www.privateairny.com Private Air New York | Summer 2016
60
PHILANTROPHY
NAVIGATING
STRATEGIC
GIVING
By: Tricia Drevets
H
ow do you approach your giving? If you are like
many busy professionals and recent retirees,
you are asked to contribute to many charitable
organizations. As a result, you may find
yourself writing check after check to support
worthy causes.
However, wealthy donors can accomplish much more with their
money by having a strategy in place to guide their charitable
giving. Not only will these donors save money in taxes, but they
will also be able to earn interest so that their funds grow. is
growth has advantages for both the organizations you seek to
help as well as your own family.
What are the steps you should take to become a strategic giver
rather than simply a check writer? We talked with Christopher
T. Borowiec, managing director and private client advisor for
U.S. Trust, and with one of his clients, Westley ompson, the
former president of Sun Life Financial U.S. who has taken the
helm of a new entrepreneurial venture called Emerge.me. at
company helps people find customized solutions to manage
unexpected healthcare costs.
From an early age, ompson says his parents taught him
about the importance of giving, but he admits that he gave in a
"haphazard way" for many years. "Basically it was 500 here and
a thousand there," he says. "My giving was pretty much all over
the place."
He now believes the first step to developing a structured giving
plan is to identify a cause that interests you. "You need to have
a passion for your giving," says ompson. "Otherwise you are
simply writing a check."
