The Time for Endowment Building Is Now

Book excerpt: The Time for Endowment Building is Now: Why and How to Secure Your Organization’s Future describes endowment contributions both through outright and deferred gift giving. It puts the concept of endowment development front and center and explains the steps and mindset that are necessary to create the capacity to build and increase the endowment of an organization. The role and responsibility of the executive and the board in encouraging endowment development are described, and a chapter is devoted to the identification of endowment prospects not through wealth analysis or “major gift giving” but by donative history. A highlight of the book is a case study of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation’s LIFE & LEGACY Program that provides training and mentoring as well as incentives to local community-based organizations to encourage the building of endowment funds. The book will be particularly appealing to boards and staff members of those not-for-profit organizations contemplating whether to launch an endowment program or are in the beginning stages of doing so. This book will be valuable to veterans in the field considering their policies in relation to the use of endowment contributions as well as the marketing of them to prospects and donors. It will also be of interest to those teaching fundraising courses in not-for-profit management programs.