Wealth and investment is also changing – we are entering a new paradigm where it is seen as a powerful tool to affect sustained and positive social change. Advisors need to embrace this and evolve to stay with the market and their clients.
AMY CLARKE, CO-FOUNDER, TRIBE IMPACT CAPITAL LLP
It is important that you come to your clients with empathy, and with a clear understanding of your own values and core assumptions.
Philanthropy and social impact investing are incredibly personal decisions, and it is clear that what motivates one philanthropist can be very different to what motivates another. It is therefore imperative that you identify your own values before helping a client to identify theirs.
In our workshops, we work with advisors to identify and challenge your own assumptions to be able to ask open questions of your clients and start the process of value identifications with questions such as:
Value identifying questions could be:
To start you can begin by simply asking the basic giving questions:
Possible question to initiate the conversation
“Are there any charitable interests you would like to support?” or “Have you supported charities in the past?”
Or you can prepare the ground. Before a meeting, send a list of issues you want to discuss and include giving and values-based questions. This allows clients to consider the idea ahead of time and ensures that the question is not overlooked.
If you are talking about giving during your client’s lifetime, you might ask:
When discussing your clients’ retirement, if they worry about having enough for a secure future, you might say:
If you are talking about your client’s will, you might ask one or two of the following questions:
Good moments are when clients are thinking about major financial decisions, such as:
Philanthropy Impact's Guide to Giving has been developed to guide advisors through a step-by-step process to help clients create a charitable giving strategy.
There is no 'right' strategy or 'right' giving portfolio – it is a question of what matters to your client, who they would like to involve, and how they would like to organise the decision-making process.
Of course, clients may wish to undertake one or more of these steps by themselves. However, many find it helpful to do so together with their advisor.
You can help stimulate their thinking by
Finally, you should understand your place in the 'advisory wheel' and signpost them to specialist philanthropy advisors to move the process along. In our workshops we cover the advisory wheel and support you to identify your strengths and when to signpost and our events enable you to increase your network of trusted specialists.
This is less likely to be the case if you have a look at other sections of this site or attended our events and training workshops. But there is nothing wrong with saying you will get back to them – as long as you then do so with well-researched advice and a clear understanding of the advisory wheel.
We ensure that advisors that come through our learning journey have a clear understanding of where to go to get the expert advice they need, in the specialist areas right across the philanthropy investment continuum from charitable giving right through to the more heavily regulated space of ESG investments.
Fortunately, there is a growing range of specialty philanthropy, social investment and impact investing services to help, you can find others in our network via our members in our Membership Directory or get in touch today to learn more.
It can be helpful when providing advice on giving to clients to put yourself in their shoes. The following practical exercise is useful to help you think about the kinds of issues your clients may raise.
Pretend you are one of your clients, and assume you have been given £10m to set up a foundation. Using the guide to giving five-stage framework, ask yourself the following key questions:
What do you want to achieve with the foundation?
What causes do you care about? What would you like to change in the world?
Do you want to give your time and expertise as well as money?
Do you want to distribute all the funds within a specified time period or set up a permanent endowment?
Do you want to involve your family?
Would you consider social investment?
Do you want to pro-actively find charities to support or will you accept proposals?
To enable you enhance your client service offer and build stronger, long-term relationships, it is vital to feel comfortable engaging with your clients on their philanthropy and social impact investment journey.
Explore our guide and to learn more, please join one of our workshops.
Current research shows that there is a huge shift in client demands with the transfer of wealth to millennials and women. This is creating the need for a new kind of advisory service - one with greater engagement, focused on client values and social and environmental impact.
Now is a critical time for advisors to add philanthropy and social impact advice into their practice and we want to make it easier for you by debunking some of the more common myths about demand for this kind of service.
The last ten years has seen a step change in philanthropy. The newly wealthy are increasingly using their wealth and business experience to create private foundations, start ups or support emerging models in philanthropy and social impact investing. They are also testing innovative approaches to social issues and volunteering their time and expertise.
Wealth holders, particularly younger generations, are increasingly seeking to align their wealth with their values. They expect advisors to provide professional support in numerous, increasingly complex areas related to responsible investing and philanthropy.
Even in these challenging times, philanthropists and social entrepreneurs remain committed to their causes, knowing that this is a time when charities need their support more than ever.
There is a growing emphasis on (U)HNWI to ‘do good with their wealth’.
Philanthropy Impact’s 2022 research (unpublished) looked at changes in the ways the new generation of wealth holders are approaching their wealth, and the implications for private client professional advisors. The findings include:
Additional research with similar implications:
In meeting changing client needs and their impact-driven demand, and in meeting customer centricity regulatory issues, professional advisors can future-proof their firms by strengthening their values-focused offerings – leading to client retention, talent attraction and meeting compliance issues.
As with all sensitive issues, discussing philanthropy with your clients can be done in a way that respects their privacy, values and independence. Of course, clients want advice on taxation and on the best vehicles for their giving, but it's also what's in their hearts.
Helping clients to give effectively means taking the time to understand what they really want. And as research demonstrates, what they want is professional advice on how to give more effectively, and to make a positive impact with their wealth.
Including philanthropy in your conversation with a client often addresses an area of their life that they are passionate about and broadens your relationship with them
Offering philanthropic advice can help attract and retain clients by expanding the services you offer. And with more wealthy clients becoming philanthropic, they are increasingly seeking professional advice for their giving and those who offer the better philanthropic advice may win more of the overall business.
Clients are already paying for asset management and administrative services for their charitable foundations and a significant minority of philanthropists are prepared to pay for specialist philanthropy advice. For example, they will pay on a consultancy or pro rata basis for advice on governance or structuring, grant-making techniques, finding a project and feedback processes.
Clients won’t expect you to have every answer at your fingertips, but they will expect you to be able to find out or at least point them in the right direction.
Fortunately, there is a growing range of specialty philanthropy services to help – including the Guide to Giving framework; community foundations to support local giving; advisors such as New Philanthropy Capital which recommend specific charities to support; as well as a variety of specialist philanthropy funds in which your clients might invest.
You also can provide your clients a valuable service by connecting them to other philanthropic clients, to share learning and expertise. Access to networks of like-minded individuals is one of the sources of support most frequently cited by new philanthropists.
IN A LAW FIRM
Ceris Gardner, a partner at Maurice Turnor Gardner LLP, is one of the UK’s leading experts on tax, estate planning and family governance, and charity and philanthropy. We ask her what kind of support she provides her clients around their giving, and what benefits this brings to her practice.
We typically help clients who are looking to start their giving and want to set up a structure. However in the past few years, we have started doing much more than simply advising on and implementing the most suitable structure for each client. We have more general discussions with the client about what causes they want to support, whether they want to be involved in their local community, what they want to achieve or how to involve their family. We have many clients, for instance, that want to give back to the country of their origin, often India or Africa, and help provide better educational opportunities. Last year we researched our clients and asked them, if fiven £2m to spend on charitable causes what would they do. 63% of our respondents said that they would like to see exactly how their money is being spent by getting as involved as possible. A substantial number (77%) said they would prefer to set up their own trust or foundation aligned with causes that they are passionate about. This tallies with our experience of philanthropy at work. At the same time, 68% of people said that they would prefer to be anonymous or very low profile, which we found quite surprising.
We have learnt that clients often want guidance on how to distribute the funds within their structure and we are in a great position to refer them to specialist advisors who can help them choose effective charities, support their local communities or undertake bespoke research on the issue they care about. So we do so much more than talking through the technicalities of the most tax-efficient and suitable structure.
The benefits of providing philanthropy support is mainly the much closer relationship we build with each client when discussing issues they really care about. Clients are more likely to stay with our firm, refer others and come back to us for further support if they gain our trust and good advice around their giving. Philanthropy really is an effective ‘relationship-builder’.
If I was giving advice to a lawyer with no prior experience in philanthropy who wanted to start supporting their clients’ giving, I would suggest that they take part in the wide range of events and activities that are available. For example, The Philanthropy Programme, a joint education initiative between Philanthropy Impact and STEP (Society of Trust & Estate Practitioners), offers a series of events covering the philanthropy spectrum from the advisors standpoint with good networking opportunities and Philanthropy Impact also offer a range of informative roundtables and seminars for advisors and charities in London, throughout the UK and in Europe. Both TPP and PI programmes are available to members and non-members and offer networking opportunities. STEP has Charity and Philanthropy Special Interest Groups which also offer informative talks and they run courses on providing philanthropy advice. The Institute of Philanthropy and NPC offer courses for philanthropists and the Charity Tax Group is another useful resource, providing specific tax information to charities of all sizes. I would also recommend practitioners read as widely on the subject as possible, and talk to those who are involved: I’ve found that people in the private client / philanthropy world are incredibly generous with their time!
(U)HNWs’ private clients’ needs are changing. Research shows that they want more comprehensive and personalised support from their professional advisors (wealth management, tax, legal, independent financial advisors, family trusts, family offices, professional philanthropy advisors) to address their values-based economic and social goals.
The many benefits (and an evidence based commercial opportunity) for professional advisors in offering better philanthropy advice.
For example, providing this support:
More information about training here
It is important that you come to your clients with empathy, and with a clear understanding of your own values and core assumptions.
Philanthropy and social impact investing are incredibly personal decisions, and it is clear that what motivates one philanthropist can be very different to what motivates another. It is therefore imperative that you identify your own values before helping a client to identify theirs.
In our workshops, we work with advisors to identify and challenge your own assumptions to be able to ask open questions of your clients and start the process of value identifications with questions such as:
Value identifying questions could be:
To start you can begin by simply asking the basic giving questions:
Possible question to initiate the conversation
“Are there any charitable interests you would like to support?” or “Have you supported charities in the past?”
Or you can prepare the ground. Before a meeting, send a list of issues you want to discuss and include giving and values-based questions. This allows clients to consider the idea ahead of time and ensures that the question is not overlooked.
If you are talking about giving during your client’s lifetime, you might ask:
When discussing your clients’ retirement, if they worry about having enough for a secure future, you might say:
If you are talking about your client’s will, you might ask one or two of the following questions:
Good moments are when clients are thinking about major financial decisions, such as:
Philanthropy Impact's Guide to Giving has been developed to guide advisors through a step-by-step process to help clients create a charitable giving strategy.
There is no 'right' strategy or 'right' giving portfolio – it is a question of what matters to your client, who they would like to involve, and how they would like to organise the decision-making process.
Of course, clients may wish to undertake one or more of these steps by themselves. However, many find it helpful to do so together with their advisor.
You can help stimulate their thinking by
Finally, you should understand your place in the 'advisory wheel' and signpost them to specialist philanthropy advisors to move the process along. In our workshops we cover the advisory wheel and support you to identify your strengths and when to signpost and our events enable you to increase your network of trusted specialists.
This is less likely to be the case if you have a look at other sections of this site or attended our events and training workshops. But there is nothing wrong with saying you will get back to them – as long as you then do so with well-researched advice and a clear understanding of the advisory wheel.
We ensure that advisors that come through our learning journey have a clear understanding of where to go to get the expert advice they need, in the specialist areas right across the philanthropy investment continuum from charitable giving right through to the more heavily regulated space of ESG investments.
Fortunately, there is a growing range of specialty philanthropy, social investment and impact investing services to help, you can find others in our network via our members in our Membership Directory or get in touch today to learn more.
It can be helpful when providing advice on giving to clients to put yourself in their shoes. The following practical exercise is useful to help you think about the kinds of issues your clients may raise.
Pretend you are one of your clients, and assume you have been given £10m to set up a foundation. Using the guide to giving five-stage framework, ask yourself the following key questions:
What do you want to achieve with the foundation?
What causes do you care about? What would you like to change in the world?
Do you want to give your time and expertise as well as money?
Do you want to distribute all the funds within a specified time period or set up a permanent endowment?
Do you want to involve your family?
Would you consider social investment?
Do you want to pro-actively find charities to support or will you accept proposals?
To enable you enhance your client service offer and build stronger, long-term relationships, it is vital to feel comfortable engaging with your clients on their philanthropy and social impact investment journey.
Explore our guide and to learn more, please join one of our workshops.
Current research shows that there is a huge shift in client demands with the transfer of wealth to millennials and women. This is creating the need for a new kind of advisory service - one with greater engagement, focused on client values and social and environmental impact.
Now is a critical time for advisors to add philanthropy and social impact advice into their practice and we want to make it easier for you by debunking some of the more common myths about demand for this kind of service.
The last ten years has seen a step change in philanthropy. The newly wealthy are increasingly using their wealth and business experience to create private foundations, start ups or support emerging models in philanthropy and social impact investing. They are also testing innovative approaches to social issues and volunteering their time and expertise.
Wealth holders, particularly younger generations, are increasingly seeking to align their wealth with their values. They expect advisors to provide professional support in numerous, increasingly complex areas related to responsible investing and philanthropy.
Even in these challenging times, philanthropists and social entrepreneurs remain committed to their causes, knowing that this is a time when charities need their support more than ever.
There is a growing emphasis on (U)HNWI to ‘do good with their wealth’.
Philanthropy Impact’s 2022 research (unpublished) looked at changes in the ways the new generation of wealth holders are approaching their wealth, and the implications for private client professional advisors. The findings include:
Additional research with similar implications:
In meeting changing client needs and their impact-driven demand, and in meeting customer centricity regulatory issues, professional advisors can future-proof their firms by strengthening their values-focused offerings – leading to client retention, talent attraction and meeting compliance issues.
As with all sensitive issues, discussing philanthropy with your clients can be done in a way that respects their privacy, values and independence. Of course, clients want advice on taxation and on the best vehicles for their giving, but it's also what's in their hearts.
Helping clients to give effectively means taking the time to understand what they really want. And as research demonstrates, what they want is professional advice on how to give more effectively, and to make a positive impact with their wealth.
Including philanthropy in your conversation with a client often addresses an area of their life that they are passionate about and broadens your relationship with them
Offering philanthropic advice can help attract and retain clients by expanding the services you offer. And with more wealthy clients becoming philanthropic, they are increasingly seeking professional advice for their giving and those who offer the better philanthropic advice may win more of the overall business.
Clients are already paying for asset management and administrative services for their charitable foundations and a significant minority of philanthropists are prepared to pay for specialist philanthropy advice. For example, they will pay on a consultancy or pro rata basis for advice on governance or structuring, grant-making techniques, finding a project and feedback processes.
Clients won’t expect you to have every answer at your fingertips, but they will expect you to be able to find out or at least point them in the right direction.
Fortunately, there is a growing range of specialty philanthropy services to help – including the Guide to Giving framework; community foundations to support local giving; advisors such as New Philanthropy Capital which recommend specific charities to support; as well as a variety of specialist philanthropy funds in which your clients might invest.
You also can provide your clients a valuable service by connecting them to other philanthropic clients, to share learning and expertise. Access to networks of like-minded individuals is one of the sources of support most frequently cited by new philanthropists.
IN A LAW FIRM
Ceris Gardner, a partner at Maurice Turnor Gardner LLP, is one of the UK’s leading experts on tax, estate planning and family governance, and charity and philanthropy. We ask her what kind of support she provides her clients around their giving, and what benefits this brings to her practice.
We typically help clients who are looking to start their giving and want to set up a structure. However in the past few years, we have started doing much more than simply advising on and implementing the most suitable structure for each client. We have more general discussions with the client about what causes they want to support, whether they want to be involved in their local community, what they want to achieve or how to involve their family. We have many clients, for instance, that want to give back to the country of their origin, often India or Africa, and help provide better educational opportunities. Last year we researched our clients and asked them, if fiven £2m to spend on charitable causes what would they do. 63% of our respondents said that they would like to see exactly how their money is being spent by getting as involved as possible. A substantial number (77%) said they would prefer to set up their own trust or foundation aligned with causes that they are passionate about. This tallies with our experience of philanthropy at work. At the same time, 68% of people said that they would prefer to be anonymous or very low profile, which we found quite surprising.
We have learnt that clients often want guidance on how to distribute the funds within their structure and we are in a great position to refer them to specialist advisors who can help them choose effective charities, support their local communities or undertake bespoke research on the issue they care about. So we do so much more than talking through the technicalities of the most tax-efficient and suitable structure.
The benefits of providing philanthropy support is mainly the much closer relationship we build with each client when discussing issues they really care about. Clients are more likely to stay with our firm, refer others and come back to us for further support if they gain our trust and good advice around their giving. Philanthropy really is an effective ‘relationship-builder’.
If I was giving advice to a lawyer with no prior experience in philanthropy who wanted to start supporting their clients’ giving, I would suggest that they take part in the wide range of events and activities that are available. For example, The Philanthropy Programme, a joint education initiative between Philanthropy Impact and STEP (Society of Trust & Estate Practitioners), offers a series of events covering the philanthropy spectrum from the advisors standpoint with good networking opportunities and Philanthropy Impact also offer a range of informative roundtables and seminars for advisors and charities in London, throughout the UK and in Europe. Both TPP and PI programmes are available to members and non-members and offer networking opportunities. STEP has Charity and Philanthropy Special Interest Groups which also offer informative talks and they run courses on providing philanthropy advice. The Institute of Philanthropy and NPC offer courses for philanthropists and the Charity Tax Group is another useful resource, providing specific tax information to charities of all sizes. I would also recommend practitioners read as widely on the subject as possible, and talk to those who are involved: I’ve found that people in the private client / philanthropy world are incredibly generous with their time!
(U)HNWs’ private clients’ needs are changing. Research shows that they want more comprehensive and personalised support from their professional advisors (wealth management, tax, legal, independent financial advisors, family trusts, family offices, professional philanthropy advisors) to address their values-based economic and social goals.
The many benefits (and an evidence based commercial opportunity) for professional advisors in offering better philanthropy advice.
For example, providing this support:
More information about training here