 November/December 2001 (XXXIX 5) |
t Friends Fiduciary Corporation's Annual Meeting for Constituents held June 12, Board Chair Lois Forrest announced a new service for Quaker Meetings and organizations. After more than a year of information gathering and discussion with Friends groups, Friends Fiduciary Corporation’s Board of Directors agreed to create a planned giving services program. Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, Friends General Conference, Pendle Hill and several other Quaker organizations have expressed their desire to participate in the program.
There are numerous reasons why organizations were interested in the initiation of such a program. Although many Quaker organizations conduct fund raising and have development programs, many of the smaller organizations have not had the capacity to easily issue charitable gift annuities or administer charitable remainder trusts. Most Monthly Meetings lack any capacity to promote deferred giving. These programs require a high level of sophistication and gift annuities require capital reserves. Administrative costs are not manageable without substantial economies of scale. In addition to the costs, there is still the significant amount of time and effort necessary for the ongoing administration of these gifts.
Through this new service, Friends Fiduciary will centralize the administration, registration, regulatory filings and reports, accounting and investment management for various planned giving vehicles (charitable gift annuities and charitable trusts to begin with), so that interested Friends Meetings and organizations might benefit from the savings in time and costs of a united effort. This will allow Friends organizations to concentrate their development efforts on actual fundraising activities and provide additional time to pursue the work of their individual missions.
Friends Fiduciary began organizing immediately to provide this service. In addition to designing procedures for management of the program, completing required registrations and other administrative details, the organization process includes application to several Quaker funds to provide the initial seed money for start-up costs and reserves. Friends Fiduciary has advanced some of the start-up costs but its funds are limited.
Much time and labor will be expended to provide these services but Friends Fiduciary is excited by the opportunity to provide much needed and desired services for its fellow Quaker organizations and, by so doing, further enhance the fulfillment of its own mission.
Linell McCurry
Lansdowne Meeting (PA)
Friends Fiduciary Corporation
Last modified: Wednesday, February 18, 2004 at 08:18 AM