A Planned Giving CollaborativeChildren’s Village ●Inwood House ● Safe Space

Time Tested Models of InnovationJune 5th, 2009

University of San DiegoSchool of Leadership & Education Sciences

About The Children's Support Foundation

• The Children's Support Foundation is a planned giving collaborative among three leading New York City youth service agencies - Children's Village, Inwood House, and Safe Space

• Designed to create lasting support for New York's most vulnerable youth and young families.

• Provides donors the opportunity to make a significant impact on persistent child and family poverty in the New York metropolitan area.

• 30,000 youth served through: child welfare, community-based health services, school-based teen pregnancy and AIDS prevention, youth leadership, young adult support services and specialized maternal health and family support services for pregnant and parenting teens.

Children’s Support Foundation Structure

• 501 (C) 3 organization

• Governed by a Board of Directors comprised of staff and board representatives from each member agency, and volunteers from the philanthropy and financial advisory fields.

• Supported by a Professional Advisory Committee, whose members represent the nation's leading investment, wealth management, and philanthropy advisors.

• Seed funding for first two years provided by the Booth Ferris Foundation

Key Factors Leading to Collaboration Mutual Goals for long-term stability and sector leadership: Increased endowment support through planned giving is a strategic goal of each organization.

• Protects against economic downturns• Ensures Comprehensive & High Dosage Service • Supports Innovation

Key Factors Leading to Collaboration

Similar Capacity Challenges: Individually, agencies lacked the ability to launch and sustain a planned giving effort with supporters:

• Staff Expertise • Board Knowledge & Experience• Fiscal Clout -- to attract quality financial

investment management• Marketing Tools

Key Factors Leading to Collaboration

Sound, Confident & Innovative Leadership:

Success requires buy-in and support by the agencies’ Executive Directors, Development Directors, and their Boards.

Key Factors Leading to Collaboration

Compatible Missions and Philosophies

• Serving especially vulnerable young people: Children’s Village -- delinquent boys Inwood House -- pregnant and parenting teens and teens at high risk for teen pregnancy and AIDS Safe Space -- runaway and homeless youth

• Strength-based approaches to helping young people overcome persistent child and family poverty

• Evidence-based practices and focus on outcomes• History of working together & referrals for service

The Concept Problem:

• Planned giving programs often provide up to 30% of revenues for medical and higher education institutions.

• Very few human service organizations can afford the up-front costs to staff and maintain this specialized fundraising activity.

Solution: • Pool talent, contacts and resources to build expertise and

capacity ►• Establish more meaningful relationships with donors ►• Cultivate endowment gifts or long-term program support ►• Future generations will reap the benefits

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The Connection

• Program collaboration between Safe Space and Children’s Village leads to dialogue on funding needs and capacity building

• Children’s Village’s early planned giving effort provided key insight to financial management requirements

• Greater dimension and clout needed to attract potential funders, financial management and volunteer support

• Executive Director of Safe Space contacted the Executive Director of Inwood House to invite their participation.

Key Start-Up Steps

• Create a legal entity with By-laws: Children’s Support Foundation

• Foundation allows donated funds to be pooled and distributed as designated by funders, protects the collaborators’ investments and interests, and simplifies overhead management.

• Secure Board approvals of Children’s Support Foundation

• Elect Officers and Board Members • Secure J.P. Morgan Chase to manage the Children’s

Support Foundation’s funds and planned giving vehicles• Secure $50,000 start-up funding from the Booth Ferris

Foundation • Recruit non-agency Board members and Professional

Advisory Council to expand audience reach and increase expertise

Essential Resources

• Planned Giving expertise in one partner agency and advising attorney: Jeff Sobel of Safe Space and Andrew Grumet of Schiff Hardin

• Development staff leadership to move process forward • Legal expertise for creation of the Foundation; and for

each agency’s review and approval of the Foundation By-laws

• Funds for required legal services to incorporate the foundation

• Executive Directors and key Board leadership to help sell concept to agency Boards

Stakeholder InvolvementExecutive Directors • Reached out to each other for initial consideration of project and to

sell concept to agency Boards

Development Directors• Directed overall effort – Jeff Sobel, Safe Space• Advanced group process and within their agencies• Reported on agency progress/setbacks to inform efforts• Met regularly as a working group & shared tasks and expertise for

completing key steps• Hold seats on CSF Board

Agency Board Members • brainstorming meetings and due diligence• key spokespeople for the project in winning Board approval• hold seats on the CSF Board

Stakeholder Involvement

Legal Counsel, Andrew Grumet, Schiff Hardin• Pro bono legal counsel• Participated in all conceptual meetings• Proposed the creation of the foundation• Provided the legal document and fielded

questions/concerns from individual agency board members, staff and counsel

• Holds a seat on the CSF Board

All CSF Board Members • reviewed the By-laws• took part in the RFP process for securing the financial

management service provider

Obstacles Encountered in

Design/Creation Process Board Approval Delayed Six Months• Competing priorities on Board Meeting agendas

• Concern that the Planned Giving effort would compete with Children’s Village and Inwood House capital

campaigns.

ImplementationKey Steps

• Marketing materials created for Children’s Support Foundation and individual agencies

• Website created for Children’s Support Foundation

• Press Release & Media List prepared for launch of the Foundation with targeted follow up.

• Cultivation Events for Agency Supporters, Institutional Funders, and Financial Advisors - Effective Poverty Fighting Strategies & Planned Giving- Estate Planning in Volatile Times

- Ethics in Estate Planning Professional Networking Event

Obstacles to Implementation

Wall Street Turmoil• May 2009 information breakfast was originally scheduled

for November 2008, and was postponed. The May event drew about 25 guests.

Lead Gift effort for long-term Foundation sustainability not

effective. • Turned efforts to individual and institutional giving that

would the support the agencies’ endowments & direct service efforts.

Major Change from Original Idea

Creation of Foundation

• Shift from mutual agreement among agencies to

collaborate to legal foundation

Outcomes

Enhanced ability to develop more meaningful relationshipswith supporters. All three agencies have:

• Planned Giving knowledge

• Professional materials for educating and communicating with supporters

• Top financial management firm to help attract, cultivate and execute planned gifts

• Professional Advisory Council for advice cultivating planned gifts and advocacy within the financial advisory and philanthropy fields

OutcomesChildren’s Village has completed its first Charitable Gift Annuity

Inwood House has been advised of one Will bequest

Children’s Support Foundation has been profiled in BoardSource, the New York Times, and the Chronicle ofPhilanthropy

Agencies are discussing ways to share other overheadexpenses

The Children’s Support Foundation has created a model forcreating legacy giving for social service

Advice

Incorporate individuals from the organizations with

an ability to “make a deal” and find common ground.

Seek assistance of qualified experts who have done this

type of project or similar projects before.

Keep your eye on the “big picture” and don’t get caught

in minutia.

www.childrenssupportfoundation.org