Insights

Tom Fridrich, JD, CLUⓇ, ChFCⓇ, Senior Wealth Planner  The end of the year offers an ideal opportunity to look both forward and back — reflecting on recent achievements, while setting goals for the upcoming months. For many of my clients, it’s also a time to review their finances and i …

Kevin Oleszewski, Senior Wealth Planner ‘Tis the season to give. In fact, 37% of charitable giving occurs during the last quarter of the year — 20% of it in December alone, according to a survey conducted by the Blackbaud Institute. And while the holidays are traditionally a time to reflect …

Heath Ledger’s death in 2008 is another tragic story of an extremely talented artist gone too young. The unfortunate circumstances of his death compounded the complexity of his estate, leaving lawyers and family in a difficult position.

As a CPA, one of the questions that I have been getting more frequently is, “What is a donor-advised fund?” This is not surprising as the number of individual donor-advised fund accounts has grown by over 50% for the second year in a row, according to the National Philanthropic Trust’s 2019 …

COVID-19 caused an economic shockwave that we’ll feel for a long time. Nonprofits, from large global networks to the local churches, have been hit hard, too. In a recent survey of 110 nonprofits, 80% of them said revenue had fallen across the board.

Giving is an important part of our society. It provides us the opportunity to support causes we believe in and make a positive impact. Giving isn’t always about donating money. It can also include volunteering time or donating goods and resources. Here are some examples of the impact:

The so-called “Peanut Butter Manifesto” written by a Yahoo! Executive in 2006 gave us a term that hasn’t worn thin yet. The “Peanut Butter Approach” is a derisive term used in business to describe spreading anything – money, energy, time – too far and too thin to be effective or useful. 

Return on Investment (ROI) is a term you learn about 5 minutes into your first class in business school. Maybe the business model is elegant and the organization is streamlined, but that all begs the question: what is the ROI? How much will we make?

There are many ways to give to nonprofit organizations – from dropping off your old couch at Goodwill to volunteering at the local soup kitchen. When it comes to giving money, there are many personal benefits, both emotional and financial.