At the Heart of Charitable Giving

Fred Hartwick

Executive Director of Gift Planning
Columbia University

Seminar Speaker

The Life of a Stock Certificate: When it might make a good gift

How should you talk to a prospect who might be the founder or early investor in a company? At what time would a gift be appropriate? This discussion will cover the risks and benefits of making a stock gift when the company is in its early stages, before it is sold either in a private or public sale, and after it has been sold. Participants should go away with a set of questions to bring to a conversation with such prospects, and a number of issues to be considered by their charities in developing policies about when and how to accept gifts of illiquid stock.

Target Audience: beginner, intermediate, both Planned Giving and Major Gift Officers

Speaker Bio

During Fred’s six-year tenure, Columbia has expanded each of its gift planning programs, including the ability to invest unitrusts in the University’s endowment, the creation of donor-advised funds, the establishment of fundraising trusts in the UK, Hong Kong and India, and the tracking of data through the University’s central database. He has developed several training programs for his major and principal gift colleagues. He practiced estate planning and tax law for six years before moving into the gift planning world in 1986, and he has also worked at Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley.