Nuggets: thoughts after panel discussion with philanthropic luminaries Jay Hughes and Kate Guedj

Posted October 16, 2009 in Views

I was fortunate to be part of a web panel presentation yesterday with attorney and author Jay Hughes and Kate Guedj from the Boston Foundation: The Challenges and Rewards of Expressing Donor Intent. It was moderated by Amy Ellsworth from The Philanthropic Initiative. Hughes, who first articulated the notion that the definition of a family ’s wealth has dimensions beyond the financial, was as articulate as ever about the fact that what clients care about is not the form of their philanthropic instrument, but the function of it.  “That’s what awakens them. That’s what makes them smile and be happy,” he said.  Any means the client can explore and express what it was that was inherent in their experience of life that led them to establish the charitable instrument is all to the good – for themselves and their successors.

Kate Guedj,  Vice President for Philanthropic and  Donor  Services at The Boston Foundation, told some wonderful stories about how TBF works to honor and sustain the spirit of original intent. One of her stories was about an artist who established a fund to be managed by the Foundation after his death. The problem was that the legal document left little indication of how he wanted the money to be used.  What did the panelists in charge of the distributions do? They had access to some of his letters and from that writing, gleaned a sense of what he wanted his gift to achieve. They were “invaluable, ” said Kate, in their decision making about who should be awarded the fellowships.