FJC Donor Sandra Hughes Waddell wrote this guest essay for our blog, describing how Donor Advised Fund accounts are helping her family sustain the legacy of their ancestor Charles Evans Hughes. The piece is a part of our “Why I Give…and How” blog series.

Every family has traditions and values passed down from generation to generation. For our family, it’s a passion for racial and social justice. We grew up hearing stories about my grandmother Catherine Hughes Waddell, a relentless advocate for racial equality who left her mark through her work at organizations such as the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the United Negro College Fund. My grandfather Chauncey Waddell shared Catherine’s passion for this work, and together they created an enduring and impactful legacy of philanthropy.

The Charles Evans Hughes Memorial Foundation was founded by my grandparents and named in honor of Catherine’s father (our great-grandfather), a former Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, U.S. Secretary of State, Governor of the State of New York and a steadfast advocate for equal justice under law. For over 60 years, the Hughes Foundation was at the heart of our family’s philanthropic endeavors, with programs focusing on legal and human rights; environment, population and health; education; and arts and culture. It was a cherished and impactful institution that helped to guide my own personal journey as a philanthropist.

I vividly remember, as a young child, my parents started me on a small allowance, of which I was to set aside 10% for charity. At the end of the year, my parents would match what I’d saved, and I was to write to my selected organizations, explaining why I had chosen them. Those first gifts were to the organizations where my grandmother Catherine had worked. It was a wonderful way to set me on the path toward my own philanthropy. More than that, I have been forever grateful to have been raised in a family for whom racial justice is a deeply abiding value.

As I grew older, I began to understand that philanthropy wasn’t just about donating money, but also about doing the work to understand the complexities of the issues you’re trying to address. Experience has taught me that effective philanthropy calls for actively listening to and learning from those in the organizations and communities you seek to serve, building relationships and fostering partnerships, and providing funding that best propels change, builds the capacity and resources of your grantees and creates sustainable impact.

In essence, for me, philanthropy is not a financial exercise, it’s an intellectual, emotional and deeply-rooted personal commitment. Building on my grandmother’s vision, and serving on the Foundation she and my grandfather created, has been both a privilege and a responsibility. Yet, in recent years, the private foundation landscape has shifted. The administrative and compliance demands are complex and resource-consuming, putting small family foundations like ours in a challenging position. These obligations can threaten to overshadow the charitable mission that should be the driving force of any philanthropic venture. What’s more, as our family’s involvement in the Hughes Foundation evolved over the generations, it became clear that the governance structure of a family foundation was becoming unwieldy, and our philanthropy could benefit from added flexibility.

This is where Donor Advised Funds (DAFs) come into play. DAFs have been rising in popularity. As a philanthropist familiar with the workload of running a foundation, I’m not surprised. DAFs offer a valuable alternative, empowering philanthropists to shed administrative burdens while continuing to channel their energy and resources toward causes that matter. By moving to individual DAF accounts, we realized we would be able to devote our attention to identifying and building relationships with grantees making the most impact. We believe that is the heart and soul of philanthropy, and, what’s more, true to the vision of our family.

After much thoughtful consideration, the four remaining trustees decided to dissolve the Foundation and continue our cherished philanthropic mission through new DAF accounts with FJC, a boutique sponsor. It had been weighty and even emotional for some of us, thinking about winding down the good work of a distinguished 60-year family Foundation, but being introduced to FJC really brightened our sense of what the next phase of giving could look like. We found that, unlike larger institutions, boutique organizations like FJC offer flexibility, accommodating unique agreements, handling unusual assets and developing bespoke charitable programs. In our case, we found that even as we moved philanthropic assets from the Foundation to our DAF accounts, we could maintain our investment advisory relationship with the Foundation’s long-time funds manager. Our partnership with FJC has allowed us not only to preserve the legacy of the Hughes Foundation but also to reanimate that legacy, enabling us to further invest in the causes and institutions that matter deeply to us. Finding the right partner is, in itself, transformative. We’re grateful to work with a team that understands the philosophy of our giving.

This transition feels like a new chapter in our family’s philanthropic journey – an evolution rather than an ending. Our new approach offers a vibrant, exciting future where we continue to honor the spirit of our forebears, focused on our impact and not on overhead. This is not just about preserving a philanthropic legacy but about propelling it forward. Freed from the confines of private foundation governance, our family members now have additional flexibility to further the mission of the Hughes Foundation, each in our own way. The Hughes Foundation may have evolved, but its spirit, mission and commitment to social justice will continue to guide the path forward.

Reflecting on the journey that brought us here, I am reminded of the young girl who first learned the joy and importance of giving and who, all these decades later, remains steeped in gratitude – to her forebears, for their wisdom and vision in creating an enduring and impactful legacy of philanthropy, and even more so, to the many charitable organizations and projects that inspire us and whose important missions and work we are honored to support.

Special thanks from FJC to Lauren Katzowitz Shenfield, Principal of Philanthropy Advisors, for providing the strategic guidance to the Trustees of the former Charles Evans Hughes Memorial Foundation that led to this exciting, new partnership.

As the end of the year approaches, FJC CEO Sam Marks interviewed FJC Board Member, Neal Myerberg, Principal at Myerberg Philanthropic Advisors, who consults with charitable organizations, foundations and philanthropists.  A transcript of the conversation, edited for length and clarity, is below.

Please note that FJC does not offer tax advice; any prospective donor should seek the advice of a qualified estate and/or tax professional to determine the consequence of his/her gift.

It’s a time of real uncertainty in the markets, with equity markets down for the year, plus rising inflation putting downward pressure on bond prices.  At a time when many donors are seeing their portfolios decline, how should donors think about year-end giving?

There’s no question that investors may not be feeling as flush as they did in prior years.  That said, long-term investors may still have capital gains from securities they bought many years ago.  It’s worth asking the question to their tax attorneys or planning professionals.

It’s also good to remember that cash and appreciated stock aren’t the only assets that can be donated.  FJC has accepted real estate, cryptocurrency, illiquid or lightly traded stock in advance of an IPO.  These items can take a bit more lead time for be approved by FJC’s board committees, so I’d definitely encourage reaching out to Sam or Regina soon if people are looking to make these donations before the end of the year.

Are there any tried-and-true rules of thumb that philanthropically minded families should keep in mind, even in a down market?

Regardless of what the market is doing, it’s always a good time to plan.  You might review your account documents and make sure that you have Successor Recommenders identified. And maybe it’s a good time to involve those successors—family members, the next generation—in your giving.  Some donors engage in a family-wide “strategic plan” for their philanthropy. FJC encourages this and can even allow some or all of the costs of strategic consultants to be paid with funds in a donor’s DAF account.

For so many donors we work with, philanthropy is part of their legacy.  Whether they are identifying beloved organizations for final distributions, or setting up a Board-designated fund to live on in perpetuity, FJC is really committed to meeting its donors where they are and creating a customized solution for them. 

Could you offer one or two planning techniques that could be highly impactful for increasing our donors’ philanthropic capacity? Any little-known tactics that you wish more DAF account holders would consider?

FJC’s donors probably know that the Treasury Department has reinstated annual required minimum distributions for people who have inherited Individual Retirement Accounts. This is basically a reinterpretation of 2019’s Secure Act, which eliminated the “ten-year stretch”.  In plain language, this means that under this change someone inheriting an IRA who does not fall into the category of exceptions has to take all Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs)–and pay taxes on them—within 10 years, instead of over their whole lifetime. 

IRA owners that want their beneficiaries to receive benefits for life are interested in considering other alternatives.  One solution may be to direct distribution of all or a portion of the IRA to a charitable remainder trust (CRT) after the lifetime of the IRA owner.  The trust would be constructed to make fixed rate payments to one or more beneficiaries for life. Thus, the beneficiaries of the IRA owner would not be limited, as direct heirs of the IRA, to a ten-year payout. At the end of the term of the CRT when all beneficiaries have passed away, the remaining assets may be distributed to a family DAF for recommendations by the next family generation; e.g. the children or heirs of the lifetime beneficiaries of the CRT.

Anything you’d like to highlight about our ever-changing tax code?

While the estate and gift tax unified credit continues to increase year-by-year, the provisions governing annual increases will sunset at the end of 2025.  Beginning in 2026, the unified credit will drop to approximately $6.2-6.5 million ($5 million base in 2010 indexed for inflation through 2025) or such amount as shall be enacted before then to govern estate and gift taxes from and after January 1, 2026.  In addition, the maximum federal gift and/or estate tax rate may increase from 40% to 45%., Taking advantage of the current unified credit amounts ought to be considered in estate planning by the end of 2022 and over the following three years. 

As we look to the decade ahead, my husband and I have been thinking a lot about how our current and future philanthropy can continue to build on our life’s work, mine in local and global social justice, his in education and both of us in moving toward a more just and equitable city/nation/world.  We are now at the life stage when we are planning for the legacy we can leave to our adult children and grandchildren and to the causes we care about.  We are truly fortunate that we can consider philanthropy as a part of that legacy.

We’ve had a donor advised fund account at FJC for over twenty years, and during this time we have used it to make dozens of grants each year to organizations we know well and whose work we admire.  This has included, for me, regular annual gifts to  American Jewish World Service which I was privileged to lead for 18 years and where I still do some work; Surprise Lake Camp, the nation’s longest-running Jewish sleepaway camp, with which my family has had a relationship for over one hundred years; and SAJ, our synagogue for the last 52 years. 

It has also included gifts to such significant organizations, inside and outside the Jewish community, as the Equal Justice Initiative, the Nation Fund for Independent Journalist, the American Civil Liberties Union, Hazon, Avodah and others. In addition, we have given substantial amounts of money to progressive tax-exempt 501(c)(3) voter mobilization organizations like Movement Voter Fund or Focus For Democracy.

As we think about issues of succession and inheritance, we are taking the time to think bigger and more ambitiously about what our philanthropic resources can do, and we are working with the team at FJC to take some of our ideas and put them into practice, acknowledging both our individual and our joint interests

I am in the process of drafting a will that will provide bequests to my three children and eight grandchildren and to my current and future great grandchildren, and then fund a family DAF account with my three children as authorized signatories.  In an accompanying memo to the will, I am doing two things.  I am letting them know what some of my causes are in case they want to keep some of those on their list and—more importantly—I am telling them how I hope the fund will operate.

I have tried, with my husband, to prioritize social justice and anti-racist organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Equal Justice Initiative, to protect the human rights of all marginalized populations, and to address the immense challenges to voting rights, to immigrant rights and to climate change.  I hope that the Fund will consider making small closeout grants to some of the international organizations I have come to know and support through AJWS like Minga Peru, Beyond Borders, Aegis Trust, Fonkoze and UDEFEGUA.

I am urging my children to decide how long they want to keep the fund alive.  I am counting on their involving the next generation in their funding considerations, create opportunities to discuss different options for these charitable dollars, and work to come to consensus about their decisions, but I’m also realistic. My kids have been warm and loving siblings, but their priorities may evolve in different directions.  So, if they feel that the process is causing conflict and they  want to divide the DAF account into three separate funds, that’s fine with me too.

My husband Andrew Lachman is taking a different planning approach with FJC. A longtime advocate and practitioner in public education, Andrew is passionate about supporting innovations in local school districts around the country that lead to demonstrated learning improvement.  He is bringing together a half-dozen experts with whom he has worked or whose work he admires who will help guide this national strategy.  This initiative is a work in progress.  Andrew is anticipating a family inheritance soon, and depending on a few factors, it’s possible he may be able to fund this effort with enough resources for it to have meaningful impact over a long period of time, starting while he is still alive.  How long should the work continue? Who should drive its activities?  Will it have paid staff? These are questions that are still to be determined, and we are working them out with the staff at FJC, including whether there may be a role for FJC in the initiative’s future stewardship.

My husband and I have led incredibly meaningful lives of public service, which have continued even as we have left our CEO jobs.  For all of our accomplishments, we know the work of making a better world is never truly done.  So our conversations about estate planning also mean talking about philanthropy.  We believe that inheritance is about more than just money and real estate; it’s an opportunity to impart values and influence what carries on to future generations.  That is what we hope we are doing with these decisions.

FJC’s blog series, “Why I Give…And How,” gives voice to some of our most committed and imaginative donors.

The author Ruth Messinger served on the New York City Council from 1978 to 1989, representing the Upper West Side, and served as Manhattan Borough President from 1990 to 1998.  She was the President of American Jewish World Service from 1998 to 2016.

It’s well known that donor-advised fund (DAF) accounts allow donors to recommend grants to nonprofits of their choice. But donors can also recommend how funds are invested. FJC’s Chief Financial & Investment Officer Regina Rodriguez discusses the unparalleled customization available at FJC, and how our imaginative donors are taking advantage of it, in the following informative Q&A session. (This interview has been edited for clarity.)

Q&A With Regina Rodriguez, FJC’s Chief Financial & Investment Officer

Q: Like the assets of other nonprofit institutions like university endowments, the assets held in DAF accounts grow tax-free. What investment options are available to your account holders?

A: For most of our donors, the core menu of investments we offer provides a good range of choices. We offer a variety of low-cost mutual funds that are offered by traditional financial institutions like Vanguard, Bernstein, Janus, and others. These options include stocks (both U.S. and international), bonds, money market mutual funds. Donors have different levels of risk, different time horizons for their giving, and many of our donors can identify an investment allocation from our menu that suits their needs. We can provide donors with historic performance metrics of these core products against industry benchmarks, and the Investment Committee of our Board of Directors is constantly reviewing the menu to see if we need to make adjustments to the menu.

Q: But I gather some donors prefer to order “off the menu”? 

A: Yes, we’re able to respond to all kinds of requests. In fact, we were founded back in 1995 by donors that wanted to create a flexible, nimble sponsor of DAFs, and a big part of that meant the ability to be maximally responsive to donors that wanted to take a more customized approach to their investments.

Q: What are some of the ways donors customize their investment approaches?

A: We have donors that want to align their accounts with a particular investment approach that mirrors their or their family’s assets. In some cases, donors’ accounts are invested in alternative investments, such as hedge funds or private equity, or even illiquid assets, like shares or interests in privately held companies. For other donors, it’s less about esoteric investment products, and more that they want to maintain a relationship with a trusted advisor. They want to see their assets in their account invested in a similar way to their personal assets, and they want their advisor to have full visibility of their DAF accounts alongside their other personal brokerage accounts. 

Q: What about impact investing?

A: A lot of donors find their way to FJC because of our longstanding commitment to impact investing, in particular our Agency Loan Fund investing option. We’ve been doing that even before impact investing was “a thing”! 

The Agency Loan Fund is one of the options on our core menu, and donors can choose to invest some or all of their account holdings in it. We pool these funds together and use them to make bridge loans to nonprofits. Loans from the Fund help nonprofits of all kinds manage their cash flow, bridge public sector commitments, acquire property for affordable housing or community facilities. The donors earn a competitive risk-adjusted return, while their funds are being invested in the service of nonprofit missions. Plus, the pooled nature (and our other funding sources) means that donors invested in the Loan Fund don’t have to sacrifice liquidity, and funds are always available if they want to make a grant.

We can also respond to donors who want to customize their account investments with an eye toward impact investments. For example, we worked with a donor that wanted to invest in a career impact bond, supporting a number of training programs that are upskilling workers. We also helped a donor refinance the mortgage of the nonprofit Tenement Museum, which involved purchasing a bond issued by the City of New York and changing the terms so that the museum was obligated to pay interest-only for five years. That one was complicated to get done, but it had a great impact on the organization, which was stabilizing itself coming out of the pandemic.

The donors that work with us typically want to go beyond ESG investing (although we offer products that can do that too); they want to actually invest in nonprofits and help them achieve their missions.

Q: If a donor wants to customize their investment approach, how do they get started?

A: Reach out to speak to us about it. We love getting these calls!

Typically, it’s donors with larger accounts (usually above $1 million) that will be allowed this level of customization. Also, anytime a donor wants to do something that’s not within our standard investment menu, we have to seek approval from the Investment Committee of our Board of Directors to ensure that the investment approach is consistent with our fiduciary role. The Investment Committee is a sophisticated (and committed) group of professionals, so we can usually arrive at an answer relatively quickly.

Also, when there’s an investment advisor or manager that works with multiple donors, we can consider that $1 million threshold in the aggregate. We’ve established a number of these formal, institutional Alliance Relationships, where the firms see FJC’s boutique approach as adding value to their client relationships.

Q: What else should people know about what’s possible with DAFs?

A: DAFs have a reputation for being somewhat standard-issue mechanisms for achieving modest philanthropic goals (like annual giving or memberships at religious institutions). They don’t have to be this way! We’re amazed by the creative ideas some of our donors come up with, and we welcome these opportunities to do something for impact that’s new and different. 

We’re Here to Help

Are you ready to customize your investment approach? Or do you still have questions about how to take advantage of donor-advised funds? Our FJC team is here to help. Reach out to us today at (212) 714-0001 or Marks@fjc.org. 

About Regina 

Regina Rodriguez joined FJC in December 2019 as the Chief Financial and Investment Officer. Regina’s journey began in public accounting, performing audits for clients in an array of industries, which include financial services, manufacturing, and real estate. After joining EisnerAmper, Regina discovered her true passion for the non-profit industry by auditing many of New York’s top cultural, educational, and religious organizations. During a period of changing reporting requirements and regulations, Regina collaborated with the New York State Society of CPAs Foundation for Accounting Education and Philanthropy New York to present seminars and tailored trainings to both financial and non-financial professionals with the goal of making the technical content understandable. Since leaving public accounting, Regina has served as Controller for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and Director of Finance for the Long Island Children’s Museum. Regina graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Adelphi University. She holds a CPA license in the state of New York and serves on her local school district’s Audit and Budget Committees.

By Sam Marks

The biggest names in donor-advised funds (DAFs) are the philanthropic arms of large financial institutions, and their size and scale make them an efficient solution for the retail philanthropist. But for the discerning donor who is looking to take a more personalized and customized approach to their philanthropy, a boutique approach may work better. Here are some reasons you might find a smaller, more nimble DAF sponsor appealing. 

1. You want to donate something weird. 

DAFs will typically accept donations of cash and marketable securities, but some philanthropists have complicated estates where it may be advantageous to donate other appreciated assets. We’ve seen donations of real estate, cryptocurrency, illiquid or lightly traded stock. Maybe you’ve got an idea that we haven’t even considered yet. 

2. Your dollars just can’t quit your advisor.

Oftentimes setting up a DAF account means opening an account at another financial institution, and choosing off a standard list of investment options. If you’ve got an advisor you’ve worked with who’s delivering results, why not bring them along to manage the funds in your DAF account? Our investment committee has approved many of these arrangements, and donors appreciate allowing their longtime advisors to have full visibility into their philanthropic accounts.

3. You’ve had enough of automated responses.

You’ve got questions. Or detailed instructions for grants that matter for the relationships you’re managing. Or there’s an issue you need to troubleshoot with your account. Why fill out an online form letter or put in a support ticket when you can just talk to somebody? Our staff is available during East Coast business hours, and we respond promptly to all emails and phone calls. We’re available to troubleshoot or respond to curve balls, like the occasional rush approval on a grant. 

4. Managing your private foundation has gotten too annoying.

We’ve opened accounts lately from a number of family foundations that have found the administrative burdens of operating a private foundation onerous: the tax filings, audits, compliance. For many years, they resisted closing down and converting to a DAF because they believed they would lose the flexibility and customization. But working with a boutique DAF means not having to make those trade-offs, and they’ve found they can retain many of the benefits of their private foundation (even their name!) while working through a DAF.  

5. You want your philanthropy to go beyond grantmaking.

If you’re deeply invested in the nonprofits you care about, you may learn about the particular challenges they face in operating their businesses. They face many cash-flow challenges that a standard business faces: financing contract receivables, jump-starting capital projects, investing in growth. But the credit options available to nonprofits are very limited. We’ve worked with a range of donors who have used their DAF accounts as 0% interest revolving lines of credit, bridged capital campaigns, made impact investments, even refinanced a nonprofit’s mortgage.  

6. You want to create a scholarship or award program.

In general, it’s not easy to make philanthropic grants to individuals, but we’ve got a long history of setting up scholarship and award programs that do just that. There’s a fairly involved process to get these approved by a committee of our board. (We have to make sure that the process is fair, nondiscriminatory, and aligns with philanthropic purposes, applicable regulations and whatnot). We can be pretty hands-on to co-create these types of programs.

7. You want to guide your giving with expertise. 

Our board and staff span many worlds from finance and law, to nonprofit practitioners of many types. We’re available to our donors and stakeholders that want to brainstorm, think out loud, and co-create. We have also worked with donors that want to engage philanthropic consultants, strategic advisors, or other experts that can enhance and deepen their philanthropic work. 

8. You want to rally others to your cause through a funder collaborative.

We’ve had a number of donors choose us because they have aspirations beyond just using a DAF account for their own philanthropic goals. They want to bring their community along with them, tap additional resources and expertise—or sometimes just celebrate a life event like a wedding or graduation by creating a philanthropic fund. Our Collective Giving accounts provide efficient ways to pool resources and host funder collaboratives.

9. You want to engage your family or next generation in your giving.

Family dynamics can be challenging, but the mechanics of setting up your family with DAF accounts doesn’t need to be. In addition to adding additional recommenders and successor recommenders to their accounts, donors find it easy to create multiple accounts or sub-accounts for their friends and loved ones. Some also take advantage of our Young Philanthropist accounts (with minimum balances as low as $1,800) to engage their teen or early-adult children. 

10. You view philanthropy as a relationship business. 

There are nearly one thousand foundations you can go to set up a DAF account, and though there may be slight differences among them, the technical aspects of them will be nearly identical. The intangible differences will be on the people side—the sensibilities, experiences, and skill sets that animate the organizations. We invite you to get to know us, and learn why small can be beautiful when it comes to sponsoring DAFs. We look forward to sharing our passion for this work with you. Get started by reaching out to us at (212) 714-0001 or Marks@fjc.org.

About Sam

Sam Marks is the Chief Executive Officer of FJC – A Foundation of Philanthropic Funds, a boutique foundation of donor-advised funds dedicated to helping you make your philanthropy work harder through flexible, creative, and customizable strategies. Sam works with imaginative donors and nonprofits to amplify their work and passion, providing unparalleled personal service and the expertise to execute complex transactions, all so that their clients can make the world a better place. His desire is to align his clients’ goals and needs with support for important nonprofits that are making a difference in the world so their wealth can be deployed for positive change. 

Sam has a bachelor’s degree from Brown University and a Master in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School. Sam’s deep experience includes his role as executive director of the New York City office of Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC NYC), a community development financial institution that supports local champions to advance equitable development of historically underinvested neighborhoods. He has also acted as Vice President at the Deutsche Bank’s Community Development Finance Group, and director of housing development at WHEDCo in the South Bronx. Earlier in his career he founded Breakthrough New York, a youth development program. Sam is a third-generation New Yorker, married to a third-generation Brooklynite, with two sons. He has great affection for the culture and art forms New York is known for, from film to comic books to many genres of music. To learn more about Sam, connect with him on LinkedIn.

By Sam Marks

One sentiment I hear most often from clients and their advisors is: “I didn’t know DAFs could do that!” In fact, DAFs are incredibly flexible vehicles, and in the hands of the right client (with the support of the right DAF sponsor), the possibilities for making a positive philanthropic impact are nearly limitless. 

Benefits of Donor-Advised Funds

Most advisors consider donor-advised funds (DAFs) to be fairly standard products suitable for clients with modest philanthropic assets and goals. At its most basic application, a DAF is a simple, tax-efficient, and cost-effective investment account that provides a client with a way to support their favorite charities. Donations to DAF accounts are tax-deductible, and the proceeds can be invested to grow tax-free. Donors can recommend grants to basically any 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization at the time and cadence of their choosing.

As a boutique DAF sponsor, FJC has a 25-year track record of co-creating innovative solutions that respond to the creativity and bespoke needs of our donors. We’ve accepted illiquid assets: vacation homes, stock or limited partnership interested in privately held companies, and cryptocurrency. We’ve allowed donors of a certain size to “order off the menu” in terms of how their DAF accounts are invested, approving investments in hedge funds or alternative investments. And we’ve created opportunities for our donor accounts to “do good while doing well,” putting their investments to work as bridge loans to nonprofits, which earn a competitive risk-adjusted return while helping organizations achieve their missions.

And when clients come to us with innovative ideas about how to deploy their philanthropic dollars, that’s where we really shine.  

Philanthropic Case Studies

One donor opened up an account with us for the express purpose of creating a 0%-interest revolving line of credit for her favorite nonprofit. The donor had been a longtime supporter of Brighter Tomorrows, a domestic violence organization on Long Island. As she developed a relationship with the executive director, she saw the stress she was under managing the organization’s cash flow, in the face of oft-delayed State contracts. So we worked with the donor to create a revolving account to bridge these payments and recycle her philanthropic dollars.  

Another one of our donors refinanced the mortgage of the Tenement Museum. The donor was a longtime fan and supporter of this vital organization that has been researching and telling the stories of immigrant New Yorkers for the past 25 years. During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, their visitors (and attendant revenue) dried up, but the museum carried significant fixed costs due to its mortgage, which cost the museum $585,000 per year. Working with the donor and the Tenement Museum, FJC purchased the organization’s mortgage bond and changed the terms to 1% interest-only for five years. By lowering the interest rate and removing the burden of paying monthly principal payments, we provided a financial lifeline to the museum, saving the organization $2.5 million in interest costs over five years.

Our donors come up with all kinds of ideas: they make impact investments in career impact bonds; they issue Request for Proposals (RFPs) to identify best-in-class nonprofits; they tap strategy consultants to help them fine-tune their giving; they develop scholarship and award programs; they collaborate with other funders to maximize their impact; and they create their legacies. Whether it’s a complex transaction or a newfangled idea, FJC is there along the way.  That’s the reason why some family foundations are closing up shop and transferring their assets to DAFs at FJC. They can get all the flexibility and utility of a private foundation with less of the hassle and cost.

Partner With FJC to Offer More

It’s these innovative approaches that have made us the DAF of choice for advisors that want to offer up that “something extra.” Why send your clients to open accounts at a large, impersonal DAF sponsor where their questions and concerns are answered by robots or phone trees? Your clients are accustomed to best-in-class service and performance, so why not align your firm with a boutique DAF that offers them that same experience? We consider advisors like you much more than just referral sources, but true allies and partners in this work. We can provide complete visibility into their clients’ philanthropic assets, and in many cases, the ability to retain investment advisory services for assets held at FJC. (See more about our Alliance Relationships on our website.)

With all that we’ve done, we haven’t even scratched the surface of what’s possible with DAFs. Bring us your most imaginative clients, and we can discover the leading edge together.

If you’re interested in hearing more or you’re ready to partner with FJC, get started by reaching out to us at (212) 714-0001 or Marks@fjc.org. 

About Sam

Sam Marks is the Chief Executive Officer of FJC – A Foundation of Philanthropic Funds, a boutique foundation of donor-advised funds dedicated to helping you make your philanthropy work harder through flexible, creative, and customizable strategies. Sam works with imaginative donors and nonprofits to amplify their work and passion, providing unparalleled personal service and the expertise to execute complex transactions, all so that their clients can make the world a better place. His desire is to align his clients’ goals and needs with support for important nonprofits that are making a difference in the world so their wealth can be deployed for positive change. 

Sam has a bachelor’s degree from Brown University and a Master in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School. Sam’s deep experience includes his role as executive director of the New York City office of Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC NYC), a community development financial institution that supports local champions to advance equitable development of historically underinvested neighborhoods. He has also acted as Vice President at the Deutsche Bank’s Community Development Finance Group, and director of housing development at WHEDCo in the South Bronx. Earlier in his career he founded Breakthrough New York, a youth development program. Sam is a third-generation New Yorker, married to a third-generation Brooklynite, with two sons. He has great affection for the culture and art forms New York is known for, from film to comic books to many genres of music. To learn more about Sam, connect with him on LinkedIn.

An inaugural post in FJC’s new series, “Why I Give…And How,” gives voice to some of our most committed and imaginative donors. The author is the Director of Columbia University’s Program on Peacebuilding and Human Rights.

By David L. Phillips

I recently made a small grant from my account at FJC to benefit school children in Northern Syria. The grant provides supplies for schools and students, including notebooks, pens, pencils, white boards, teaching materials and visual aids such as maps and social studies materials.

My personal assistance through FJC is part of a broader effort to rehabilitate Syria’s education sector, which was ravaged by war. In 2011, Syrian forces targeted Kurds for being pro-western. In 2014, ISIS killed and displaced thousands. Arabs, Kurds, Yezidis, Christians and Turkmans came under the control of ISIS, which used kidnapping, beatings, rape, torture to terrorize local residents.

The plight of these defenseless victims is reminiscent of my family’s experience with pogroms in Belarus at the turn of the 20^th century. Their experience with persecution and flight inspired my life choices and career path.

Columbia University’s Program on Peacebulding and Human Rights (PBHR), which I direct, studies conflict conditions and recommends ways to prevent violence and hold perpetrators accountable. Iraq and Syria have been my focus for 30 years. In 1988, I interviewed Iraqi Kurds in Halabja who survived Saddam Hussein’s chemical weapons attacks. This meeting inspired a lifelong commitment to Kurdish issues, as an academic, a think-tanker, and foundation executive. I’ve also served as a U.S. official, acting as a Senior Adviser and Foreign Affairs Expert at the State Department during the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations.

I learned firsthand that the U.S. can be a force for good – but not always. In January 2018, Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan spoke with Donald J. Trump, demanding that U.S. troops withdraw from northern Syria and give Turkey’s armed forces free reign. Erdogan views Kurds as surrogates for the PKK, an armed Kurdish group that has been struggling for greater Kurdish cultural and political rights since the 1980s.

The US gives deference to Turkey as a NATO member. If Turkey applied to join NATO today, its application would be summarily rejected because it is Islamist, anti-American, and profoundly hostile to human rights. I’ve been a witness to Turkey’s crimes, providing testimony on human rights violations by Turkey to the U.S. Congress, the British House of Commons, the French Senate, and the European Parliament.

During fact-finding trips to North and East Syria, I saw that many schools were destroyed, targeted directly and systematically. All of the educational institutions were closed down. The only schools that survived benefitted from Turkish protection. However, Turkey’s involvement came with a cost. The Turks forced extremist Islamist practices on the population. “Official” schools function like madrasas, imposing Islamist education and indoctrinating youth.

Many traumatized Syrians experience frustration, despair, and anger. They risk becoming a lost generation. Survivors of torture and gender-based violence need psychosocial care in addition to school supplies.

Providing educational materials is supported through a small grant I made through FJC grant to a local NGO. “One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world”, said Malala Yousafzai, the Nobel Peace Prize recipient.

Through Columbia, I’m also focused on the big picture, providing educators with training on teaching methodologies for children who have experienced trauma, displacement, family problems, and learning difficulties. “One pen” is part of a broader effort undertaken by PBHR to foster stabilization and post-conflict reconstruction in Syria. Focusing on public policy is important, but individual needs must not be forgotten.

Working with educators and students is a small yet practical step to address the plight of Kurds, Yezidis, Armenians, Syriacs and Arabs affected by the conflict in Syria. It won’t stop the war, but it can restore hope and rebuild academic institutions.

Strategic philanthropy, even modest amounts, can help meet the basic needs of students. Linked to enhancing the overall education sector, it can also serve as a model as governments consider their role in peacebuilding. PBHR’s involvement sends a message: The plight of Syria’s children is not to be forgotten. Healing the world starts with one child at a time.

(Note: Donors can support war-affected Syrians through the FJC’s Global Village Fund. Please contact Meghan Hudson at Hudson@fjc.org for more information.)

The Power of the Personal Series: Ideas and Inspiration from a Boutique DAF Sponsor

By Sam Marks

As tidying guru Marie Kondo is fond of saying, “Letting go is even more important than adding.”  While Ms. Kondo generally refers to purging overfilled closets of possessions that no longer “spark joy,” the same principle may apply to those looking to simplify estates or assets through philanthropy.  

As a boutique sponsor of donor-advised funds (DAFs), FJC has worked with a number of donors that have sought not just to simplify, but also transform their non-cash assets into a philanthropic resource for good in the world.  

How We’ve Made a Difference

Most people think of DAFs as simple, efficient, and cost-effective investment accounts that provide savvy philanthropists — of all sizes — with a way to support their favorite charities. Donations to DAF accounts are tax-deductible, and the proceeds can be invested to grow tax-free to maximize a donor’s giving capacity. But when donors and DAF sponsors bring all their creativity to the table, the benefits of a DAF can go beyond simple and efficient.

One of our favorite examples of creative giving comes from Georgette Bennett and Leonard Polonsky, who worked with FJC to transform a vacation home in Aspen, Colorado, into a portion of their $12 million grant to the New York Public Library. The family donated the Aspen property to FJC, which then sold the real estate, generating the proceeds that covered a portion of the grant. The grant to the library supported the creation of Polonsky Treasures Exhibition, a permanent display of rotating items from its extensive research collections, including an original copy of the Declaration of Independence, Christopher Columbus’s letter to King Ferdinand II advising him of his discovery in the New World, the Gutenberg Bible, and original sheet music from Beethoven and Mozart. The opening of the exhibition, “A Cabinet of Wonders,” was covered last year in The New York Times.

At FJC, our imaginative donors have contributed all kinds of assets: limited partnership interests in private companies and even illiquid or lightly traded stocks in advance of a liquidity event like an initial public offering. We have also received cryptocurrency. In these cases, donors eliminated the capital gains taxes they would have paid on these assets (increasing their charitable giving) and received a tax deduction for the fair market value of the assets.  

Important Considerations When Contributing Illiquid Assets to a DAF

Since FJC does not give tax advice, we encourage you to work with your estate planner, tax attorney, or someone with expertise related to your particular situation. Second homes or investment properties that have appreciated in value may be great candidates for gifting to a DAF, particularly if the owner has benefitted from depreciation deductions. Other assets aren’t so simple. For example, gifts of art or other types of tangible personal property are governed by IRS rules regarding the amount of the deduction. Gifts of closely held stock need documented valuation, particularly if the corporation intends to repurchase the shares from FJC as part of the family’s estate and succession planning.

Keep in mind that when providing a tax receipt for an illiquid asset, FJC will simply describe the asset; it will be up to you as the donor to provide a Form 8283 to the IRS for tax deductibility purposes. Also, don’t wait until New Year’s Eve to reach out to us—these donations may be a bit complex and require some lead time (the donations mentioned above required the approval of certain committees of our Board of Directors, whose role is to ensure that we are in compliance with all IRS and regulatory statutes).  

Discover the Potential of a DAF for Your Philanthropic Endeavors

Neal Myerberg, a philanthropic advisor and longtime Board Member of FJC, put it best when he said, “We get excited when a donor brings us an idea for a different kind of asset to contribute to their account…. These are some of the more challenging and inspiring transactions we handle on behalf of our donors.”

With the right imagination and expertise, your DAF sponsor can act as a kind of Philosopher’s Stone, transforming lead into philanthropic gold. If you’re ready to see how FJC can make a difference in your giving, reach out to us at (212) 714-0001 or Marks@fjc.org.

About Sam

Sam Marks is the Chief Executive Officer of FJC – A Foundation of Philanthropic Funds, a boutique foundation of donor-advised funds dedicated to helping you make your philanthropy work harder through flexible, creative, and customizable strategies. Sam works with imaginative donors and nonprofits to amplify their work and passion, providing unparalleled personal service and the expertise to execute complex transactions, all so that their clients can make the world a better place. His desire is to align his clients’ goals and needs with support for important nonprofits that are making a difference in the world so their wealth can be deployed for positive change. 

Sam has a bachelor’s degree from Brown University and a Master in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School. Sam’s deep experience includes his role as executive director of the New York City office of Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC NYC), a community development financial institution that supports local champions to advance equitable development of historically underinvested neighborhoods. He has also acted as Vice President at the Deutsche Bank’s Community Development Finance Group, and director of housing development at WHEDCo in the South Bronx. Earlier in his career he founded Breakthrough New York, a youth development program. Sam is a third-generation New Yorker, married to a third-generation Brooklynite, with two sons. He has great affection for the culture and art forms New York is known for, from film to comic books to many genres of music. To learn more about Sam, connect with him on LinkedIn.

Special thanks to FJC Board Member Neal Myerberg for ideas and feedback during the writing of this post.

By Sam Marks

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, one of our most imaginative donors called me with a stumper: Had a donor-advised fund (DAF) account ever been used to refinance the mortgage of a nonprofit organization?

The donor was a longtime fan and supporter of the Tenement Museum, a vital organization that has been researching and telling the stories of immigrant New Yorkers for the past 25 years. He had read a story in The New York Times documenting the organization’s significant financial distress (“A Museum Devoted to Survivors Now Faces Its Own Fight to Live,” April 24, 2020).  As a result of the pandemic, their visitors (and attendant revenue) dried up, but the museum carried significant fixed costs due to its mortgage, which cost the museum $585,000 per year.

Working with the donor and the Tenement Museum, we purchased the organization’s mortgage bond and changed the terms to 1% interest-only for five years. By lowering the interest rate and removing the burden of paying monthly principal payments, the transaction provided a financial lifeline to the museum.

“We are paying $2.5 million less out of pocket for debt service over these five years,” explains Annie Polland, the Executive Director of the Tenement Museum. “This has bought us time to figure out how we manage through this pandemic year, but it also freed us up to think of creative ways to operate.”

Who We Are

The founders of FJC could never have imagined this particular use of DAF accounts, but they always imagined we would be a home for creative donors. FJC was started in 1995 because of the limitations of the donor-advised funds (DAF) available at the time. As donors themselves, our founders were looking for more creative philanthropic solutions. They were business-savvy professionals who wanted their philanthropy to be just as sophisticated as their day jobs in law, business management, and finance. 

Our founders believed that by more aggressively investing their philanthropic funds, they could grow their accounts and be able to provide even more support to their favorite charities. They knew there had to be better ways to invest than the low-yield, low-risk money market funds that were typical of the industry. They also understood that nonprofits were also businesses with unique needs, which could be met with bridge loans, revolving funds, and other vehicles. So FJC was created as the foundation that could do all the creative things its donors wanted, not only for their own charitable goals, but also for the nonprofit sector as a whole.

What We Do

Today, we are a responsive, customizable foundation of donor-advised funds that offers all the flexibility of a private foundation but with less hassle and cost. We continue to be on the leading edge of philanthropy as many of the innovations created by FJC are now standard in the industry. 

We work with three distinct types of stakeholders:

1. Donors: We work with high-net-worth individuals and their advisors, foundations, and others to come up with personalized solutions for their philanthropic needs, whether donor-advised funds, collective giving vehicles, fiduciary investment accounts, or something else.

2. Emerging nonprofits: We fiscally sponsor nonprofits that do not have their own 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, providing operational support to collect tax-deductible contributions and disburse grants and vendor payments.

3. Established nonprofits with financing needs: We provide bridge loans to nonprofits to manage their particular cash flow challenges from city or state contracts or other timing issues. 

This breadth of stakeholders allows FJC to be maximally responsive to donors. But we can also bring them the best ideas for what nonprofit organizations need in order to be effective. We’re nonprofit practitioners at heart, and empowered with all the expertise and technical skill of the financial sector.

The Donors We Serve Best

The landscape of DAF sponsors has evolved over the past 25-plus years, and there are now over 1,000 sponsors of donor-advised funds available, ranging from community foundations to nonprofit arms of large financial service companies. But just as the choices of philanthropic partners have proliferated, so has the range of possibilities for what philanthropic dollars can do. Our donors are finding it’s more urgent than ever to have a partner that can execute their most ambitious ideas. 

Our most imaginative donors have kept abreast of the way the financial industry has evolved, such as the entrance of new currencies (like Bitcoin), new strategies (like ESG and values-aligned investing), and greater awareness of the impact of direct investing in nonprofits or social ventures. 

The sky’s the limit, and the more imaginative the donor, the more we at FJC can do. Our donors look to us to act as a point of financial intermediation between the nonprofit sector and the investing world. 

Donors at FJC can: 

• Deploy their dollars as low-interest loans (examples: Supporting Afghan resettlement; 0%-interest line of credit to help a domestic violence organization)
• Contribute non-traditional assets (examples: Bitcoin; Real estate; Illiquid (or lightly traded) stock in advance of an IPO)
• Utilize impact investing (examples: Career impact bond, Refinancing the mortgage of the Tenement Museum)

Our best donors apply as much passion, thoughtfulness, and creativity to their philanthropy as they do to their work lives. We are increasingly seeing more interest from donors with larger accounts, or who want to transfer a private foundation’s assets to a boutique DAF, so they can take full advantage of our nimble, creative approaches. 

We offer high-touch, concierge services that our clients know they can rely on. We are always available by phone or email to troubleshoot issues or execute complex ideas.

My Own Journey

I joined FJC as CEO in 2019, compelled by the notion that philanthropy could be creative, addressing the needs of both donors and nonprofits. 

I began my career as a nonprofit practitioner, at nonprofits in the areas of youth and community development. I’ve also worked for a number of financial firms that intersect where money meets mission: a Wall Street bank (Deutsche Bank’s philanthropic arm) and a community development financial institution (LISC). My experience has shown me that the vital work of the nonprofit sector is built just like any other business. They depend on managing risk and steady cash flow to operate. They rely on a broad range of revenue sources, whether it’s public sector contracts, foundation grants, or individual contributions.

With creativity, commitment to mission, and business savvy, philanthropic dollars can have an impact far beyond just making contributions.

I was drawn to FJC because of the sophistication of our board and staff. We are able to customize solutions and implement creative ideas that come from donors, nonprofit partners, and clients. The industry has evolved, the sector has evolved, and FJC has evolved. Through it all, we have maintained our commitment to sophistication, customization, and our ability to bridge imaginative donors with the nonprofit practitioners who need their support.

The FJC Difference

If you’re ready to experience the FJC difference, we’d love to hear from you! Get started by reaching out to us at (212) 714-0001 or Marks@fjc.org.

About Sam

Sam Marks is the Chief Executive Officer of FJC – A Foundation of Philanthropic Funds, a boutique foundation of donor-advised funds dedicated to helping you make your philanthropy work harder through flexible, creative, and customizable strategies. Sam works with imaginative donors and nonprofits to amplify their work and passion, providing unparalleled personal service and the expertise to execute complex transactions, all so that their clients can make the world a better place. His desire is to align his clients’ goals and needs with support for important nonprofits that are making a difference in the world so their wealth can be deployed for positive change. 

Sam has a bachelor’s degree from Brown University and a Master in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School. Sam’s deep experience includes his role as executive director of the New York City office of Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC NYC), a community development financial institution that supports local champions to advance equitable development of historically underinvested neighborhoods. He has also acted as Vice President at the Deutsche Bank’s Community Development Finance Group, and director of housing development at WHEDCo in the South Bronx. Earlier in his career he founded Breakthrough New York, a youth development program. Sam is a third-generation New Yorker, married to a third-generation Brooklynite, with two sons. He has great affection for the culture and art forms New York is known for, from film to comic books to many genres of music. To learn more about Sam, connect with him on LinkedIn.