February, 2012

Feature Article

Catch Me If You Can…

I am a very successful American with an international reputation in my profession; my partner of many years is a similarly successful European in a related profession; we often work together on the same project. I am in my late 60s; my partner is a little younger. Between us we have neither children nor many living relatives. Our businesses are headquartered in New York City, but our clients are all over the world. What we do is both creative and highly customized for our clients. Therefore, while we are both computer-literate, we prefer to communicate face-to-face, in writing or by phone. We maintain an apartment in New York, but spend a great deal of time in our other homes in Paris, Catalonia, Croatia and the Berkshires. None of these homes is particularly grand in size, but each is unique; several have been featured in foreign and domestic publications such as Architectural Digest. Few of our homes have land-line phones, and few people, apart from clients, personal friends and our business staff, know our phone numbers. Our mail is screened by personal assistants and, if we are away from New York city, it is forwarded to us by express mail.

Note: The above situation is real, the people are real and their descriptions are real… only some details have been blurred to protect their identities.

As a Planned Giving/Major Gift professional would you be intrigued by this situation? How would you approach these prospective donors?

Our January luncheon speaker, Tony Martignetti, Esq., discussed the importance of people and their sensibilities, and what that means in terms of tailoring both the medium and the message so that it will be well received. One person in the audience responded to the post-event survey by summing everything up: “The talk was timely. The technical aspects of planned giving are very important. However, as pointed out by Mr. Martignetti, people and relationships are vital to our success. The attention to detail in writing a note, text, or e-mail is an important signal to our clients, co-workers, and peers. The presentation renewed my focus on people.”

Our February 15th luncheon presentation will address another interesting aspect of people such as those described at the beginning of this article: how to develop and manage multinational donors and their gifts. Obviously there are tax and legal issues; some of these details will be discussed by Paula Jones, Esq. during the February luncheon program.

If the subject of gift planning were easy, anybody could do it. But when things become complicated, as in the case of the people we described, it takes a real professional to deal with the technical details and to build and maintain the personal relationship needed with the donor to garner a gift.

Dr. Steven Meyers, a PPGGNY Board Member, said, “I think it is on point to take care and realize how the process of multi-dimensional gift planning becomes complicated in an international setting. There is definitely an impact on donor relations. Success in going to depend on managing and negotiating three sets of interests and priorities: the donors’, the foreign entities’ and the local entities’. When there is a ‘mother ship’ with satellites, greater attention needs to focus on the personalities and roles of all the key players…”, and doesn’t this bring us right back to people?