Gift Planning Services Manager’s Minute

Another Gift Planning Council Conference in the Books!

We are grateful for our Gift Planning Council (GPC) members from throughout the country (and Canada) who travelled to Salt Lake City to join us at our recently concluded 2019 Conference. It is your continued support and encouragement which make the Conference possible. It was especially gratifying to witness a significant increase in attendance this year!

Building upon the theme, For Such a Time as This, presenters at this year’s Conference expertly addressed cutting edge technical issues while weaving into their presentations applicable real-life guidance on how to assist individuals and families address vital non-technical concerns.

Participants received counsel on how to help their clients share their most important values and assist their children and grandchildren in acquiring essential life skills.

Leaders representing the Church’s various fundraising priorities shared presentations on their important work. Bishop Dean Davies, Elder Paul V. Johnson and Tanise Chung-Hoon inspired us to be better. The Conference helped us to understand the “why” we participate in this effort, as well as the “how” we create and implement the technical instruments that bring good intentions to fruition.

As we receive the appropriate permissions, we will place materials shared at the Conference on our website. We invite you to look for these materials HERE. Also, while it is fresh on your mind, may I please encourage you to save the date for our next Conference, two years from now, scheduled for November 11-12, 2021. We hope you can join us!

I now wish to take this opportunity to express profound gratitude to Carol Warnick for the leadership she rendered as Chair of the GPC the past four years. Carol’s leadership during her term of service grew the Council in number of participants while also maturing the quality of the Council’s programing. Our Council members are more enthusiastic and more committed to promoting philanthropy. They better understand the charitable priorities of the Church. Thank you, Carol, for your professionalism and for your personal example of service.

We welcome Todd Hallock as he begins his term of service as Chair of the GPC! Todd has ably served the Council as Vice-Chair. Todd is the consummate professional with exquisite technical ability who also understands the all-important intangible issues involved with estate and charitable planning. He genuinely understands how charitable giving blesses the lives of donors and recipients alike. We are grateful for Todd and his service and look forward to his leadership as Chair.

Merry Christmas and best wishes as you prepare for the new year.

Kindest regards,
David Bonner

Humanitarian Services Highlight

Latter-day Saint Charities (Humanitarian Services) provides aid to people around the world without regard to cultural or religious affiliation. To learn more about key projects being undertaken by Latter-day Saint Charities, visit the Humanitarian Services page at philanthropies.churchofjesuschrist.org!

What to Know About Endowments

Many of your clients may appreciate the satisfaction that comes from creating a named endowed fund for student financial aid at one of the institutions of higher education affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Brigham Young University (BYU), Brigham Young University-Hawaii (BYU-H), Brigham Young University-Idaho (BYU-I), BYU-Pathway Worldwide (BYU-PW), and LDS Business College (LDSBC)). Such gifts bless the lives of students and recognize the donors or someone else they would like to honor. Endowed funds provide ongoing awards in the name of the designated person from available earnings. Awards are made beginning with the academic year following the first full calendar year that the endowment has been fully funded at the minimum amount.

An endowment may be fully funded by an initial gift or by a series of gifts over a period of up to five years (two years for BYU-I). Proposed endowments not fully funded within that time will be made currently distributable. The letter agreement for a proposed endowment may be prepared and signed currently with the endowment being funded completely or primarily from an estate, trust, or beneficiary designation after the donor has passed away.

At BYU-H and LDSBC, a currently spendable scholarship can be created with a minimum donation of the tuition amount for one semester (BYU-I requires a minimum of $5,000.00 and BYU only permits Signature Scholarships and athletic scholarships to be currently spendable). BYU-PW has a general fund for scholarship awards, but it does not create individual named endowments.

The minimum endowment amount at each of the institutions is subject to change in order to keep pace with tuition increases. For 2020 the minimum amounts needed to create endowed funds are as follows: BYU–$60,000; BYU–H–$50,000; BYU-I–$45,000; LDSBC–$40,000. Guidelines for endowed funds in excess of the required minimum (to provide earnings sufficient to pay the cost of a half-tuition scholarship or more based on 2020-2021 tuition amounts and the percent of principal each institution makes available for awards) at these institutions are as follows:

BYU

Undergraduate tuition for members of the Church–$2,985 per semester
Minimum (half tuition) endowment–$60,000 (for graduate, divide semester tuition by .05)

BYU-H

Undergraduate tuition for Church members–$2,945 per semester
Minimum endowment–$50,000 (less than half tuition)
Half tuition endowment-$73,700 ($2,945/.04; rounded up to next hundred)

BYU-I

Undergraduate tuition for Church members–$2,150 per semester
Minimum endowment–$45,000 (less than half-tuition)
Half tuition endowment–$50,600 ($2,150/.0425; rounded up to next hundred)

LDSBC

Undergraduate tuition for Church members–$1,775 per semester
Minimum endowment–$40,000 (more than half-tuition; 5% of endowment principal awarded)

While few or no restrictions are preferred, some donors may desire to provide criteria for scholarship awards. The following are examples potential restrictions:

• Financial need–may give preference to students with financial need (required for all BYU-I funds)
• GPA–may specify a minimum GPA (e.g., 3.0 on 4.0 scale; however, BYU-I does not permit)
• Major–may specify a major, program, department, school, or college
• Status–may be for graduate students, undergraduate students, or both (if applicable)     
• Geographic area–may restrict (with university approval) to students from a given geographic area (BYU-I and LDSBC do not permit this restriction and it is limited at BYU-H)

Other restrictions may be included (with institution approval), however, fewer restrictions enable the university to administer the endowment with greater flexibility to meet changing public and university policies and needs. Gifts may not be restricted based on a student’s gender, age, disability, race, color, ethnicity, or national origin. 

Jacob Dowse Spotlight

Our newest employee on the Philanthropies Gift Planning Services team is Jacob Dowse. We are excited for you to get to know him a little better in this edition of the GPC Spotlight!

1. Please share a bit of your background and your practice.

I grew up in Omaha, Nebraska where I lived until I was 13 years old. Although I lived through some of Nebraska’s historic football seasons, and cheered heartily for them, my blood always ran blue, and it is with my beloved Cougars that my true allegiance lies. Our family ultimately settled in Utah and I had the privilege of attending and earning a degree in History from Brigham Young University.

After serving a two-year mission to Rio de Janiero, Brazil, I returned to Utah and married my high-school sweetheart Sofia Lee. We have four wonderful children, Annie (13), Austin (11) Sage (9), and Tayson (7). We love the outdoors and enjoy camping, fishing, horse-back riding, music and enjoying it all. We currently live in Orem, Utah. After graduating from BYU, we moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, where I received a juris doctorate from the University of Nebraska. Following law school, I accepted a position as an attorney with the law firm Robinson, Seiler & Anderson, LC, in Provo, UT, working on a broad range of civil litigation matters including contract, business, real estate, and financial law cases.

In 2012, I accepted an offer to work with the Real Estate Division of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, where, among other responsibilities, I worked closely with donors who held appreciated real estate assets and were in a position to donate those assets to the Church. This was a marvelous experience, and I was deeply impressed by not only the generosity of these good people but the spirit that accompanied their desires and actions. (Read more)

PG Calc Webinar Invitation

Philanthropies broadcasts monthly webinars from PG Calc. These webinars may qualify for continuing education credit. We extend the invitations for any interested GPC members to join us. We hold these at 11:00 a.m. and are often followed by a Q&A session with members of the Gift Planning Services team. We are located at 1450 N. University Avenue in Provo. Here are the upcoming webinars:

• Jan 30 - A Paradigm for Effective Bequest Fundraising - From Prospect Identification to Realization
• Feb 27 - Calming Troubled Waters: Getting IRA Death Proceeds in a Timely Manner
• Mar 26 - Gifts of Life Insurance
• Apr 30 - Understanding Tax Issues That Can Lead to Bigger Gifts

Referrals!

If you have friends or colleagues that would benefit from receiving this newsletter or other Gift Planning Council correspondence, please contact David Smith at davidj_smith@ChurchofJesusChrist.org or 801-356-5251.