Steve Lear

 

In 1997, Ken Dayton, Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer of the Dayton Hudson Corporation in Minneapolis, gave a speech adapted into a concise article called The Art of Giving. It was a message to donors about what it means to be a “good giver.”

After 40 years of requesting and making significant gifts to causes he championed,  Dayton was motivated to define his good-giving criteria. Based on our philanthropic experience, we want to revisit Dayton’s timeless principles and recommend a few more.

Ken Dayton’s Giving Principles

Dayton advised every good giver to adopt the following behaviors:

Be Intentional

1. Aim to be a good giver.
2. Define your yearly and lifetime giving goals.
3. Enjoy giving!

Be Responsive

4. Never refuse to be solicited.
5. See the solicitor as quickly as possible.
6. Respond to the solicitation as quickly as possible.

Be Humble

7. Always be humble, never arrogant. Treat your solicitor with respect.
8. Never be demanding. Don’t attach conditions to your gift or ask for special consideration.

Be Generous

9. Strive to give as much as you can, not as little.

Be Prompt

10. Pay immediately or as soon as possible.

Additional Giving Guidelines

Dayton’s advice established a great foundation for good giving. We suggest adding the following guidelines to his list:

Be Consistent

11. Never stop giving. However, if you need to reduce the amount you give, do so. Significantly decreasing a donation is better than giving nothing at all. There will always be people in worse circumstances than you. Whatever your financial situation, you can still find some way to give back to others. Adopting this mindset will make generosity a habit.

Be Thoughtful

12. If you decide to stop supporting an organization, give them two years’ notice.

Be Discerning

13. Consider the best use of your money. At your funeral, no one will be talking about whether you owned your home. Prioritizing a paid-off mortgage often creates a false sense of security; just ask someone whose home has been destroyed by a natural disaster.

Be Visionary

14. Show your love to your family by creating a community where they can feel safe and thrive.

Be Altruistic

15. The highest form of giving is enabling someone to help themselves so they can help others.

Be Memorable

16. You only die when you are no longer mentioned in conversation. Make an impact!

Be Proactive

17. Remember, deferring solutions to today’s social problems often increases the cost of solving them.

Be Flexible

18. The art of giving changes, and what you did yesterday might not work tomorrow. Learn to pivot!

Overcoming Giving Obstacles

Be mindful of the following scenarios, which often become obstacles to giving:

• Distracted Spending – Disney World is a wonderful place to visit, a marvelous distraction that channels your mind and money into spending, not giving. Maybe you’re sharing that experience with someone who can’t afford it, which is great. But beware of the financial drain caused by luxury spending.
• Negative Mindset – Pessimism distorts reality; it manifests itself in fear and avoidance. Why not choose to believe that things will turn out well 70% of the time? While there’s no proof of this, we think optimism leads to a more balanced perspective.
• Exclusive Family Focus – People often adopt a “family first” attitude, but at what cost? Your family will not be safe and thriving without a functioning society.
• Failure to Plan – You can become self-absorbed and short-sighted if you never visualize the future. Planning – the act of incorporating good and bad consequences – is needed to make productive decisions. Good planning helps you to allocate resources wisely and reduce uncertainty.

Legacy Planning: How to Create Sustainable Giving

An enlightened giver thinks fostering sustainability for the organizations they support is essential. One way to do this is to prioritize legacy planning that includes charitable gifts from your estate.

Planning for your eventual death is not an activity many embrace, but it can be interesting and impactful, adding meaning to your life while you are still living it. Asking someone to carry on your thoughts and ideas is not a responsibility to be taken lightly. Your family members may or may not be the best people to do this, but you will never know unless you ask. Having intentional conversations is the best way to find out. Here are the questions we recommend asking your family members (or whomever you designate to carry on your philanthropic efforts):

1. What do you value?
2. What goals do you have?
3. If we are sitting here ten years from now, what needs to happen for you to be satisfied and have no regrets about your life?
4. How much money will you need to live according to your values and accomplish your goals?
5. What is an appropriate financial legacy to leave those you care for?
6. Will there be surplus funds? If so, who will receive them?

To create a legacy plan, start by calculating the money you need to live a happy and comfortable life to the age of 100. Then, determine an appropriate inheritance for your children. Ideally, that inheritance is determined by an intentional conversation with each family member. Read Legacy Planning: Begin With the End in Mind at stevelear.org to learn more about this planning process.

After completing this exercise, whatever money is left over is the ideal amount to invest in people and organizations who work to create a safe and thriving society for the people we leave behind.  If you have children, you might consider adding an extra “child” – the community – to your estate plan. This practice makes the welfare of the family and the community equally important.

It’s essential to design a legacy plan that provides clear direction without including too many guidelines or too few. Dictating how every last dollar is spent – and expecting your successors to oversee this personally – creates an unnecessary administrative burden.  Managing the distribution process through a durable and thoughtful estate plan is much more efficient.

Providing too little guidance about your expectations can also be overwhelming. If you have deferred making specific charitable choices, allow those succeeding you the freedom to decide how to allocate funds.

Introspection: The Key to Meaningful Giving

Lastly, but perhaps most importantly, a good giver must be introspective:

• Reflect on how you want to be remembered. For example, if making an impact on your community and sharing your values with your children are important to you, let these goals guide your charitable giving and legacy planning.
• Identify why you want to give. For many, the answer is that I want to help others or because I care about this cause. Whatever your motive, understand why you want to give and keep this reason at the core of your philanthropic decision-making.

Final Thoughts: The Legacy of Giving

Philanthropy helps to make life meaningful. It ensures that your family thrives, your community grows, and social challenges are addressed while communicating your values to the world. So, begin creating a generosity plan that’s intentional, bold, and introspective – and elevate your giving into an art form!

At SteveLear.org, our goal is to help others become good givers. Let’s work together to build a legacy of generosity that benefits future generations.