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Three ways to maximize impact—a discussion with Jeff Raikes
FRED: Welcome, and thank you for joining us today for a discussion about maximizing the impact of your philanthropy. I'm Fred Kaynor, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development for Schwab Charitable, and I'm joined by Jeff Raikes, Cofounder of the Raikes Foundation, and a philanthropist and a well-known leader in helping donors to truly maximize the impact of their philanthropic giving. Jeff, thanks very much for being here today.
JEFF: Fred, thank you. You know, one of the reasons we're so pleased to be here and joining you is that there's a tremendous opportunity to have people design their philanthropy, execute their philanthropy to have greater impact. But we also find that few people actually know how to do the research that really informs their philanthropy. And if people aren't designing their approach on philanthropy to give with impact what's going to end up happening is we'll all miss out on that opportunity to make a difference, and probably even more is that if we miss that opportunity people will be giving with less joy. And we think one of the great things about giving with impact is that it gives people great joy.
FRED: And we also like to try to do whatever we can through our solution to help donors really maximize the impact of the resources, themselves, that they're giving, and we think that as part of that journey, finding the best solution, the best giving vehicle for that purpose is really the best way to do so. Donor-advised funds, private foundations, community foundations, gift annuities, trusts—all of those have very, very valuable roles to play, and they contribute in a very different way individually and collectively to really providing the best platform for optimizing that giving.
JEFF: In fact, there are really three themes that stand out.
One is the philanthropist, the donor, should choose an area where they'll have a clear and sustained focus. Pick something that you're passionate about. Maybe it's the environment, or education, or homelessness. If you pick something that you're passionate about it's more likely that you're going to stick with it for the long term and have the ability to work with others to really make an impact.
The second thing that's very important is to have a research-informed strategy. There are a lot of these issues out there where other people have been working on them. What's worked? What hasn't worked? What should you know about the approaches that people have taken? Who should you be collaborating with? That can come through by really doing the landscape work to understand the opportunity for your giving to make a difference.
And then the third thing is the importance of continuous collaboration and learning. That's a very important theme. Because we often times come into an issue, we have a particular idea of what the strategy should be. But, like we learned in business, things happen. Things don't go the way you think. And so what you need to do is you need to continue to adjust and you need to continue to collaborate. If we're going to have great impact with our philanthropy, we're going to do it by working well with others, the people who are on the ground closest to the issues, other donors who are like-minded in their work. And that collaboration also can bring great joy, as well as the impact.
FRED: Indeed. And that's such great insight on how to sort of formulate the strategy to really achieve maximum impact. And what the donor-advised fund does is helps people to extend the impact of the resource that they actually give. We enable people to give a variety of different kinds of assets. They can give cash, of course, but they can also give appreciated stock, restricted stock, they can give real estate, private business interests, and they can do so in a manner that's highly tax-efficient. So that means that they make that donation through their Schwab Charitable donor-advised fund account. We liquidate those assets on their behalf. They avoid capital gains and they also get an immediate fair market value tax deduction. And, ultimately, that process is so efficient that it, in most cases, results in the maximum amount going to the ultimate causes and charities that they choose to support.
JEFF: You know, and the great thing about that is, if they can be thoughtful and efficient and give with impact, they will find great joy. And as Melinda Gates said to me one time, the most important thing that you need to do in your philanthropy is to find the joy. And this is an opportunity to do it.
FRED: Couldn't agree with you more. Jeff, thank you so much for your time today. It's such a pleasure to partner with the Raikes Foundation and to really work together in a very, very, very effective way to really maximize the impact that our donors have on the world today.
JEFF: Great.
FRED: So thank you for your time.
JEFF: Thank you, Fred.