The American Endowment Foundation, an independent donor advised fund with nearly $1 billion in 3,200 donor accounts, has launched a program to make it easier for its donors to give money to their favorite charities, AEF announced Monday.
AEF will now refer its donors to philanthropic advisors who only handle charitable giving when the donors need advice about making charitable gifts, says Ken Nopar, senior phianthropic advisor at AEF. It will also make the referrals to these philanthropic specialists for the donors' financial advisors or lawyers if they need help evaluating charities or help defining their philanthropic goals.
“We want to help people get started giving or help them reevaluate their giving goals,” says Nopar.
Another new service to make the giving process simpler is that donors can pay the spcialist advisors directly from their donor account, rather than being billed separately. The service will be available to those donors with at least $250,000 in their accounts.
Advisors specializing in philanthropy can help donors develop a charitable mission, establish a grant-making strategy, identify or evaluate nonprofit organizations and evaluate the impact of their giving.
They can also facilitate family meetings about philanthropy, get children or other family members or advisors involved in the process and serve as a coach for donors.
