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A Word from the Wells Fargo Bank!

Philanthropic Guideposts

By Thomas A. Munzig

Senior Trust and Fiduciary Advisor, Wells Fargo Bank

During a recent lunch in Florida with my friend David Maeir-Epstein, founder of IsraelGrants.com, he remarked that we are both very fortunate as we have positions that provide us with an opportunity to help change the world.   Indeed, those of us who have a chance to raise and manage funds for non-profit organizations are able to work with extraordinarily dedicated individuals whose hands-on effort actually does change the world for the better. We are very fortunate to be in such good company.

For over 160 years, Wells Fargo has assisted individuals, families and nonprofit organizations in building and sustaining their philanthropic legacy.   Here are some guideposts that we have developed while supporting philanthropic groups.

1.    Understand and pursue your organization’s values, mission and vision.  Define the goals your organization aspires to achieve and confirm that these objectives are aligned with your values, mission and vision.  Be bold.  Then develop a 3-5 year plan to achieve these goals.

2.    Assemble a team of professional advisors.   Look for Philanthropic Advisors who understand and work with similar groups for administration, governance, investment management and grant making.  Be creative in your search. 

3.    Manage your assets effectively.  Define how your organizations’ human, financial and capital assets will support the organization’s overall goals.  Then protect, manage and develop these assets.

4.    Manage cash flow needs.  Nothing, but nothing will stop you in your tracks faster than running out of money.  Remember the organizations that had such promise but are no longer in existence.  Determine your current and future cash flow needs monitoring them for appropriate liquidity.  Continually update your spending policy to ensure the long-term health of your endowment.   And if you don’t have a rainy-day endowment, create one.

5.    Coordinate administration.  Work with other organizations to gain efficiencies and consider freeing up valuable staff time by outsourcing some or all of the administration of donor reporting, tax and financial information.  Seek advice and services as needed.  You can’t do it all by yourself.

6.    Balance fundraising priorities.  Assess how current and future needs influence your fundraising efforts and analyze the productivity of your fundraising.  If it doesn’t work, move on to a new strategy that has proven to be successful. Match the gift with the giver. Your efforts are unique, tell your story.  Make it personal.  It will inspire others to support you and your organization’s work.  

7.    Board governance.  Review your committee structure to ensure that it fits the goals of your strategic plan.  Engage board members’ talents and energy to properly align with your organization’s goals.  Seek Workers, Wisdom and Wealth: Give or Get.  And continually maintain and foster the relationship of the Board and your Executive Director.  You are One Team.

8.    Manage your reputation risk.  Determine the risks within your community and beyond.  Assess how well your financial and human resources match the reputation you wish to maintain, or strive to attain.  Be the best in your field, with passion and compassion.

9.    Create sustainability.   Evaluate how well your financial and human resources align to sustain and expand your organizational mission. The work is never done.  Prepare for major changes in your Board, your staff or your supporters to minimize impact on your organizational mission.  Create a business continuation plan that addresses unexpected events and inevitable changes related to technology, financial and human capital resources.   

It is important to develop a deep understanding of your organization’s objectives and then apply appropriate solutions to help achieve those goals.  Reach out.  There are many hands to help you change the world. 

Thomas Munzig is a Senior Trust and Fiduciary Advisor with Wells Fargo Bank, Philanthropic Services.  Tom and his group provide investment management and specialized philanthropic services to individual and institutional charitable clients. Tom can be reached at:  Thomas.a.munzig@wellsfargo.com.

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Wells Fargo Wealth Management provides products and services through Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. and its various affiliates and subsidiaries.

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Could This Be How Noah Got the Funding for the Construction of His Ark?

"We are proud to announce that Dave was instrumental in obtaining a

grant of $40,000 from a Wells Fargo Bank Philanthropic Services

philanthropic fund for the construction of a Veterinary Clinic and

Animal Shelter at Lands in Love, our client, a vegetarian Eco-Resort in

Costa Rica, run by a group of 17 Israelis."

Read about the incredible story behind this happy announcement:

  

It all started with my daughter's honeymoon to Costa Rica where her

husband, Rabbi Michael Even David, the Rabbi of Kehillat Hakerem in

Karmiel, has relatives. Two weeks before they were to depart, I received

a call from a guy named Assaf who told me, in Sabra Hebrew, that he was

one of a group of 17 Israelis who were running an Eco-Resort in Costa

Rica. Vegetarians and Vegans, they had gathered and were caring for some

200 neglected, abandoned, abused and sick mostly dogs, but also cats,

donkeys, monkeys, horses and assorted other animals. They had seen my

website Israelgrants.com and wanted to know if I could help them raise

money for a shelter, clinic, food and medicine for these animals. The

only problem is, they said, they have no money to pay me.

Now this is not the first case that my services were requested by

organizations unable or unwilling to pay for them. So I patiently

explained that I do not work for a percentage of funds raised as this is

against the Code of Ethics of the Israel Association of Professional

Fundraisers (and of the U.S. and European associations). "But we can pay

you in vouchers for use at our resort", Assaf suggested. You just have

to get here on your own,"

My first reaction was, "you've got to be kidding", but then I

remembered, wow, Raya and Michael are on their way dafka (of all places)

to Costa Rica, wow, this must be beshert, so I said to him

"You know what? By chance I have two staff members who are on their way to Costa Rica.

How about if I send them to your resort, they'll check it out, interview, gather the

data and when they return we'll write up your project in the form of a

foundation proposal." He agreed.

Raya and Michael stayed for two days and a night at Lands in Love and

had a lovely time. Michael, who is a carnivore from Chile, said that the

vegetarian food there was the best food he ever tasted. They went on day

trips and had a fantastic time, all expenses charged to my (future)

account! What a great additional wedding present a father could give to

his newly married daughter and son in law!

Upon their return they gave me a detailed report and thus I began my

work for Lands in Love. It was a bit daunting trying communicating via

Skype, with a time difference of 10 hours, working with young idealistic

Israelis who had never before had to put the good work that they were

doing into a format worthy of consideration by a foundation. But after a

couple of months and many drafts, in early November, we finally had a

proposal to begin submitting to foundations. I took the proposal with me

when I traveled last month to the U.S. to represent several of my

clients at the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North

America and in meetings I had scheduled with foundations in Baltimore,

Miami, Philadelphia and New York.

One of the meetings I had scheduled was with, let's call him Chris, 
a representative of the Wells Fargo Bank Philanthropic Services.
I had seen his name on a letter of rejection that a client of mine had 
received from a foundation and noticed that his address was in the Miami area 
where I was planning to be for part of my trip to the U.S. So being the shy 
unassuming guy that I am, I picked up the phone and called him, explained that I

represented a number of Israeli nonprofits and asked to meet with him

both to share my experience and perspective with him and get an insight

into his work. He agreed to meet me!

When I arrived in his office, on the umteenth floor of a Florida office

tower, he took me back down the elevator and across the street to a

restaurant, Immediately after we ordered and before I could even take

out the stack of folders with information about the various

organizations and projects that I was prepared to present to him, he

leaned forward and looked me straight in the eye, "I just want you to

know," he said, "that I'm totally with you guys."  Ok, I thought to

myself, he's talking about Amood Anan. I'll tell him about the call I

got yesterday from my daughter Avital who told me that the Siren had

gone off and that she was in our pantry bomb shelter.

 I leaned forward to meet his earnest look. "In 1967, I was in the U.S.

Army, stationed in Germany. We were put on high alert. We had our dog

tags put in protective seals and were ready to enter the war to fight on

your side," he explained. "But the call never came. Now they are raining

missles on you. I just want you to know I'll do whatever I can for  you."

"Wow," I said to him. I think I'm at the right place at the right time

with the right person!"

After presenting Unistream's Entrepreneurship Centers, Atid BaMidbar's

MakorRock teen music project and their Culinary Queens ethnic catering,

Midreshet Golan's Adir BaMarom post high school air force technology and

electronics training program, the Orthodox Scouts of Jaffa's coexistence

summer camp, and several others. I asked Tom to tell me about his

clientele. It turns out that his department is somewhat similar to the

Endowment Fund Director of Jewish Federations. Except that the

Federations are bombarded by requests from local and national Jewish

agencies, by the general campaign and by a growing number of Israeli

nonprofits seeking new channels for direct funding. Tom sits on boards

of trustees of quite a number of philanthropic foundations administered

by quite a number branches of his national bank. In most cases his

responsibility is to invest the funds and advise the boards of how to

follow proper legal and financial regulations. However, in a number of

instances he is asked for input into the allocations processes.

"Take for example the case of a client of mine who called me up last

week saying that he had a property he wanted to get rid of, but was

facing 50% income tax on the proceeds. How about donating it to a

nonprofit," Tom suggested. "There are significant tax benefits in doing

it that way." But what nonprofit," he asked? "Well what do you care

about?" asked Tom in response. "I care about dogs," was the response. So

Tom did his homework, found 14 animal welfare organizations, whittled

them down to six and was prepared to send him the profiles of the six.

"Seven," I said. "What?" Tom asked. "You're going to send him seven

profiles," I said and I told him the story about Lands in Love and their

need for an Animal Shelter and Veterinary Clinic.

To make a long story shorter, last week I got an email from Tom. I'm

pleased to give you the heads up that the donor has agreed to make a

grant of $40,000 for the construction of the Veterinary Clinic, for

equipment, food and medicine." "Yes!!!! I screamed from my office

jolting my staff from their intense concentration on work for our clients....

But the problems had just begun. The foundation needed to send the funds

before the end of the year, which was two short weeks away. How do you

get a foundation grant from a U.S. Foundation to a Costa Rican

organization. One needs a 501c3 U.S. nonprofit conduit.

My first thought was PEF, but the funds would have to go

first to PEF in NY, then to an Israeli nonprofit and from there to Costa

Rica. Not a very efficient path. So I began the search for what is

called a Fiscal Agent. About 15 phone calls 35 emails and a couple of

very late nights, an Animal Welfare nonprofit organization with the

mission to construct animal shelters world wide agreed to be the Fiscal

Agent, the funds were sent to them and they will forward them to Lands

in Love while requiring appropriate due diligence reporting.

Meanwhile, between this effort and other foundation submissions, I have

invested hours valued at several thousand dollars in vouchers for

service at Lands in Love. In March 17 members of the extended

Maeir-Epstein Family from 4 cities in Israel and 6 cities in the U.S.

will be spending almost a week at Lands in Love in Costa Rica. In

between delicious vegetarian meals, day trips to active volcanoes, zip

line rides over forest gorges, white water rafting, I intend to be

making sure that the project conforms to the proposal that I wrote. I'll

bet I can get my plane ticket to be considered a recognized tax

deductible expense. Unfortunately, I won't have any food and lodging

receipts to claim.........