Robin M. W. Trozpek
CharitablePlanning.com Author
Biography
Robin Trozpek leads the Office of Advancement's efforts to realize capital gifts to Pomona College. She and her colleagues inquire of donors about their lifelong interests and suggest programs at Pomona that align with those interests. They also seek to identify the types of giving that fit the donors' financial planning, including expendable gifts for current needs, gifts to endowment, life-income agreements and legacy gifts through bequests. With an attitude of "may we help you plan?", they seek to help donors maximize their ongoing relationship to the College.
Trozpek has more than 20 years of experience in Pomona's fundraising efforts. She came to the College from practicing law in California in the areas of estate planning, business and tax, and is versed in the types of giving that contribute to capital giving.
As the long-time director of The Pomona Plan, Pomona's planned giving program, which has set the standard nationally for life-income agreements for more than 70 years, Trozpek is an expert in explaining retirement planning, charitable gift annuities and charitable remainder trusts. She works with Linda Mazur, now the director of The Pomona Plan, to realize such gifts to the College.
Pledges: Good Understandings Make Good Gifts-
Pledge agreements form a fundamental building block for charitable institutions, regardless of whether you're in capital campaigns or just carrying on good fundraising work. Usually, they are used to provide gift agreements for structured outright gifts, but with a little imagination the same purpose can be achieved using short‐term deferred gifts. The secret ingredient is clarity. Think through whether you want to make a pledge irrevocable or revocable, and, once that is decided, word your agreements carefully so that no one is surprised by the implementation. This article reflects on how good work on the front end will give the donor and the institution years of satisfaction.