Visionary Voices

A nonprofit celebrated 1,270 bequest commitments worth $117 million. Reality check: filtering for actual prospects yielded 55 names. Calling those 55? They reached five people—none remembered making any commitment. The culprit: organizations spending $8,000-$20,000 annually on digital tools, expecting software to cultivate donor relationships. When results disappoint, staff move on, leaving nonprofits with the cleanup. The lesson: five genuine legacy phone calls will always outperform 1,270 fictional commitments. You can’t build relationships with shiny website objects.

Harvard: citadel of brilliance or fortress of privilege? For decades, liberals slammed it as an elitist gatekeeper—legacy admissions, donor perks, and wealth dressed up as meritocracy. Now, conservatives aim to gut its funding, branding it a woke factory. Different flags, same battlefield. Reform or revenge—the motives have shifted, but Harvard remains rich, elite, and untouchable. The question isn’t whether it deserves criticism. It’s whether you’d bankroll an empire of inherited advantage… or gamble on the promise of change.

As $84 trillion transfers from Baby Boomers to younger generations, financial advisors risk losing both clients and assets to charitable giving—unless they act strategically. When donors establish charitable vehicles without advisor involvement, that wealth often moves permanently outside the advisor’s purview to competitors like Fidelity Charitable or nonprofit-referred planners. The solution? Build intentional relationships with nonprofits before clients do. This triangular alliance—advisor + donor + nonprofit—creates stronger outcomes for everyone while protecting assets under management and positioning advisors as indispensable partners in legacy planning conversations that matter most.