com

®

VOLUME 1.2 — October 2011

Save the Date FamilyWise® ConferenceJuly 25-27, 2012 from noon to noonOnsite workshop for families, “Families Thriving in the Giving Journey”

Location: Focus on the Family Campus, Colorado Springs, Colorado

Additional details to follow

The giving pledge has sparked a lot of talk about giving more to charity and less to heirs. What recommendations do you have for the familiesyou counsel?

Indeed, many families are changing their view of generational wealth transfer as they plan their estates. Historically, most wealthy families passed all assets to the second and third generation. This is changing in favor of thoughtfully deciding how much to pass down, if anything. To go even further, some families are instituting experiences or learning points in order to pass values before they pass valuables to their children and grandchildren.

A recent study by u.S. Trust reports less than half of wealthy parents thought it important to leave money to their children. reasoning included uncertainty that the children would be able to handle an inheritance, fear that the children might become lazy or make poor decisions or that outsiders might take advantage of their children.

We are seeing more families make the decision to give while living, rather than deferring the responsibility to their children or others and thus losing the opportunity to help now. New groups have emerged such as the 1% Club and Bolder Giving, enabling members to give a certain percentage of wealth away each year, thereby taking leaps forward in their giving.

ask terry Here are three ideas based upon my experience that I recommend to those who wish to ignite the giving conversation with their children or grandchildren, thus preparing them as good stewards.

Start the conversation now.Your estate plan should not be a surprise when the will is read to your children after the funeral. This could have a devastating emotional impact at a vulnerable time. Begin talking now about family purpose, stewardship and impact. Dream together. Discuss how your family wants to impact the world around you … and how you will give to make it happen.

Model giving. Be bold. Much of what our children pick up is caught and not taught. They watch our actions and listen to our words. Are we modeling getting or giving with our time, our abilities and our financial resources? Do our words reflect generosity toward those around us? Do our actions show that we care about others?

Give to your children, charitably. You can contribute cash or stock into a donor-advised fund (and receive a charitable deduction) that the children or grandchildren can direct to charity while you are still here to guide them. Let them know how important this is to you and listen to what causes are important to them.

By Terry Parker, Founder and Chairman Emeritus, National Christian Foundation

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