How you develop your charitable giving plan is a personal decision. As you develop your plan, you may want to consider several key questions, including:
Why is giving important to you? Do you want to benefit a specific community organization or field of interest? Do you wish to offer to others the experiences or opportunities that you experienced?
Do you want to leave a legacy? How do you want to be remembered?
With many community needs and organizations to support, it may be difficult to know where to begin. Narrowing the field to the areas you are most passionate about is a good place to start.
What causes or organizations would you most like to help?
How would you like this community to improve?
Is education a priority? Would you like to support students in their pursuit of higher education?
Once you decide on an area(s) on which to focus, you can start to define how your giving will work. You might like to make giving decisions yourself, or may prefer to let the Foundation determine which needs are the greatest.
Do you want to support a wide range of projects or a limited few?
Do you want your giving to change over time and be flexible according to changing interests or community needs?
To what extent would you like to be involved in the selection process? Would you prefer to rely on the Foundation’s expertise?