Benefits for Clients and Advisors

Rochester Area Community Foundation considers professional advisors — including accountants, analysts, attorneys, trust officers, wealth managers, and other financial professionals — to be valuable partners in philanthropy. We work with you to help your clients develop plans that fit their financial needs and their charitable interests.

If you have a client interested in charitable giving, we can help:

  • Completing the transfer of stock gifts into a fund at the Foundation. Email StockProcessing@racf.org or call Andrew Muldoon at 585.341.4360 with the stock name and share count. Privacy rules prevent some brokers from identifying donors.
  • Providing an easy way for bunching, which is when a larger gift is made to a donor-advised fund or Charitable Checking AccountSM (CCA) to support future annual giving.
  • Ensuring a Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) from an IRA of someone who is 70 1/2 or older is deposited into a fund at the Community Foundation to support the community or an area of interest to the donor. QCD gifts cannot be directed to CCAs or donor-advised funds.
  • Taking advantage of tax-advantaged income for life with a charitable gift annuity (CGA). Your clients can create a CGA with a QCD of up to $50,000.

Talking About Philanthropy With Clients

To help introduce your clients to the Community Foundation, feel free to share this overview packet, which contains a fact sheet, frequently asked questions, investment fees, and performance results (among other resources).

A U.S. Trust Study of the Philanthropic Conversation found that high net worth clients want to be talking about charitable giving with advisors early in their relationship and in a meaningful way. The study also found that clients want advisors to:

  • Better understand their motivations for charitable giving;
  • Have meaningful, values-based conversations rather than focusing solely on tax or wealth restructuring perspectives; and
  • Talk about how to involve children and grandchildren in charitable giving.

Community Foundation staff would be happy to help you in these discussions with clients, explain the range of charitable options depending on how involved they want to be, and assist in resolving complicated estate planning issues. Email our Philanthropic Engagement team, and based on your needs, the team member best equipped to assist you with the next steps will follow up. We also can come to your office for a 30-minute presentation about how we can help you help your clients.

Financial Management Options for Advisors

Financial advisors working with clients to create funds of $2 million or more may request the opportunity to continue managing the funds once they are contributed to the Community Foundation. The request is subject to the review and approval of the Foundation’s Investment Committee.

The Community Foundation also participates in the American Funds Community Foundation Program, which allows financial advisors to receive compensation for continued management of client assets given to the Community Foundation for qualified charitable agreements. This program provides your clients with maximum tax benefits on their charitable giving while providing you an opportunity for continued involvement. Learn more in this American Funds document about community foundations.