Malcolm Burrows

The Invention of Charitable Options

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The promise of venture philanthropy is seductive.  It aspires to harness entrepreneurial energy for the public good – to meld business methods with generosity to give back and create change.  That was the hope when I helped invent charitable stock options in 1999. Charitable Stock Options, or just Charitable Options, are a Canadian capital market charitable giving tool incubated in the dot-com era of late 1990s. In 2000 they were….

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Philanthropy/Charitable Giving

Charity or Parallel Foundation?

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[caption id="attachment_20034" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Detail of painting The End of Comedy by P. Alvarez, 2017[/caption] Recently, I received a note from a colleague who sits on the board of a social service charity as a volunteer.  This charity has an older, long-time donor who has named the charity in her will.  The problem is the charity prefers to have the estate donation to go to its parallel foundation, as it….

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Philanthropy/Charitable Giving

The OG Protest Button

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In 1787, Josiah Wedgwood, the British ceramics manufacturer, created an anti-slavery medallion in its classical, low-relief house style.  This medallion is the OG protest button, and it was circulated free to abolitionist societies to be pinned to clothing of reformers. It starts a trend that has influenced the world of protest, politics and charity ever since. Industrialist and nonconformist Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795) was your quintessential entrepreneur.  Growing up in the….

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Philanthropy/Charitable Giving, Uncategorized

Flexible Philanthropy

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[caption id="attachment_21903" align="aligncenter" width="518"] Becky Matsubara, Wikipedia[/caption] We are living in an age of personal philanthropy defined by larger donations and more donor choice.  Increased flexibility is the key feature of this age – especially through charitable structures like private foundations and donor advised funds. Historically, charitable donations and structures been defined by restrictions and controls.  Here is what changed and some implications for estate planning. History Charity law, at….

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Family Money Messages

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My friend Aneil Gokhale, Director of Philanthropy at the Toronto Foundation, has a talent for facilitating discussions about money.  What messages do we inherit and how do they inform our inclination for, and approach to, giving?  These messages are the software that influence future behaviour, including openness to giving to charity, during life and at death. Ingrained messages In every session that Aneil leads, he coaxes out deeply ingrained messages….

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Philanthropy/Charitable Giving, Uncategorized

Protecting Charitable Interests

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Are will challenges easier when there are charitable beneficiaries?  Moreover, if there are more charities named in the will does that heighten the likelihood of legal contest? This is the kind of “shop talk” that happens when charitable gift planners get together with trust professionals and lawyers.  One lawyer told a cautionary tale of a large estate that was litigated away from a dozen named charities.  The charities lacked the….

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