Why One Firm Chose a DAF for its
Corporate Philanthropy
When the principals of Income Research + Management (IR+M) decided to
take a more deliberate, intentional approach to the firm’s corporate giving,
they considered creating a private Foundation. Instead, they set
“By giving back,
we all gain a lot.”
up a Donor Advised Fund at the Boston Foundation.
Why? “There are huge economies of scale,” says Cofounder and Managing
Principal Jack Sommers, who had become familiar with the Foundation
through his work as one of its investment managers. “You have due
diligence staff looking at charities all the time, and many of them are
organizations we’re interested in. Rebuilding that internally is impossible.
And it’s relatively inexpensive compared to doing it yourself.”
In 2013, IR+M appointed a steering committee of six senior employees
to oversee its philanthropy. Known as the Community Outreach Group,
or COG, this panel created a mission statement, set up the DAF, created
opportunities for employees to perform volunteer service on company
time, and developed a matching gift program, explains Vice President
Kate Trevor, who chairs the panel.
over
REPRINTED FROM THE OCTOBER 2015 NEWSLETTER
— Jack Sommers,
Cofounder and
Managing Principal
“The idea of the DAF was to allow the firm to make some substantial grants
and to partner with local organizations,” says Trevor. “The fact that you’re
local, that you focus on high-impact philanthropy and that you’re a great
hub of information was very attractive to us.”
How the
Boston Foundation
Works with
Advisors
The Boston Foundation works
The Foundation’s donor services team has connected IR+M with nonprofits
it never would have known about otherwise and was also responsible for
“the most creative way we have used our DAF,” says Trevor, naming the
firm’s wildly popular grant contest.
closely with financial, wealth,
legal and philanthropic
advisors to meet the charitable
giving needs of their clients.
As a community foundation
Modeled after the Boston Foundation’s “Out of the Blue” awards, in which
with $1 billion in assets under
Foundation staff nominate and vote on a nonprofit to receive a one-time
management, the Foundation
grant, the IR+M contest features an information session where employees
offers Donor Advised Funds
can pitch their chosen charity to their peers. Later, the entire firm votes on
which nonprofits should receive grants and the winners are announced
at a company-wide meeting called “Cheers for Charity.” In just one
(DAFs) that can be started with
gifts of $10,000 or more in cash,
securities, complex assets, real
estate, and LLC or partnership
year, employee participation doubled, says Trevor, and this year the firm
interests. Gifts to DAFs are
awarded 14 grants totaling $170,000 from the DAF as a result of the contest.
generally tax deductible (50
percent of adjusted growth
“We’ve been fortunate as a business and one of the things that really
income for cash; 30 percent for
motivates people to come to work every day is that we’ve built an amazing
stock or real property) and no
culture,” says Sommers, the managing principal. “Now philanthropy is a
yearly distribution is required.
more explicit part of that culture. By giving back, we all gain a lot.” TBF
The Foundation charges a small
annual fee for administration
and management.
Please contact Laura T. Godine,
Senior Director of Professional
Advisor Relations, at
[email protected] or
617-338-1218 for more
information about
Donor Advised Funds.
© The Boston Foundation, 2015. All rights reserved.