The Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog included the story of a lawsuit settled out-of-court by Princeton University. According to a New York Times story, a $35 million gift given to the university in 1961 “to educate graduate students for careers in government” wound up underwriting most of the “graduate programs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.”

Since the $35 million had grown to more than $900 million by June of this year, Princeton wasn’t too keen on pulling any of this money away from its broader uses.

So what happened? Read the rest of this entry »

Matthew 6:3-4 records a statement of Jesus:

But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

This passage has always made me very nervous. I don’t want anyone to know what I have done, especially when it comes to giving!

So, then, why would I write a post like the one I did last Saturday–Strategic giving? I mean, I got into some pretty fine details! Am I not in danger of disobeying this teaching of Christ? Read the rest of this entry »

Last Monday I got to see a demonstration of software meant to make the administration of private foundations much easier. Among other things, the program offers compliance services, including a review of grants to ensure there is no self-dealing; a review of potential recipients of grants to ensure they are, in fact, 501(c)(3) organizations, and thus eligible to receive tax-deductible donations; and a constant vigil over total annual foundation disbursements to ensure that the foundation hits its five percent (5%) minimum distribution requirement.

It was this last service that caught my eye. Read the rest of this entry »

Things are happening so fast right now, I want to break my “series” on our family governance meetings last week in order to report on some other matters that have come up in the very recent past.

This past week we received final word on the results of a fundraising program we were able to spearhead in behalf of Mission India. The results themselves are very exciting to us, and I’d like to direct your attention to a fellow blogger’s post on the subject, 7682 Women in India can learn to read!

But I would like to use that event as a jump off point for talking about the entire subject of strategic giving. How can we maximize the impact of our gifts in philanthropic and charitable endeavors?

I would like to point toward what I am becoming more and more convinced is a good path . . . by means of my wife’s and my personal journey. Read the rest of this entry »

I read two articles today that both seemed to “teach” the same lesson: Be careful about “doing good” that actually does harm. Here are the prime illustrations the authors offered. Read the rest of this entry »

I got a copy of A Revolution in Generosity last week when I attended the Generosity Forum at Denver Seminary. Wesley K. Willmer, editor of the book, is also author of the first chapter, “Creating a Revolution in Generosity.” I was taken by what he had to say about a fundamental shift in perspective concerning charity that has taken place in the American culture at large but also–and much more–in the Christian church over the last 170 years or so. The shift, from stewardship to philanthropy, has devastated both donors and charitable organizations. Read the rest of this entry »

Last Thursday evening, my wife and I had the opportunity to attend a special meeting of CrossGlobal Link, The Mission Exchange, and the Evangelical Missiological Society/EMS. It was a dinner meeting held in honor of the lifetime achievements of my former boss and mentor Dr. Ralph Winter.

We stayed for an after-dinner panel discussion among four Christian leaders from the “Global South.”

At one point the panelist from Uganda noted, “It is said that ‘a picture is worth a thousand words.’ But sometimes it is worth nothing at all. Or maybe it is worth less than nothing.”

This kind of perverse result occurs, he said, when, for example, a photograph becomes more important than the people who are being photographed.

He told a story to illustrate his point. Read the rest of this entry »

As I noted last week, I wrote an official Holzmann Family Foundation Gifting Criteria document and presented it at our family meeting last Thursday.

It was received rather well, all things considered.

Our legacy planner, who has been in the business for over 15 years, said, “This is the best family foundation gifting policy document I have ever seen.”

He wasn’t commenting on the purposes or directions toward which I was suggesting our family ought to give. He said it was the thoroughness and the depth of thought that had gone into it. That was certainly gratifying to hear!

I thought maybe you would like to know what I had included in the document. So here’s an outline of the subject matter covered in the document. Read the rest of this entry »