• What would you like to accomplish through your giving?
• What geographic areas are you focused on?
The answers to these questions can help clients form a vision and mission statement. Without a statement, donors may not know what to do with their charitable dollars in the first place and will let them sit there. But when clients go about the process with clarity of intent, it prompts giving and good giving.
So while you are setting up the donor-advised fund for clients, discuss their time horizons for giving. Do they want to spend down the fund to galvanize change during their lifetime? Do they want to give more while they are living, or more after they die?
The more proactive you are when a client is getting started with the fund, the greater the satisfaction the client will feel, both about the giving and about you as a trusted advisor. And you cement that role by asking questions and opening up the conversation.
Here are some other questions you may want to ask:
• What charitable giving activities and organizations are you currently involved in (either with money or time)?
• Do you want to give anonymously?
• What do you want to name your donor-advised fund? (Say, the “Henry and Susan Stevens Fund” or the “Red Rose Fund”?) This is important because nonprofits find it challenging to acknowledge gifts and build relationships with supporters if the donor-advised funds aren’t in a client’s name.
• How do you want to give every year? Do you simply want to respond to requests? Or do you want to make strategic grants? Or do you want to do a little of both?