I need some help from my financial planner and brokerage friends, here. Solve this mystery for me in two parts... 1) Tell me why this is a problem. 2) Tell me how to solve it. In both institutions I've worked for and in every nonprofit I've volunteered with, we have--with varying frequencies--received gifts of "mystery stock." Fundraisers, you know what I mean. This is when it's year-end, and our finance offices tell us we have received 50 shares of Pepsi stock, but we don't know where it came from. We all rack our brains to think of who might have sent Pepsi stock. We know our donors' kids' names, we know if they're of age to receive RMDs, we know what kind of cars they drive, where they vacation, what inspires them to give--but often we have no idea what type of stock they might give us. Brokerages and finance friends--we KNOW you know who directed this transaction...so where does that information go missing? How is their name not attached to the stock gift? What can we do differently to make sure we know who sent the stock stork with this special delivery? #highered #philanthropy #stockgifts #nonprofit
We were just talking about this very scenario at the office. Why isn’t information about the owner of the stock (i.e. Name!) shared with the nonprofit?
Kathryn Gergely, Ellie Wannemuehler (王莉诺) any ideas?
Senior Vice President | Financial Advisor at Baird | The Longtine Ivey Wilkerson Group
6moThis FP friend of yours has (1) clients that give appreciated securities to charities and (2) charitable entity clients that receive gifts of appreciated securities. For category (1), we strive to communicate with our client-donors AND the charities that a gift has been made so that the charity can acknowledge gift and provide appropriate tax receipt. For category (2), I feel your pain because we don’t always know the source of gifts. I think the sending institution and advisor bear the responsibility for communicating. When the communication breaks down, donors may miss a tax deduction and receiving institutions may lose a donor. My suggestions: 1. Train donors to communicate with receiving institution that a gift is on its way. 2. Build relationships with donors’ advisors. 3. Keep in mind that a donor with an account with a discount broker is probably not going to get much help in this area.