458: Wounded Charity – Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio

tony_martignetti_300x300-itunes_image2

This week: 

Wounded Charity
Author and consultant Doug White returns with his latest book, “Wounded Charity,” positing that the 2016 allegations against Wounded Warrior Project were mostly untrue and that the organization’s board failed. And the media. Oy. Join us for a provocative and thoughtful analysis.

There’s more at tonymartignetti.com 

357: Run Like A Biz & Program Your Board – Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio

tony_martignetti_300x300-itunes_image2Tony’s guests this week:

Hillary Schafer, executive director of the Jefferson Awards Foundation.

Also, Gene Takagi, our legal contributor and principal of NEO, the Nonprofit & Exempt Organizations Law Group.

There’s more at tonymartignetti.com

349: Look Good To Creditors & What Boards Get Wrong – Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio

tony_martignetti_300x300-itunes_image2Tony’s guests this week:

Paula Park, senior vice president at BankUnited.

Also, Gene Takagi, our legal contributor and principal of NEO, the Nonprofit & Exempt Organizations Law Group.

There’s more at tonymartignetti.com

078: Readings, Possible Futures, Past Lives & Board Oversight Basics II – Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio

Tony’s guests this week:

Betsy Cohen, psychic medium

Gene Takagi and Emily Chan of the Nonprofit & Exempt Organizations law group

Read and watch more on Tony’s blog: http://mpgadv.com

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No. Welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent on your aptly named host. I hope you’re with me last week because if you were and what a shame if you weren’t, but if you were those who were with me heard entrepreneurs on board, entrepreneurs are under utilized on boards, and jerry stengel, founder of venture near, helped you to make the fix. Who are these people? How do you find them? And how do you approach them to get their special talents on your board? Also, we had starting the plant e-giving conversation with laurie greiff, president of breakthrough philanthropy. She encouraged you to start the plan giving conversation with your committed prospects and donors. Well, if you weren’t with me last week, you are now much more important this week readings, possible futures and past lives psychic medium betsy cohen will take your calls and tweets my bryce just cracked tweets to read your non-profits energy and help you see a wider perspective, reveal what’s hidden and understand possible futures from different alternatives related to donors, staffing, budget programs or whatever challenges you’re facing. She’ll also do readings about career issues. In the second half of the show board oversight basics to our regular legal contributors, jean takagi and emily chan from the non-profit and exempt organizations law group in san francisco unlock the vagueness around board oversight this’s part two of the discussion we started on january twentieth there’s a lot to say and it’s important board oversight between the segments on tony’s take two in praise of naps that’s my blogger this week in praise of naps i’ll talk about why i praise them, so we’re live tweeting as we do every week hashtag non-profit radio use it recklessly, but especially this week we have a guest live tweeter mazarene treyz from austin, texas she’s been a guest on this show she’s been a guest on my podcast for the chronicle of philanthropy that i do monthly. You can follow her on twitter at wild woman fund mazarene treyz welcome to the show on twitter. Right now, we take a break when we return it’s readings, possible futures and past lives with psychic medium betsy cohen, so stay with me. You’re listening to the talking alternative network. Are you suffering from aches and pains? Has traditional medicine let you down? Are you tired of taking toxic medications, then come to the double diamond wellness center and learn how our natural methods can help you to hell? Call us now at to one to seven to one eight, one eight three that’s to one to seven to one eight one eight three or find us on the web at www dot double diamond wellness dot com. We look forward to serving you. Is your marriage in trouble? Are you considering divorce? Hello, i’m lawrence bloom, a family law attorney in new york and new jersey. No one is happier than the day their divorce is final. My firm can help you. We take the nasty out of the divorce process and make people happy. Police call a set to one, two, nine six four three five zero two for a free consultation. That’s lawrence h bloom two, one two, nine, six, four, three five zero two. We make people happy. Durney hey, all you crazy listeners looking to boost your business? Why not advertise on talking alternative with very reasonable rates? Interested simply email at info at talking alternative dot com. Welcome back to big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent and your aptly named host. Right now, i’m joined by betsy cohen. Betsy is a psychic medium. She has a background also in social work and psychology, and worked for a nonprofit for over ten years. So you see the important overlap she’s, a reverend in the spiritualist church of new york city, and is one of the top ten psychics in new york, and we’re going to have some fun, and i’m really very pleased to welcome that seat to the show. Welcome. Thanks for having me, it’s. A real pleasure. Yes, i want to tell people first that we are taking calls about your non-profit or about your career at eight. Seven seven for a tow for one two oh, for psychic medium, betsy cohen. And of course, you can also tweet using hashtag non-profit radio and we’re monitoring that hashtag here in the studio. Betty um psychic medium let’s. Try to break it down a little bit. What is a psychic? A psychic is somebody who gains information that they would have no other way of knowing through the collective unconscious or someone’s aura all right? And that could include a non-profit good to be with someone it could about the past president future and you can really tap into any kind of issue you want, even if it’s beyond your own personal self so you can find out information about other people. You can find out information about an agency. And as i was preparing for the show, i was thinking about you prepare for the show like the guest does more preparation in the host, okay, i was thinking about that law about corporations being individuals, and although most people don’t agree with that and it’s kind of wonky it’s, sort of that same idea, you know, each each agency, each corporation has its own sort of set of ideals and morals and things like that and operates as a unit. And so you can read that energy of the unit. And just as i would for individuals, talk about possible futures for an individual, we can also do business called consultations with the same sort of concept. Okay, so the person doesn’t have to be affiliated with the non-profit for youto read the energy of the non-profit they’re asking about or there does have to be some relationship. Well, that’s, sort of. Ah, moral question. I can get information on anything at any point. But if you don’t directly have to do with it, i prefer not to go there so similar as if business. Exactly. I have no relationship let’s say to thee, pick a huge charity to the american cancer society. Right? So it’s, none of my damn business. But through me, you could. But you could read about the american cancer society totally irrelevant. Just that i’m merely the one who brought it up. Yes, i could. Okay, but i choose not to understand. Okay? And then what about the medium part of psychic medium? What’s? A medium mediums are people who speak to people on the other side that the dead. Okay. And how do you? Ah, you know these these air unusual things to most people. Not everyone but but the most people. How does one establish credentials for talking to people on the other side? I mean, how do we know that that’s? A bona fide. How do you know that? It’s quantified. Well. And i am a reverend in the spiritualist church and the spiritualist. Church believes in a higher power the golden rule, things like that, but their primary function is to prove life after death, and so the way they do that is through mediumship. So if i don’t know you, you come in off the street and i make a connection with your deceased grandmother, and i tell you five shared memories that you had or something that she liked or did that really you could identify her from? That would be a way to sort of say, oh, my gosh, she’s onto something here, okay, okay, so they’re so being a reverend in that in the spiritualist church of new york city is a credential. It is just not something honorary. No, you have to be actually a certified psychic medium, which you conduced through schooling. And then on top of that, you know, it wasn’t something i just got online. I went to seminary school for about two years and got ordained, and i conduct church services there, and in fact, i’ll be in austin, texas, texas on the eighteenth, and i hope to co conduct the church service there and do some guest speaking and guess mediumship there, too. Okay, so mazarene treyz you’re in austin, texas, that’s. Ah, reverend betsy cohen will be there on february eighteenth at the first spiritualist church of austin, texas. Okay, a reminder that we’re taking calls eight, seven, seven, four, eight o for one two oh, if you have questions about the non-profit that you’re affiliated with that you work with or that maybe you’re a volunteer for ah challenges about budget or staffing or programming anything that’s ah that’s a concern in that non-profit you can also hit us on twitter using the hashtag non-profit radio. So you mentioned schooling, but i would have thought, and maybe i’m wrong that being a psychic or medium is something that you’re born with. I believe that actually everyone khun do what ideo but some people are more inclined and so it’s, just like, if you wind up growing up and you’re good at math, then you may study math further and you may become an accountant or something like that. So it really is through a lot of practice that you get to be a point where i’m at interest in helping others and things like that so it’s sort of like just getting a roadmap for where you’re going, other people have paved the way before, and they let you know what you can expect pretty much and in just a minute or so that we have left before the break is so this is greater than just someone’s intuition, obviously, but we all have intuition, a gut feeling about a person, a feeling that i left something in my apartment as i’m walking out the door, we all have that level, but this is much greater. I wouldn’t say necessarily greater, but more specialized and more in depth. So, you know, like i said, if if you’re not good at taxes, you might get, like turbotax online or something versus being an accountant and being someone who does taxes for a living. So it’s really just that concentration and practice really practice makes perfect, so it is also a lifestyle, so i don’t use any cards or any instruments or anything like that. It’s just my body. So i have to make sure that i keep really good care of my body. So there’s a lot that goes into it. Okay before the show, you said you have very good immune. System is bragging because i have. I have bronchitis right now, which, measuring treyz you don’t need to tweet that part, but betsy claims more sophisticated immune system than me. We’re going to take a break, and when we return, more readings, possible futures and past lives with psychic medium. Betsy cohen. Stay with us, the defendant think dick tooting, getting thinking thing. You’re listening to the talking, alternate network, itching to get anything. Nothing. You could are you stuck in your business or career trying to take your business to the next level, and it keeps hitting a wall. This is sam liebowitz, the conscious consultant. I will help you get to the root cause of your abundance issues and help move you forward in your life. Call me now and let’s. Create the future you dream of. Two, one, two, seven, two, one, eight, one, eight, three, that’s to one to seven to one, eight one eight three. The conscious consultant helping conscious people. Be better business people. Oppcoll hi, this is psychic medium. Betsy cohen, host of the show. The power of intuition. Join me at talking alternative dot com mondays at eleven a. M call in for a free second reading. Learn how to tune into your intuition to feel better and to create your optimum life. I’m here to guide you and to assist you in creating life that you deserve. Listen every monday at eleven a, m on talking alternative dot com. Are you feeling overwhelmed in the current chaos of our changing times? A deeper understanding of authentic astrology can uncover solutions in every area of life. After all, metaphysics is just quantum physics, politically expressed, i and montgomery taylor and i offer lectures, seminars and private consultations. For more information, contact me at monte m o nt y at r l j media. Dot com talking alternative radio twenty four hours a day. I’m christine cronin, president of n y charities. Dahna you’re listening to tony martignetti non-profit radio. Big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. Welcome back to the show we’re talking about reading is possible futures in past lives. Becky, what is the advantage for non-profits what could what could a charity expect from a reading? Well, i know that especially in these quote unquote hard economic times, let’s, just call it a recession. We’re in a recession from metoo call it was called, we’re in a recession, eso in the recession dance and the recession non-profits tend to have it harder with funding being pulled left and right, and it really does trickle down from the top to the employees, and it could really affect morale and decision making and there’s a lot of the decisions that have to be made nowadays that didn’t necessarily have to be made five, ten years ago. And so when ever people come to a reading, whether it be a business consultation or individual, they’ve got issues that they don’t know the future of, they don’t know what direction to take, and if you have possible options, i’m trained to look into possible futures. So even hypothetical, yes, absolutely, because we do have free will, and so i don’t personally believe that, you know, as faras the american dream is concerned. We have ah, plethora of options to us all the time. But there are crossroads that come up. And so when you’re at a cross road that’s a time when you can say okay, well, should we should we go with this funder, or should we put our money in this area? And so i can say, okay, well, if you went with this funder, this is what would happen if you put your money elsewhere. This is what would happen as well. So you can really take a good look at the possible scopes of things. It really helps with decision making. On top of that, you know, there are a lot of things that, as you mentioned in the beginning of the segment, that it’s there’s hidden, hidden agendas and i do provide a wider perspective. So when especially people on the top of the letter don’t necessarily have the best connection with the people who are running the agency day today and interacting with the clients and things like that. And so with my my work and social work, i’ve seen sort of all stratos fears and and helped with that sort of communication so that so that the employees who were really running the business feel appreciated and the people on tap can make the best decisions for the whole agency, that kind of thing. Um, and as far as the problem solving goes, what i also say is, you know, you ask one question, but there’s a whole bunch of hidden questions in that as well. And so my job is to ask, ask, ask i am somewhat like a telephone, so if you’re getting a business consultation and i’m speaking with, you know, the collective, if i don’t ask the collective of it, i don’t ask divine source, it doesn’t get answered, so i ask all the whos that what’s the wise and the wares in the ones behind your question to really get a complete answer. Okay, now on the show, we have jargon jail, and you’ve just committed to offenses, but but they’re not as technical as we usually get a lot of times lawyers will find himself in jail, but the collective and divine source. Okay, so what are what are these? Okay, well, they in these terms, they’re sort of they’re sort of the same thing. There’s there’s an energy that connects us all and actually science modern science is actually leading us to to these conclusions as well. Some of it is not so easily access, but you can find it. And so is that that a lot of people believe in the soul, right? So there’s a part of us that’s, energetic that’s bigger than our body, and it’s connected to everyone so that’s sort of the collective unconscious that’s how we tune in we’re all plugged into this one energy and divine consciousness is that that in that intelligence source that is there only to support our highest good, and just always supports us, so they’re very similar, but slightly different. Sometimes i feel the divine energy is electrocuting me way have a question that came by email, i think, betsy, so go ahead. What is that? Yeah, anna in brooklyn says if i feel stuck and not being fulfilled at work, she works for a nonprofit, but afraid to change jobs. What can i do to find a passion? And so for for and i do feel like this happens to a lot of people when you’re in a non-profit for a while you sort of especially if you’re young, although even if you’re just new to the agency ah lot of times you’re really gung ho about it, and you’re gung ho because you go in with your your heart, you go in with the passion nobody is in non-profit to get rich, we know that right it’s a life of service, and so when you go in, you have on the forefront of your brain and your thinking low, i’m going to go in to help people. I’m going in to help people, and you go in with that passion, and then you go in and you read, you hear all the bureaucracy and the old staff member start to complain, and you start to see the different side of all the administrative stuff, and maybe you don’t feel appreciated, and then your passion starts to diminish and you start to lose track of what brought you there in the first place. What brought you that fulfillment and that joy? And so when you’re looking for a new job, what is always recommended is it sounds a little bit backwards and we’re not really taught this, but i know firsthand. That it works, especially when i worked in non-profit i was able to switch jobs by doing this is you need to create that passion from within again in your current job. What is it that brings you there that will connect you to your heart center, and that will let you sort of really tune into what it is that you’re there for in the first place, and then you can start to tune and say, okay, well, this aspect of the job i liked, but this aspect of the job i don’t like, and you can start to search with what it is that you do like, and you can start your job, search that way and then another quick thing is that when you, when you start to do that, when you start to appreciate where you are, your energy changes and the energy of those around you changes think of when you having a good day and everyone around you is smiling because you’re smiling versus getting up on the wrong side of the bed. So then there’s a thing when you have a job and you switch your attitude around and you go searching for a job. The people that you interview with want you because you’re bringing in a different energy of someone who’s unemployed and who needs that job? I just needed to pay the bills. That’s, not your best energy. And when you go in, you could be bruce. Exactly. And so you and you’re not being desperate because you hate your job already as well. So you say they say, why are you here? And they say, well, you say i want a new skill set i want to bring my passion to your agency and they’re speaking from the heart versus sort of masking your dissatisfaction at your old job now and so that’s. All very good. I think job search and job change advice. But are you able to read anything about anna’s situation just just from an e mail? Is that is that possible? Yes, absolutely. That was that was for and i don’t even know her last name. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, that that really applied that would really apply. Generally, it would because it’s it’s something that we all go through. But for her specifically it well, it works as well. She has a follow up. Question should i read that? Yeah, okay, she says at non-profits even if i do believe in the work i dio, how can i find more comforting asking for a financial support from the community, especially after bad press? So she’s talking about fund-raising so that’s a that’s a big thing as well, especially with the press, trying to find all of these things, you know, just a good story. So i would say, and one of the things that you do want to do is you do want to find those passionate people. The people who are there are ready with their heart, and if you can, if you can get the people who are actually receiving the services to somehow be represented, not necessarily that you want them to do the fund-raising themselves sometimes videos can really help. So the people who receive the services they have, you know, heartfelt message is if it weren’t for this agency, i would not be ableto walk today. I would not be going to college today. Videos really work sometimes, um, sometimes just stories that you can have a sort of, not a postcard. So you want to have that that poster child who was really affected those things, and if you have enthusiastic clients who want to be out in the public and say, can you help us out along with the staff members, that can be really helpful? That could be very compelling, absolutely than alive story to a board or ah, or an event that you’re hosting absolutely gala and those those are the things because you you always and this is a general thing, but it’s specifically for this question as well, you always want to focus on what you want versus what you don’t want. And so if you have that client and that staff member who are very passionate and very affected, the people, the audience, the people who you want to donate money are going to see that, and they’re not going to be concentrating on the story that they read last week about the agency other value that that non-profits could see in the reading focus on this little bit more the hypothetical that we mentioned earlier, so it doesn’t have to be it’s, not it’s, not limited to existing circumstances, but even just ah, question about different alternatives absolutely that’s what? You mean by possible futures? Yeah. Um, when i was in social work, i primarily not all the time, but i primarily worked with people with developmentally to say do weird about developmentally disabled. And they were pretty high functioning. My job was to educate them on the consequences of their actions and then let them make their own decisions. Unless it was a health and safety risk. Right? This is what i bring into my readings. And so when people come to me with a business consultation or personal constitutent consultation they say yes, but what should i d’oh? I say, well, that would be putting my own judgment in. And i take myself out. I will tell you, if you do this, this will happen. And if you do this other path, this other thing will happen. So you get to choose on dh with what degree of certainty can you say that? On your saying this so that this will happen with this other thing will happen? Not may happen. Might happen, you know, you know, it really depends on the feedback that i get from readings. So far, the feedback has been eighty to one hundred percent. Accurate how people come up with those numbers, i think is just sort of ah, feeling i do tape every reading and send it to people so it’s possible that they’re sort of rating on a checklist, but i wouldn’t. I wouldn’t necessarily go that far with it, and i don’t know of anyone personally who’s done that it’s just really a track record of of the past readings and how much they’ve come true and also, you know, i always look for the for the best possible future for somebody, so there isn’t necessarily doom and gloom, although someone did ask me if i get something negative, will i relay it on what i say is that whatever i get, i give, so if i get something negative, i’ll deliver it to you, but we’ll also ask, though, who’s the what’s, the wise, the wares in the ones to either avoid that or make the best of that psychic medium. Betsy cohen is a za reverend in the spiritualist church of new york city, and we’re talking about readings possible futures in past lives. You can reach us on twitter using hashtag non-profit radio or call eight seven seven. For eight xero for one to zero what is spirit and and is it related to the organizational type readings that we’re talking about? Absolutely spirit is is the energy that i believe exists in everything around us. I believe what’s an intelligent force and i believe it’s what keeps things together, and i also believe that we can sort of harness spirit to create things there was this the collective energy that i said electrocute feel like it’s electrocuting me? Yes, it’s the same thing. Yes. Okay, go ahead. Yeah. And and what was the other part of the questions that were that doesn’t relate to organization it’s readings as well as individual meeting? Absolutely. Absolutely. The thing is, is that everything that’s been created and will be created first started in someone’s mind’s eye and so it’s really bringing that fourth and so that’s. What non-profits will do in a reading is they’ll wonder what they should manifest next to watch the next step should be. And so when you talk about that it’s like, well, what is the best step for you and talking about that? So here and in terms of, um, your work connecting with the dead being a medium. So first, let me say all psychics or not mediums, right? That’s, right? All right. Okay. Yeah. With that at all, be related to organizational readings like someone who’s who’s used to work for the organisation is now deceased possible. Yes, it is. I mean, it’s getting a little far out for your show, but absolutely well, just it’s a consulting a dead person for a non-profit i mean it’s definitely possible and probable, especially if that person was really good at bringing the organization to a good place leading the organization whenever they were the founder. Exactly that’s possible or or or an influential ceos ceo for decades or something. And they have a lot to say about the current course of the of the organization. No, absolute, yes, absolutely. You can also call on other famous people who were good at what you’re looking for. You can also ask them for consultations as well from that. And, you know, it’s it’s really good. Because i always say when we’re contacting the dead, it comes through their filter so you wouldn’t want to contact the ceo who led the organization into the red about money, you know, you might want teo about, you know about anything else, but you probably wouldn’t want to talk to them finances, but that’s it’s a really good point and i have have now. Now you say it’s a really good point, but two minutes ago it was it was too far afield for the show that man complete one eighty you doing for embarrass me and you say, it’s your show so i shouldn’t have made that judgment people embarrass me also, i embarrass myself. It doesn’t matter if you don’t, i will. So you may as well make your point, though that was the point is that that is that is a really good point. And and if you did want to contact someone on the other side, i do have really high standards from my mediumship. So if i’m giving a reading for anyone i really want to come up with identify irs, and i’ll explain what that is so that you know, that they’re here so things that i would have no way of knowing the way they died, what they liked with some of the personalities may be a shared memory that you had with them something like that, so that, you know, if i gave you five, identify ours, and you’re like, whoa, that’s. Definitely, you know, the last ceo, he definitely made that joke to me that something that was convincing to me in the beginning was it was conveying the personality of a deceased loved one. And then, you know, the very first reading that i had it was she was using the exact words i used the day before. And, you know, how would that person know that? We pretty much are out of time. I wantto i want to let people know that he has a show here on talking alternative, which is the power of intuition and that’s on mondays at eleven a, m here at talking alternative dot com, she has a background in social work and psychology, and has worked for a nonprofit for over ten years. Courses, i said, reverend in the spiritualist church of new york city and that’s, a corner one, thank you very much for being on the show, things going to give out my web site, new york psychic no, go ahead, new york city psychic that comets all spelled out in new york city. Psychic dot com. Thanks for coming into the studio on a friday. Thanks for having me, he’s. Been a pleasure. We’ll take a break, and when we returned, tony’s take two about naps and then board oversight basics. Stay with me. You’re listening to the talking alternative network. Are you feeling overwhelmed in the current chaos of our changing times? A deeper understanding of authentic astrology can uncover solutions in every area of life. After all, metaphysics is just quantum physics politically expressed. I am montgomery taylor, and i offer lectures, seminars and private consultations. For more information, contact me at monte m o nt y at r l j media. Dot com are you stuck in your business or career trying to take your business to the next level, and it keeps hitting a wall? This is sam liebowitz, the conscious consultant. I will help you get to the root cause of your abundance issues and help move you forward in your life. Call me now and let’s. Create the future you dream of. Two, one, two, seven, two, one, eight, one, eight, three, that’s to one to seven to one, eight one eight three. The conscious consultant helping conscious people. Be better business people. Dahna hey, all you crazy listeners looking to boost your business? Why not advertise on talking alternative with very reasonable rates? Interested simply email at info at talking alternative dot com durney welcome back to tony martignetti non-profit radio it’s, time for tony’s, take two at roughly thirty two minutes after the hour in praise of naps. That’s, my block this week. Um, i just i love naps. You know, if naps ran for president, i would vote for them, you know, because it’s, time to rest the body and rest the mind, and i’m sure that betsy cohen would say, rest his soul or something similar. It’s, just it’s rest, you know, and midday. I know a lot of people can only do them on a weekend, but i am fortunate to have the luxury of working at home. So sometimes on a weekday, i can indulge in an app and that’s. What my block is about. Ah, little about some peoples, different idiosyncrasies around. Ah, the proper venue for your nap, you know, bed versus sofa. Or maybe a comfy chair. Cover. I make a point that having the cover that’s just the right weight is important. I have my favorite blanket when it’s folded in half. It’s the perfect it’s a hideous color but it’s a great it’s a perfect weight when it’s folded in half. Um, something else that was nufer me ah, friend mentioned sound level. I mean, i was take my naps in silence, but she likes a tv low in the background, so sound level is something i hadn’t thought off. Anyway, you have your own idiosyncrasies. I hope you get the opportunity to indulge in naps and that’s what my post is about you’ll find my blogged at attorney martignetti dot com and note that that is a different girl than previous tony martignetti dot com that’s tony’s take two for friday, february tenth the sixth show of two thousand twelve excuse me, i’m very pleased now to welcome back jean takagi and emily chan gina’s principle of neo the non-profit and exempt organizations law group in san francisco he edits the popular blogged at non-profit law blogged dot com. You’ll find him on twitter at g tak g t k emily chan is an attorney at neo-sage contributor to the non-profit law blogged and she’s on twitter at emily chan, gene and emily welcome back, durney durney pleasure to have you. We’re continuing our conversation that jean and i started last week. Sorry last month about board oversight and gene, we had we had just we’re just the point where we’re getting some lessons from the penn state and second mile scandal crisis. What, you just remind listeners what that situation was about before we get some more lessons from it? Sure, honey, i think there’s been a lot of news, and jerry sandusky, who was an assistant football coach at penn state university, was founder of a children’s charity called the second mile. Uh, has, which is a charity that served more than one hundred thousand children annually. Mr sandusky was indicted in november following that three year investigation into reported sexual assaults of young boys by sandusky, including taking a shower with a boy at the penn state’s facilities and he’s actually at a pretrial hearing today. Oh, and uh, so he continues to be in the news the second mile, the big organization against serving more than a hundred thousand kids. Annually is now really hurting very badly in and maybe looking at closing in trying to transfer its program so huge impact of this child sex abuse scandal where sandusky was was indicted again for sexual assaults over a period of about fifteen years. And and sadly, since our last conversation about this, joe paterno died, i was dragged into the into the scandal under criticism that he hadn’t done enough to to report what he had learned on he died just a couple of days after after you and i talked. Gene um, so what? We were at the point where we’re talking about just getting help for your for your charity, what kind of help might a charity need from the from the outside? Why? I think they’re different things, and emily may want to chime in on this, too, but i think the first thing is to respond to those allegations of the charity when you’re your responsibility is taking care of those children. And you got a count of somebody who’s responsible party that interacts with these kids, taking a shower with children or engaging in other inappropriate behavior on there’s a grand jury actually looking into it, you’ve got to conduct your own internal investigations, and if you don’t have that expertise in house, you’ve got to get outside help to help you and obviously having an independent invest investigation and be very, very important as, uh, sandusky was the founder and might have been seen to have had undue influence over the leadership inside the second mile charity. Having an independent investigator take a look at it on if they need it outside, help to create more policies to protect the kids. Those are all things that were paramount for that board for that leadership act on right away. Yeah, emily besides the independent investigation, are there other investigation you know of ah serious allegation like this? Are there other functions that are important for charity’s? Tto go in seek of outside help with absolutely so amazing to think that we’ve been using in the sector. Assad organizations, they’re not doing a good job with implementing an emergency plan or even having a number to see plan to begin with. And so that’s something you can certainly see pr for talking to other organizations that have had similar troubles, especially with something like the second miles, you know, we’ve seen, for example, boy scouts of america go through a long history of legal cases related to sexual abuse, maybe reaching out to those organizations or seeing what they have done can help inform what might be effective when you’re dealing with a bad situation as well and it’s not only in cases of crisis, right, emily, that board should be looking for outside help. That is such a good plane. I really think the starting point for months over and organizations related to governance begins before and even bad actually happened, and it really should be from the inside out. So at a basic level, looking at things like policies, looking at the way that you described your information to the public, all of that should be an ongoing thing that’s being monitored before anything bad even happens. And so that sounds like an audit function. Is that what you’re describing in a way? You know, i don’t want to pretend that good governance is easy, it’s, certainly something you have to work hard at, but there’s steps out leaders can take to lessen the risk of bad governance, and so then when bad things happened that they don’t become exacerbated or get out of control. So looking at policies, this has really been something that’s come up with the for my ninety, and i think many organizations have the misconception of looking at it in the frame of how do we avoid an irs audit? And they think the right way to look at it is to think about policies as faras their utility on, and it does serve an audit function, but it also just helps an organization run it better, and it helps some underst and the role better to and a lot of the policies are things that jean and i talked about, the last conversation we had on this topic, which was on the january twentieth show. All right, so now i think a very good point that it it’s you don’t wait for a crisis, right? Emily toe tio, have your have things in order, correct? And i think also to build on the conversation that you and she had last time, you know, the ninety references policies that are very common, but i think an organization also needs to look at their specific situation to determine what. Policies are useful, so for example, here with the second mile, where they’re working with children. You know, the nine, ninety doesn’t save you have policies related tio sexual abuse prevention, but for an organization that has a mission and know that this risk in this context, that maybe something that their donors and their thunders and the public want to see, even though the nine ninety doesn’t specifically asked for it on dh, that would be the role of the board teo, to recognize the need for policies that are specific to the organizations work. It absolutely should be a discussion that’s happening on the board level, jean, those nine nineties that emily is referring to those things that signed under penalty of perjury, right? Absolutely. Tony so, you know boardmember sze should be, in my opinion, although there’s some controversy about this, i think all board members should be taking a look at the form nine ninety before it gets submitted to the irs to make sure that it is representative of what the organization is doing and the organization’s values. Because it really is, in my opinion, again part of the board members fiduciary duties i know. Some people feel like, well, if the board members have to read the nine, ninety that they can increase their personal exposure to liability, if there’s something you know really wrong that’s reflected in the nine, ninety, and they didn’t act on it, and i think that’s a board members job anyway, so rather than just sort of e-giving this defensive legal counsel about, you know, making sure you’re not getting into any trouble wait really want to be proactive about it and say, you know, we’ve got to tell directors what their jobs are so that they can really manage or govern and provide proper oversight to make their organizations do their best work. You mentioned that there’s controversy around whether boardmember should review the nine, ninety is that right? Yeah. There’s a little bit, tony. So i’m what’s up. Some people say that maybe a few board members, a committee perhaps be charged with taking a look at the nine ninety on and they take on the responsibility of doing it because if you are going to be assigned that role and that is part of your responsibility, then you, you know, add to the exposure that you have if you blow it, so if for example, the nine nineties showing that you’re going insolvent, oh, and that you’ve got no policies in place to prevent things like whistleblowers, retaliation, then that may be something that a director that’s been assigned to look at the nine, ninety is going to be held accountable for and so that there may be some fear in terms of protecting individual directors from saying, well, if you’re not going to read this closely and carefully, then you shouldn’t be a find. This is a task that you must do so that’s a little bit of the controversy, i still think the whole board should read it from ah ah, liability perspective this is this is interesting is, is somebody better off not reading it? And then claiming that it wasn’t my job to see it or they better off seeing it and then having done a bad job and ignored things that were that were clearly on there? Good question, i love it when you see a good question, because i really don’t know what i’m talking about. So it’s really it’s it’s very uplifting. Thank you, it’s. Very good. Always want to give you that pat on the back undeserved, but i think you really have to take it into context of what is going on and what type of troubles have, you know, weren’t seen and weren’t acted upon before you can really make that decision of which is worse, but again, sort of being proactive, i really think boardmember should know what the nine ninety is saying because the nine ninety is the public document that everybody can see and maybe forming their opinions on and in the second mile case and in, in fact, and in the recent susan g komen case nine nineties, or what people will look like, including the media whenever the organization is sort of experiencing this, uh, media convergence on their practices and whether they’re doing good things or not. And if you’re nine nineties are not really helping reflector organizational values, and i think you have some issues and the board, the board oversight, which is what we’re talking about. I think part of that is making sure that you know what you’re saying to the public and the nine nineties there a good place to start and in mentioning common, you’re referring to what’s. Been in the news just the past week, with the controversy between the susan g komen for the cure and planned parenthood, whether coleman would fund or not planned parenthood’s activities. And they have decided not to as as a board, ah, board decision, and then and then reverse that decision just to let people know where we stand. Cause a lot of people listen to us. A podcast. A couple of months after the show, we’re going to take a break right now and when we return. More board oversight basics. Part two with jean takagi and emily chan. So stay with us. Talking alternative radio twenty four hours a day. Hi, i’m carol ward from the body mind wellness program. Listen to my show for ideas and information to help you live a healthier life in body, mind and spirit, you’ll hear from terrific guests who are experts in the areas of health, wellness and creativity. So join me every thursday at eleven a, m eastern standard time on talking alternative dot com professionals serving community dahna. This is tony martignetti aptly named host of tony martignetti non-profit radio. Big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent technology fund-raising compliance, social media, small and medium non-profits have needs in all these areas. My guests are expert in all these areas and mohr. Tony martignetti non-profit radio fridays one to two eastern on talking alternative broadcasting are you concerned about the future of your business for career? Would you like it all to just be better? Well, the way to do that is to better communication. And the best way to do that is training from the team at improving communications. This is larry sharp, host of the ivory tower radio program and director at improving communications. Does your office need better leadership? Customer service sales or maybe better writing are speaking skills? Could they be better at dealing with confrontation conflicts, touchy subjects all are covered here at improving communications. If you’re in the new york city area, stopped by one of our public classes or get your human resource is in touch with us. The website is improving communications, dot com that’s improving communications, dot com improve your professional environment. Be more effective, be happier. And make more money. Improving communications. That’s. The answer. Talking. If you have big ideas and an average budget tune. Tony martin. Any non-profit radio we dio i’m jonah helper, nari team in co founders of next-gen charity welcome back. We’re talking about board oversight basics with jean takagi and emily chan. Emily, you refer to something earlier. We’ll go a little more detail on policies that are specific to your organization because i think a lot of people just sort of copy things that they find on the web. Yes, they dio i would strongly advise and suggests that organizations put more thought into the policies that they’re going to adopt at their organization, then to just take something wholesale or not really put much thought into it in order to check yes on their nine, ninety on these policies really have a lot of utility. I think that for one, they said consistent standards on dh. They also deal with what you know for any person can be an awkward situation dealing with executive compensation, conflicts of interest. And so you really have to think about these policies in terms of how it’s going to be implemented at your organization and to your point earlier, not only how it’s going to implement it, but what around your work requires specifics? Absolutely. And again, going back to the conversation about the public information that’s out there today. You simply can’t unring a bell when it comes to the internet, and so every baby, they’re putting out there to the world, you have to understand that there’s, a variety of audiences, that r rating on our way to screw anything. Yeah, emily, i’m going to switch over to jean because your connection is getting very weird. It’s just. It just sounds kind of pulse e and echoey, very echoey. So, jean, i’m going to switch over to you and ask you, just what? What other types of charities i need to be sensitive about. They’re the way their work relates to the policies that they need besides working with children. I think it it’s reflected every charity, tony, for example, if you’ve got an environmental organization, you may want to decide what your investment policy is going to about excellent investment in everything and what happens when when others get ahold of what you’re investing in. So investing for social responsibility to be a very important thing. Teo, all charity. If you’re an arts organizations, for example, um, you may want to have some, you know, particular gift acceptance policies in terms of accepting different types of artwork does it really further the mission that you have your particular mission? And what about the carrying costs of having that art? And do you have to live up to donors restrictions? How do you deal with that all sorts of particular issues that an arts organization might have that a social services organization wouldn’t have with respect to a gift acceptance policy again, just taking things off off the web or just borrowing and other organizations policy and copping it, you lose all the benefit of really putting in your own particular circumstances in there and part of what’s really great about developing your own policies is the conversation around it? Because you’re going to be bringing up other issues that may not be reflected in your policy, but maybe reflected in your actual practices and how you do things, and all of those things can come up or emerged from discussions. You discussing different policy? And this is all very healthy for a board and it’s senior staff to be talking about, right? Yeah, exactly and isn’t really that what we want isn’t that type of activity we really expect from boards rather than to, you know, just sort of listen to report on dh, you know, just sort of possibly going through the motions. We really want them to be active about planning for the organizations in the future of providing proper oversight to make sure that things are in compliance right now. Ah, and protecting the charitable assets on behalf of all of our community. So too close, then this this two part topic and again listeners, uh, just to remind you that the first show was january twentieth. We’re talking about the subject. Just remind listener jean what’s, the what’s, the purpose of the board. I mean, what? What? What’s there roll around. Not their purpose, but what’s their role specifically around oversight. What do they need to be having front of mind? But, you know, general corporate law, if i can avoid jargon. All right, weren’t you a little cool? Watching there’s only two minutes left noted notice how he treads on drug in jail with only two men stuff, but i’ll still get you in there. I’ll get you in with thirty seconds, so don’t you’re not you’re not free the you know, the general corporate law provides that all corporate powers are to be exercised, buy or under the authority of the board in all activities of the organization are to be managed under the direction of the board. So really, the buck stops with the board everywhere and that’s why boards need tohave systems to provide appropriate oversight over their organization, and that goes everywhere. So not just responding to a scandal like the second mile, but just doing their missions effectively and efficiently. So that’s, really what board oversight is about, emily once said, you know, directors aren’t just simply warm bodies or in a boardroom or prestigious titles on a roster. Um, they really have to accept and live up to. The responsibilities that go with being a director and that’s the duty of karen duty of loyalty for the lawyers out there. Maybe that gets me into stargate jail, but they’ve got to think about how many boardmember said the organization often we have how often should they meet? What are their expectations? What consequences are they don’t meet their expectations. How did they review both financial and programmatic activities? And we touched on that before on the last show as well. On dh how did they review legal compliance and risk management structures? How did the assess the external environment for opportunities and threats? That’s all part of board over. Jean takagi is principal. And emily chan is an attorney at neo-sage non-profit exempt organizations law group in san francisco. You can find both of them on the blogged non-profit law. Blawg dot com emily gene, thank you very much for being on again. Thanks for having it. It’s. Always a pleasure. Thank you. Both. Next week we’re gonna look at consulting relationships from both sides with penelope cagney on her book non-profit consulting essentials. What non-profits and consultants need to know keep up with what’s coming up sign. Up for our insider email alerts, you could do it on the facebook page. You know where to find facebook and then it’s just the name of the show, please like us if you like the show listen, live our archive you’ve accomplished alive, but if you weren’t with us, right, this minute archive were on itunes. You find our itunes paige at non-profit radio dot net subscribed there. Listen, any time on the device of your choice on twitter, you can follow me the show’s hashtag is non-profit radio used that hashtag recklessly measuring treyz was our guest tweet guest live twitter this week, but something came up for her so i suspect we’re goingto have her back. Ah, in the not too distant future mazarene thankyou for live tweeting today we’ll get you back. I mean, we’ll get you back on the show, not get back at you that’s not what i meant show is sponsored by g grace and company. Really? I mean, if you have concerns about real estate, whether you are in a lease or you own real estate, you don’t know what to do with it. G grace and company corporate real estate services can help you was george grace has been advising non-profits on their real estate matters. Lease or own for over twenty five years, you really should be in touch with them. 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075: Revel In Real Estate & Board Oversight Basics – Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio

Tony’s guest this week:

Gene Takagi, founding partner in the Nonprofit & Exempt Organizations Law Group

Read and watch more on Tony’s blog: http://mpgadv.com

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Hello and welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent it’s me, your aptly named host for january twentieth, two thousand twelve. I hope you were with me last week when we had podcasting primer with john federico principle of the new rules talk about what podcasting is and how you get started. Are you doing video or audio? Only what’s your content and how do you distribute your podcasts? Also with me was scott koegler, our regular technology contributor and the editor of non-profit technology news, and he gave us his thoughts on twitter organization pages. Should you get in? How do you get in this week? Revel in real estate chase magnuson of george washington university and alan thomas from the american college have small and midsize non-profits in mind, as they describe howto identify prospects for real estate gif ts how to cultivate, solicit and negotiate thes gif ts and what is the due diligence that’s required to keep your charity safe from a bad gift? This is a recording from the national conference on philanthropic planning and board oversight basics. Jean takagi are regular legal contributor and principal of the non-profit and exempt organizations law firm in san francisco, defines oversight and explains how it should be executed to protect your charity and your board members. This is the first part of our conversation, which is going to continue in february between the guests on tony’s take to my blogger this week. You don’t need the fancy stuff for your plant. E-giving the most sophisticated gift’s really are not necessary to have a very successful and suitable plan giving program, and i’ll talk about that. We’re live tweeting the show as we do every week. Use hashtag non-profit radio to join the conversation on twitter. This show is supported by g grace corporate real estate services. I am grateful for their support. Thank you right now, we take a break, and when we returned, we ll talk about reveling in real estate and stay with me. Dafs you’re listening to the talking alternative network. Are you suffering from aches and pains? Has traditional medicine let you down? Are you tired of taking toxic medications, then come to the double diamond wellness center and learn how our natural methods can help you to hell? Call us now at to one to seven to one eight, one eight three that’s to one to seven to one eight one eight three or find us on the web at www dot double diamond wellness dot com way. Look forward to serving you. Is your marriage in trouble? Are you considering divorce? Hello, i’m lawrence bloom, a family law attorney in new york and new jersey. No one is happier than the day their divorce is final. My firm can help you. We take the nasty out of the divorce process and make people happy. Police call a set to one, two, nine six four three five zero two for a free consultation. That’s lawrence h bloom two, one two, nine, six, four, three five zero two. We make people happy. Oppcoll hey, are you crazy listeners looking to boost your business? Why not advertise on talking alternative with very reasonable rates? Interested simply email at info at talking alternative dot com. Welcome back, i hope you’re ready to revel in real estate. Here is my interview with chase magnuson and alan thomas from the national conference on philanthropic planning. Welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio coverage of the national conference on philanthropic planning. Where on the riverwalk in san antonio, texas. The topic right now is except real estate gif ts exclamation mark on my guests are chase magnuson and alan thomas chases director of gift planning for real estate at the george washington university. And alan thomas is vice president of advancement for the american college in bryn mawr, pennsylvania. Gentlemen, welcome. Thank you. Thank you. Nice to be here with you. A pleasure to have both of you. You have an exclamation mark after except real estate gift chase why’s that why’s that so important? Well, it’s important because it’s one of the largest equity opportunities for both the donors to become philanthropist as well as the charities to benefit from they’re gifts of real estate. And historically, charities have been either rejecting or not accepting real estate gifts. And i think alan and irp bringing some pretty good reasons why organisations oughta consider real estate gifts in addition. With some wonderful solutions. I i think accepting real estate gifts is a wonderful topic name. But i would make it even more emphatic and just say, take real estate. Any kind of okay? What’s the reluctance been chase. Why have we seen that? The expertise of the organization’s doesn’t lend itself well to the real estate industry? Ah, they’re two separate disciplines, and they haven’t put together teams of experts to help solve problems. And there is a great fear love liability that comes with the ownership of real estate. And i think some of the some of the issues that alan and i are going to be covering today would help solve those problems. Reduce the risk is there is risk, right? And what? We can minimize the right. Yes, indeed we can. Okay. Um, ellen let’s. Turn to you and think about how we start to talk two donors. How do we start to cultivate them around thinking about a real estate gift? Tony, great question. We we need to encourage the charities, too, reach out to the real estate community in order to promote real estate, real estate professionals, real estate attorneys would absolutely real estate. Brokers, attorneys and financial advisors who represent potential donors as well. And we need to get this message out that charities are willing to accept real estate and that there are advantages too, their donors too, to make these gifts to charities. And there are vory wonderful mechanisms that will promote this and make this viable for both the donor and the charity. Okay, what it’s actually, the charities have been standing in the door rejecting gifts that donors very generously have come to the table with because the charity’s air not set up to handle it. Over eighty percent of all gifts from donors offered to charities are rejected out of hand. Real estate. Yes, and the and the best. We can calculate the amount of real estate that’s rejected every years between sixteen and twenty billion dollars. That could be coming to charities at least some a portion of that, if the charities would go to the trouble of putting together teams of experts to help them manage the process. So it is such a wonderfully ah wonderful opportunity. Foran untapped market to really spur on the charities in a very difficult time in fund-raising. All right, so let’s, pursue that. What? What does the charity need to have in place? Chase they need to have policy, some procedures internally. They need to have a committee of people who make decisions. The plan giving officer who is the front line agent for the charities have to have a working knowledge of the types of real estate gifts and how they can be used. And here at this conference, i would venture to say ninety five to ninety eight percent of all the plan giving officers understand the technical side of it. But they need they need residential real estate agents for for personal residents. They need commercial brokers for investment properties. Farm and ranch brokers who specialize in another area and industrial brokers for corporate gifts of surplus rules state. Yet really, it really covers a gamma of about twenty six real estate specialties, and no one person can have all of that kind of expertise by themselves. So this may not be appropriate than for the smallest, some of the smaller or smallest charities. Oh, on the contrary, they ought to team up with a larger, better position charity to share in the gift. Okay, let’s talk. About that, then. So what can the small and midsize shops do that that don’t have the the board or the wherewithal? Teo hyre this expertise what in the small tony do, tony, the small charity can partner with a larger charity, and that has the expertise and has those contacts and the team sort of driven approach to accepting real estate, and they can partner and split the proceeds between when it when a property is sold? Okay, so there are ways of partnering and and helping those smaller charities our message today to this, this universe of folks here at the plant giving conference is to help them understand that there are mechanisms and ways in which to accept real estate that will insulate them from the risk that maybe inherent, and they’re all course skeptical about the real estate market today, and we need to assure them that there are ways of underwriting acceptance of gifts that should be acceptable to their boards and make them comfortable, right? And we’ll have time to get to some of those go ahead. Chase looks like it was something i was going to say that the small charities by teaming up with a larger charity don’t expose themselves to cost of managing a process or hiring new people, and it can move very, very smoothly through the process. But what what professionals like alain bring to the table is they’ve actually closed major real estate gifts. What we here at these conferences, frankly, are quite often just theories on how it’s going to be done. So for four practitioners who have closed multiple transactions on all kinds of properties, you’re looking at one of somebody that’s very unique and chase the two of us wear all admiring each other well, no, i admire your strength, no, but it but it needs to be it needs to be heard out there somebody’s actually doing it rather than just theory on a piece of it can be done well, and your title is director of gift planning for real estate. So i imagine you’re working. I mean, we’re not just sitting back, you’re earning your keep. I’d like to get a copy of that to washington. I’ll get a copy of this for my university, so they didn’t have anything to do with getting dinged. You’re listening to the talking alternative network. E-giving cubine are you stuck in your business or career trying to take your business to the next level, and it keeps hitting a wall? This is sam lebowitz, the conscious consultant. I will help you get to the root cause of your abundance issues and help move you forward in your life. Call me now and let’s. Create the future you dream of. Two, one, two, seven, two, one, eight, one, eight, three, that’s to one to seven to one, eight one eight three. The conscious consultant helping huntress people be better business people. Buy-in hi, this is psychic medium. Betsy cohen, host of the show. The power of intuition. Join me at talking alternative that come mondays at eleven a. 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Dahna durney chase earns his keep exclamation Mark exclamation mark 3 of us, okay, now, but i want to say i want to pursue this a lot more so a small charity someone comes to them with the idea of a real estate gift, wouldn’t that charity be reluctant to go to another another charity and partner for fear of losing the donor relationship? Alan? Well, the important thing is that that small charity needs to still be the primary contact with that donor, and they need to be assured that they will be in the having that principal dialogue bringing the larger charity in as as an adviser and able to help guide the process. Chase and i talk about process because you need an infrastructure buy-in place and a process in order to be able to accept real estate gifts if you don’t have that infrastructure and process you’re going to be, i’m flailing away and and in all likelihood, probably not accepting real estate gifts when they’ve always falling into the eighty percent of jordan chase mention exactly, i would go in another direction for the small charity that’s looking at a million dollar gift, and they’re not. Capable of handling that, how dangerous does it have to be for them to lose their donor if the if the property is handled with a sister corporation and they get five hundred thousand dollars of the gift they get xero or they get five hundred thousand dollars, that doesn’t seem to be to be a very hard business decision for the small charity and whoever they’re teaming up with they’ve already vetted them, and they know who they’re dealing with. We all live in a very small community known as the non-profit world, and you simply cannot afford to to go against what you’ve told another charity you’ll dio and we really go out and say to the small charity, we’re not going to invade your relationship with your donor. This is a one off transaction that we might help with. Have you pardoned partnered at george washington with small charities? Not yet, but i’ve done it in my prior career, and we’re establishing ourselves to do exactly that. Okay, so are you reaching out to the non-profit community and some of the earlier they’re here well across the kind of nationally, okay? Yeah, and i think alan would do the same, and that will be part of our message today as well. Yes, you’re coming on dso, and it need not be in your in your respective cities, the part of the partner charity. No, there are our efforts or national in scope, and so isn’t chases. We, we will look at real estate, gets all over. The united states were actually intergalactic. With a word like intergalactic, you don’t need an exclamation. Absolutely no way that carries today. No fluctuation required the word that word is resounding in its own period. Even a semi colon that’s. Okay over does. Okay, no. But i think it’s important for the audience of this show is small and midsize. Non-profits i think it’s important for them to know that that both of your institutions are interested in talking to small or shops that that maybe offered a real estate gift and don’t have the wherewithal to manage it themselves. Absolutely, i would. I would liketo characterize us as mentors. Once we teach the smaller charity how to do it. Well, step away, and they never have to share again. Okay, but they can also use community foundations and other charities in their community that the donor might want to have an interest in rather than coming to a george washington university. All right, um, alan, you talked a little about cultivation. You starting to cultivate the gifts through the advisors. But i really should have started with identifying let’s. Let’s, uh, let’s. Identify the right donors to be proactively recommending or promoting the idea of real estate gifts how do we i d defy the right group toe promote these ideas too well in any kind of plan giving situation, the best donor that you’re going to have for your charity is one who has been involved in your charity in the past, who has a strong affinity to your mission and and has been a past giver. So first of all, you look at somebody who is invested in your charity already and would be the most likely prospect for a planned gift of any kind. And then you would want teo sort of identify those who in particular might have real estate assets above and beyond the average kind of donor and who might be a very good prospect. So that takes time to cultivate your plan giving donors and understand who those best ones are for real estate gifts and what type of real estate might they need to have? I mean, suppose they just have primary home could could could the type of donor that you described be a candidate for the type of gifts we’re talking about with just a primary home? Yes, tony, the very first example we will. Given our presentation today is called a retained life estate, and that is a gift where a donor gives they’re residents could be a primary residence or a vacation home or a ranch that they give it to a charity, and they retain a life estate to remain there through the balance of their lives. On tony martignetti non-profit radio, we have jargon jail, i’m working plan giving. I know what you mean, but let’s talk about life. Is that what i want to keep you out of jargon? Jail? Okay, otherwise i’ll throw you in. Okay? Pinstripe soup in all doesn’t matter, right? And you don’t get what is what is a life of state that life donor is retaining a life of state is when you reserve the right to stay in that property through the duration of your lifetime, and it could be one person or or joint people could be more than one. So if you have a husband and wife who are seventy five, seventy six six and they love your charity, they want to give their primary home to you, and they want to stay in that property for the balance of their lives. They transfer the deed to your charity and and reserve this life tenancy to remain in that property for the rest of their lives. So then when one of them in the first of them dies, the survivor continues to live there. Yes. And then at the survivors death? What? What happens to the property then? The charity has complete control over it. Okay? Because it is a new deed. Is that right? The deed is transferred to the charity when the retain life estate is created. Right? That’s what i meant at its creation. We’re we’re writing a new deed. Yes. Where the donor keeps the life residents like state on dh could be for more than one life. And then, at their death transferred to the check. Yes. And there there are two other benefits. Should the donors decide they want to move out of the home into a assistant living, they can rent the property and get the rental income. Or they can sell the balance of their life. A state to the charity for a lump sum. So it’s, sort of like a spic it for additional income for the donor, it’s. Wonderfully flexible it is. Wonderfully flexible, yes, i’d like to come. I’d like to come in a different direction, alice, giving you the allens, giving you the traditional explanation on how you manage and cultivate, but we’re also problem solvers. We often get donors that come to us that say we’re trier dh of managing our property, we need income, we could use some tax shoulder here’s our property, give us the alternatives so we’re like we’re really weaving a mosaic on different opportunities for lifetime income tax shoulder and to solve the property management issue, so we’re problem solvers at the same time we’re cultivating the relationship. Excellent, wonderful it’s a wonderful role to play it is the retained life estate, so we’ve been using the example singularly would baizman saying at the death of the donors don’t or donorsearch nto the remainder is to the charity, but this can be done for multiple charities then is that right? Yes. Ok. And how? How would the charity’s then work together? When the property is transferred to them? At the death of the survivor, there would be a primary charity that would take title to the property with the responsibilities to make sure it’s maintained that it’s insured and that sort of thing. And then an interlocking agreement with the donors and the other charities on how the eventual proceeds will be divided. Okay, very simple. It’s all worked out during while the donors are living. So they know how the proceeds will be distributed across the charity. Yes. And it becomes very much like a landlord tenant kind of situation because your donors remain there living in the property. Caring for it is they have been so it’s, like a landlord tenant situation and alan who’s responsible for the expenses. While the donors are living there, we typically look to have the donor take care of the expenses, the maintenance, the real estate taxes, the insurance. And so that the charity doesn’t have to make those expenditures. Okay, way. Make site inspections because we are the stewarts for the organizations that are getting the proceeds to make sure our asset is well taken care of. So how often is there a site visit? At least annual? Yes. Annually. Okay. And what if the donor chase would like to make improvements or renovations or to the property? Do they need to get the permission? Of the charities how does that work? Yes, that’s that is in the original contract for donation because additions to properties in the eye of the beholder may change the value. Heard it or do something else because uncle fred came in and decided to put a carport in but he’s, not a contractor. And when you go look at it, the carp ports on the wrong property. And here comes the litigation. Ok, so there does that we have, right? Yeah. Okay. All right. So following our course, we’re talking about identifying the right donors and cultivating chase let’s continue with how do you open this conversation with people who you think are good prospects for ah, retained life of state we were talking about? Well, i think that there’s some qualifiers such is their age. You you wouldn’t open this conversation without having several donorsearch meetings the you asked the question, what are you trying to accomplish and it’s from that point that we move forward, we can eliminate many alternatives in the gifting program of real estate because we’ve heard the donors are going in a different direction if if things like we want to live out our lives here in comfort that is the first kickoff to say, look, you could get some tax deduction, you could become your legacy can be turned into a current philanthropic recognized gift, and you can stay here and we’ll help you do that. That’s an easy conversation. You often meet the donors at their home you can look around you known awful lot about about your diet, your donor base. So i don’t. Alan, do you have if allen’s probably got a key question when he comes in the door, where’s the deal now you set him up now he better have one because you’ve set him up for god gave him time, anyone? Now, if you’d like to add more to opening that conversation, i would like to add a new additional part of the conversation, and that is that this is a holistic discussion that goes way beyond just the real estate. You need to know your donors in this situation because, for instance, you don’t want to take a retained life estate if that’s their single asset or predominantly their asset, and they don’t have any other income or assets in order to meet their future. Living living needs their medical needs, and you don’t want to find yourself in a situation where they need that the of the worth of that real estate in order to cover their future needs so that that that’s an additional part of the discussion which goes beyond just the real estate. So we is planned giving people need to have a complete, broader dahna perspective on what that donors situation is it’s very important. It’s all about the donors donor-centric donor-centric we’ve been saying about you don’t okay, all right, so then alan let’s continue. We opened the conversation, the person is willing to hear a little more do we start to bring in their advisors, their family? What? What sort of the next step? Maybe the second or third meeting about this topic, we absolutely need to bring in their advisers, and we highly recommend bring in family. Ah, the last thing you want is family to be surprised when when mom and dad have all of a sudden announced to them g i gave the homestead teo x y z charity, and we’re going to stay here for the rest of our lives. But it’s gone, so you don’t want direct, close family to be surprised in those situations, so you want the adviser of the family and we need to bring in our expertise with ah ah appraisers and conduct our due diligence to make sure that the property is valued correctly and that there aren’t any unsuspected sort of liabilities associated with it. Okay, i’m hoping we have a minute or so to get into some what some of that due diligence is, but chase, let me ask you who might some of these experts or should sorry donors advisers be that we’re asking the donors to bring into the conversation. In addition to their own family attorney, they ought to be talking to a specialist and will’s in the states. They ought to be talking to a c p a that we work closely with that professional, the plan e-giving a person should be eventually brought in on a three or four way conversation and then, depending on the type of property, the plane giving officer would reach out to a real estate specialist on on that particular kind of property to get an evaluation just a range of values, because some donors think their properties worth a million, and it may only be worth not to say only, but it could be where six hundred thousand so expectations have to be matched and that’s what alan was talking about, this is a process you don’t do it one setting, you work through it and that sort of thing. So everybody needs to be on at least the same page on what is the value of the asset we’re going to talk about today. And how do you want to use that? And do you want to share that between our organisation and others that you have historically given money to? And you could do that all in one package, and we’re here to help, okay? We have just about a minute left, gentlemen, alan let’s, talk a little about the due diligence. What? What does that do? The charity or charities working together? I need to do to make sure that this is an appropriate gift for them to accept. Chase and i have forms that we’ve actually developed form for the donor to answer three or four pages of questions, and then we have our own donor-centric list for ensuring that we’ve covered all the issues that zoning issues, title issues, environmental issues having an environmental phase one study done these are all things that need to be conducted in order to know that you’re getting a property that you’re comfortable with and you know it was free of liability and is going to be worth what you’re representing to your charity. The last thing you want to do is except a piece of real estate that later your board finds out, has evaluation drastically different than what you’ve represented and, oh, by the way, there’s some sort of environmental issue related there as well, so that part of the due diligence and that brings us really full circle in terms of minimizing the risk, there are potential risks, but we can work buy-in partner with other charities to minimize those risks we’ve been talking about except real estate gifts. Exclamation mark with chase magnuson, director of gift planning for real estate at the george washington university, and alan thomas, vice president of advancement at the american college bryn mawr, pennsylvania german one thank you very much, tony, thank you so much for this pleasure to be here. Enjoyed it as well. Tony martignetti non-profit radio coverage of the national conference on philanthropic planning in san antonio, texas. As you heard my interview from that conference, we’ll take a break when we return. It’s, tony’s, take two, and then gene takagi will be with me, and we’ll be talking about board oversight. Stay with me. You’re listening to the talking alternative network. Are you feeling overwhelmed in the current chaos of our changing times? A deeper understanding of authentic astrology can uncover solutions in every area of life. After all, metaphysics is just quantum physics, politically expressed hi and montgomery taylor and i offer lectures, seminars and private consultations. For more information, contact me at monte m o nt y at r l j media. Dot com are you stuck in your business or career trying to take your business to the next level, and it keeps hitting a wall? This is sam lebowitz, the conscious consultant. I will help you get to the root cause of your abundance issues and help move you forward in your life. Call me now and let’s. Create the future you dream of. Two, one, two, seven, two, one, eight, one, eight, three, that’s to one to seven to one, eight one eight three. The conscious consultant helping conscious people. Be better business people. Hey, all you crazy listeners looking to boost your business? Why not advertise on talking alternative with very reasonable rates? Interested simply email at info at talking alternative dot com metoo hello and welcome back. It’s, time for tony’s take two at roughly thirty two minutes into the hour. My block this week is you don’t need the fancy stuff for your plans. E-giving for small and midsize charities, having just a bequest marketing program is a perfectly respectable planned giving program. You see a lot of talk about mega gif ts and sophisticated and creative and fancy gift, and those certainly exists in all kind of trust arrangements and things that are even less typical than trust, but you don’t need them necessarily any program, irrespective of what the size of the institution is when they start playing e-giving always starts with requests because it is the most popular type of plan gift easy for charities toe promote its easy for donors to understand s o across all programs, bequests are the place to start, and they’re the most popular type of plan gift you’d expect about three quarters of of all your gift in any size program to be bequest. Um, because everybody needs a will and everybody understands what a will is and how to use it for charity. Purpose is very simple. Follow on from that, but for a lot of charities, that’s the place not only to start but also just to end because they don’t have the expertise to be more sophisticated with their donors in terms of types of terms, in terms of types of gifts, or they don’t have the money to hire the expertise necessarily. So the bottom line is you don’t have to go fancy and exotic if you’re if you’re smaller, charity think just about requests, and that is a very respectable planned e-giving program and that’s what the block is about you’ll find it at m p g a d v dot com the post is called you don’t need the fancy stuff for your plant e-giving that is tony’s take two for friday, january twentieth, the third show of two thousand twelve jean takagi is with me now jean is principal of neo, the neat non-profit and exempt organizations law group in san francisco. He also edits the popular non-profit law blawg, which you’ll find at non-profit law blawg dot com and you can follow him on twitter at g tak gt a k jean takagi, welcome back, great to be here durney hope your two thousand twelve great. Thank you. Happy new year s are our first discussion of the new year and we’re talking about the basics of board oversight. Why is board oversight even an issue so critical in these times? Tony, where non-profit organizations are really working in an environment of fewer resource, is greater competition and it’s up to the board to not only show leadership but teo exercise oversight. Teo give confidence to the public and two donors that the organization is running well, that they’re making effective and efficient use of the reason lorts teo accomplish and further their mission on dh what do we mean by oversight? What does it include, but really means about on? For most boards of directors, it means about looking over the finances of the organization, looking over the programs of the organization, looking at legal compliance and looking at the executive director’s performance. So all of those would constitute some levels of oversight to make sure that the organization is running the way it’s supposed to run. Okay. And what if the board, um, either collectively or individually, however it’s best to describe it? Um, isn’t doing proper oversight that’s where organizations could get in trouble, okay, that with some organizations, especially with the media and with the internet and public scrutiny and forms nine ninety, which are the annual information returns that charities have to file being available public to the public. Just fun. Guidestar dot com it’s, easy to see what’s going on financially programmatically it’s, easy for organizations to be scrutinized and for boards to be held accountable for what’s going on in an organization and while legal liability for boardmember is really, really remote in the charitable sectors. It can’t happen a time, but maybe more importantly, an organization, and simply get devastated by poor governance way seen examples of this with you, can i just before you go into the example, can i just remind you speak a little bit louder? Yeah, much better, thank you. Great. So we’ve seen examples of organizations that can get into trouble, and we might discuss this a little further later on. But the second mile is just one organization. There was a central asia institute that was associated with greg mortensen, who wrote the three cups of tea that was also in the news. Lately they’re a bunch of organizations over the last five or six years that have been in the news for poor governance on and ultimately that could really hurt the donors, the donation based on that could hurt the programs and the beneficiaries of these non-profit and the second mile that you referred to that was that penn state scandal crisis and on we will have some time to talk about some of the examples. What about? I mean, i hear the phrase fiduciary duty a lot, you know? But what, what, what? What are the duties that are fiduciary that board members have to the charity great? And i’ll try not to step into jargon, joey, i’ll get you don’t worry about is here. Yeah, but they’re really three separate legal duties that a board of directors or each director has that serves on the board of directors first is the duty of care, and that generally means that a director must act in a reasonable and in form manner under the given circumstances. So if they’re acting like a reasonable average person would who’s in charge of an organization, then they’re meeting their duty of care. You started you starting to fade a little bit, you have to speak a little louder part of that part of meeting the duty of care is just acting as a reasonable person would in a like position under similar circumstances, so it a person would review financials oven organization that they’re in charge of that would be considered reasonable, and all directors should be reviewing the financials. They should also be reviewing whether their programs are effectively and efficiently meeting their missions or furthering their missions. So having some sort of measurement tool or developing it, or on dh, that could be very challenging at times, but taking steps towards that that’s all reasonable ticks back from the fiduciary or director so that’s part of the duty of care, another legal duty is the duty of loyalty and that’s really acting in good faith and in the best interests of the organization, even ahead of their own interests. So when you’re in charge of an organization that the director on the board, you’ve gotta act in good faith and in the best interest of the organization, if an opportunity comes up, that would benefit you and to the detriment of the organization that’s an opportunity that you shouldn’t take. If it was produced you in in the contacts of being a director of the organization, that sounds like it flows over into conflict of interest policies exactly right? Okay? And every organization should have a conflict of interest policy, okay? We’ll get to the different policies. I know there are a lot of them, but that’s, this is interesting. Flushing out the fiduciary duties. Go ahead. I’m sorry. The duty of loyalty. Is there anything else there? Be good faith and best interest? Sure, and and it really is about managing conflicts of interest doesn’t mean that organization couldn’t take advantage of a director who’s going to provide a below cost lise to the organisation, for example, but that it would have to be done with disinterested members of the board, the board, the board director of directors or the members of the board that don’t have a financial interest in that least, teo clearly show that, yes, it is below market or no better than fair market value in favor of the other director who’s interested in that transaction. It also has to do with things like keeping things confidential if you learn of things of the director. Of the organization, including employee salaries that you’re not really supposed to share with the general public. Well, as a director, you have a duty of loyalty to keep that information confidential. The third d d that i mentioned with the duty of obedience, some face it within within the context of the duty of karen duty of loyalty, but the duty of obedience to be treated as a separate duty, you know, don’t you want to be a priest, teach the duty of obedience, right? This is not a valid, just a duty. Maybe we get it from the religious contacts, but it really has to do with obeying what the law says you have to do and obeying what your internal laws say you have to do and that maybe the provisions of your by-laws for example, and their policies that we we can talk about it means that you’re going to comply with all of those things, and you’re gonna do that reasonably. Okay, so that’s interesting internal as well as external laws correct all of the internal laws you set for yourself. You can’t just ignore that you can’t let your by-laws sit on the shelf. Without making sure that you understand and know them, then how to comply with them. Okay, now you said that there are obligations around finance programs, legal compliance and overseeing the work of the executive director or president, you know, whoever that is, whatever that title is, but how does a director who comes, how do they have all this expertise? I mean, how can they do all this? Yeah, very difficult questions. So some of the directors that that joined the board may not have the expertise. So part of what you need to do in recruitment if you’re on an existing board, is to try to get different board members who khun bring in such expertise so that they can share it with other board members. The other thing to do is to bring in consultants to help out. So if you don’t have that expertise on the board and you’re not able to recruit for it right away bringing and consultant and give lessons two to your board have been get presentations, make information available to them, and i think this is a the role of an executive director’s job as well, to make sure that their board has sufficient educational materials so that they’re able to properly support that executive director and meet their fiduciary duties. Maybe know and understand. What’s expected of you. It could really be a lot of fun. And you can find out how to really leverage your authority to help that organization do even better work. Okay, so let me see if i understand then then those three duties the duty of care and loyalty and obedience. Those air individual. But then the financial program, legal compliance and overseeing the executive director work those air collective of the board. Or is that not right? Yeah, i think that’s right. So that the three duties that we talked about right applied to each individual originally. Right? Right. Right. But the oversight process, the board, the board members all have their individual duties. But collectively is how they hold power. Directors individually, actually have no power, tony, unless they’re delegated with power by the board. So inherently they have no power individually. They only have it collectively and collectively, it’s how they have to exercise. That oversignt okay. Now we have just about a minute before the break. There’s. A lot more detail. To cover, but just in that minute or so. What if, individually a director is not meeting the one or or any of those duitz three duties? What, individually, khun b. The liability. Well, typically, liability is not going to be imposed unless it’s the worst circumstances. So unless there’s some sort of embezzlement going god or payroll taxes are not being paid to the irs that’s always a very bad thing, directors aren’t usually going to be held liable for for for little things. But if the director is not been paying any attention, not attending meetings, not reviewing financials, not participating in the decisions that the board is expected to make, they can get themselves in trouble, and part of that may be with the media, and they could be blasted by the media criticized that could do particular damage to individuals beyond what the legal liabilities are something for every director to be careful of. We’re talking about board oversight basics very interesting, very important for the protection of your charity and protection of your board members and chair and the board members protecting the charity and themselves with jean takagi are regular legal contributor, and we’re going to take a break and then we’ll return with more board oversight basic, so i hope you stay with us talking alternative radio twenty four hours a day. Hi, i’m carol ward from the body mind wellness program. Listen to my show for ideas and information to help you live a healthier life in body, mind and spirit. You hear from terrific guests who are experts in the areas of health, wellness and creativity. So join me every thursday at eleven a, m eastern standard time on talking alternative dot com professionals serving community. This is tony martignetti aptly named host of tony martignetti non-profit radio. Big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent technology fund-raising compliance, social media, small and medium non-profits have needs in all these areas. My guests are expert in all these areas and mohr. Tony martignetti non-profit radio fridays one to two eastern on talking alternative broadcasting are you concerned about the future of your business for career? Would you like it all to just be better? Well, the way to do that is to better communication. And the best way to do that is training from the team at improving communications. This is larry sharp, host of the ivory tower radio program and director at improving communications. Does your office need better leadership? Customer service sales or maybe better writing are speaking skills? Could they be better at dealing with confrontation conflicts, touchy subjects all are covered here at improving communications. If you’re in the new york city area, stop by one of our public classes or get your human resource is in touch with us. The website is improving communications, dot com that’s improving communications, dot com improve your professional environment. Be more effective, be happier. And make more money. Improving communications. That’s the talking all calm. If you have big ideas and an average budget tune, tony martignetti non-profit radio we dio i’m jonah helper, nari team in co founders of next-gen charity. Welcome back on with jean takagi. Jean takagi is with me and we’re talking about board oversight basics. You had said gene, that the the directors can khun delegate this toe to consultants or maybe i don’t know other experts, but they have to exercise their duties in hiring that the right consultant, right? That’s that’s, right. Chinese directors khun delegate all sorts of tasks out. So they made delegate learning cast. So, uh, to teo, specific individuals, the most common individuals directors are going to delegate things to they’re going to delegate management to their executive into their staff. Oh, okay. All right. Yeah, yeah, but they must do so with reasonable karen oversight. So the selection of their executive on key staff members is going to be an appropriate thing for directors that concentrate on ok. Interesting. So you’re including delegation of the day to day management from the board to the to the all the all the employees to the executive director who then hires all the employees. Okay, absolutely. For organizations that have the benefit of employees. That’s one of the most important tasks of the directors to delegate management but also exercise proper oversight over that process? Yes. And that’s, the oversight overseeing network, i guess another common example of delegation that i see is the audit function ordered ng that’s, right, tony so for many organizations, having an independent audit is really critical for directors, especially those who may not have a great understanding of howto read financial statements in great detail. All of them should have a basic understanding of that in order to meet their fiduciary duties again of providing oversight over the finances but an audit and really both educate the board and give them some comfort that they’re adequately protecting the organization’s assets if they get a clean audit. All right, so we talked a good amount there about so far about the financial side, but there’s also the programmatic side of the boards oversight, and i think that gets short shrift now, let’s not do that way. Don’t make that mistake. Yeah, and i think you know, non-profit organizations, charitable organizations don’t exist. Ultimately, for a bottom line, they exist to further their charitable mission on dh there’s, no sort of measurement or context or accountability for how well there they’re actually furthering their mission. And i think the boards are not doing their job effectively. That tough part about this is programmatic measurement of successes, and things are really difficult to do in the context of many non-profits i think that’s been ongoing issue, and i think you’ve had experts on your show before have been talking about how to how to measure program results in how to be more effective and efficient, but it’s a difficult task still one board have to embrace and try to go after rather than run away? No, most recently, i think the guest that comes to mind is ken berger is the ceo of charity navigator, talking about encouraging charities to measure impact so that that’s that’s what we’re talking about. Okay, so yeah, so we don’t want to give way don’t make the mistake of short shrift ing programmatic because you’re right, that is the reason they exist. It’s it’s you’re right, it’s not financial let’s. See what? What are you mentioned? A couple of the examples that have come out in the news lately. What what? What can we learn from these? Well, let’s focus on the most recent huge scandal that hit the jerry sandusky penn state, the second mile candle that came out and justin in real brief context on jerry sandusky was a former assistant football coach with penn state university, and he also was a founder of the second mile, which was a charity that was developed toe help kids. Unfortunately, sandusky was indicted in november, following good three year investigation into reported sexual assault of young boys over a period of about fifteen years while he was associated with both the second mile end state university. So really, uh, very troublesome and now the second mile, that charity is struggling to remain in existence right now, and they’re trying to figure out what they need to do but lots of lessons to be learned, but that ultimately we we don’t know how, you know the courts are going to try sandusky, whether he’ll be found guilty or innocent on those charges, but there are enormous amounts of westerns to be learned from that from mom for non-profit okay, well, we this is why we’re going to break the subject into two, two segments, so you’re going to be back in february weii just have about ninety seconds or so left. What do you want? To share in just that time with with the audience about what we can learn from the that second mile. Sure, i think you big comments tio make at first, okay, no free passes for the founders of the organization or for big donors or other big shots of the organization, they should be expected to do the job that they’ve been in task to do so their director on the board, they should be falling while the policies that every director has to follow. So, uh, if they’re a big donor, they don’t get special privileges to work with the organization’s programs unless it passed the test that that allow persons that are qualified to do those programs. Another lesson. If you are criticized and you’re you’re subjected to allegations of wrongdoing, i think the first thing you have to do is remember that the criticisms addressing those criticisms is more than just pr. You have to find out if there’s substantive and if there’s an investigation, that would be reasonable. You should order an investigation on dh that’s part of that oversight that we’ve been talking about. You get help when necessary. That’s really important, jean, we have to stop there, but you are going to be back to talk about this exact topic. We’re going to continue it. Jean takagi is principal of the non-profit exempt organizations law group in san francisco and yet it’s the block, which you’ll find at non-profit law blawg dot com jean, thanks very much for being on again. Great thanks pleasure. We’ll talk in a few weeks, okay? My thanks also to chase magnuson and alan thomas and the organizers of the national conference on philanthropic planning. Next week e-giving forward and back rob mitchell, ceo of atlas forgiving, will be my guest to talk about two thousand eleven’s e-giving by sector source and state, and we’ll also look ahead to predictions for this year. Keep up with what’s coming up, go to the go to the facebook page and sign up for insider email alerts on that page. If you like the show, please like the page, be grateful to have your support there as a fan. Listen, live our archive. 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007: Failures & Accounting & Board Security – Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio

Tony’s guests this week:

Stephanie Strom, reporter for The New York Times

Ken Cerini, managing partner at Cerini & Associates

Gene Takagi, partner at the Nonprofit & Exempt Organizations Law Group

Read and watch more on Tony’s blog: http://mpgadv.com