Philanthropy/Charitable Giving

Total 169 Posts

Getting Something Back from Charitable Giving

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[caption id="attachment_22206" align="aligncenter" width="423"] Siemens MRI machine[/caption] The common law of charity defines a gift as property that is “freely given without consideration”. That is, a transfer without any expectation of getting something back. It’s an ideal for giving, which often gets tattered and torn in the real world. It has always been so. Medieval Indulgences Perhaps the most famous example of quid pro quo giving are indulgences. In 1517,….

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Philanthropy/Charitable Giving

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

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

Estate Donations of Art

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[caption id="attachment_21746" align="aligncenter" width="666"] Decisions, Decisions, Charles Pachter (Courtesy of Heffel Auctions)[/caption] Fine art is an asset class of growing importance among the affluent and is beginning to be a significant part of select estate plans.   A recent estimate pegged the international art market at US$57.5 billion in 2024 (a 12% decline from 2023)  and Canada has seen some record prices at auction.   Many collectors are contemplating donating their art….

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Estate Donations, Estate Planning, Philanthropy/Charitable Giving
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