Kathryn W. Miree

Recent lawsuits and court orders have forced charities, planners, and donors to reevaluate the best way to preserve donor intent. This article highlights two issues for donors and gift planners: the practicality of placing narrow, binding restrictions on gifts and the need for flexibility when economic, social, or environmental factors make the original gift terms impractical. This article defines the issues, explores recent case studies involving donor intent, details options when things go wrong, and provides guidance for planners and charities in drafting gift agreements.

Endowments are in crisis, threatened by internal challenges such as spiraling administrative costs, proliferating small funds, missing documents, and alignment of revenue, as well as external threats such as poor investment returns, lawsuits, legislation, and potential taxation. Yet endowments are essential to the long‐term stability and viability of the nation's nonprofits. In this article, which is a must for nonprofit managers as well as gift officers who solicit endowed gifts, you learn nine management best practices to improve donor engagement and avoid the abyss.

Whether you're building a planned giving program, replacing a headcount, or expanding your staff, finding the "perfect" planned giving officer is always a challenge. This article makes the process easy by walking you through the steps from preparing to enter the candidate market, profiling your dream prospect, building the candidate pool, interviewing top applicants, hiring the new officer, and retaining your new hire. It's simple when you have the rulebook! This article will interest those who manage planned giving programs and those who staff them. It will also interest for-profit professionals who work closely with charities to provide administrative support.