With the goal of making charitable giving more accessible, the Baton Rouge Area Foundation has launched a program that allows people to open charitable funds through BRAF while continuing to use their own professional financial advisers.
Previously, local philanthropists could only go through BRAF directly to set up a charitable fund, after which the foundation would equally split the philanthropist’s assets between money managers at the New York-based J.P. Morgan private bank and Goldman Sachs. However, BRAF’s board of directors recently voted to allow local investment firms to continue managing the assets of their philanthropic clients.
Here’s how it works: BRAF opens a charitable account with a financial institution, such as Merrill Lynch. If a client of Merrill Lynch wants to make a philanthropic gift of at least $250,000 to one of the 700-plus charitable funds managed by BRAF’s donor services department, they can call BRAF to make a grant from the investment account BRAF established with that firm.
With several hundred qualified investment advisers identified in the Baton Rouge area, BRAF officials hope the specialty campaign will attract more donor interest and better accommodate the preferences of philanthropists with the capacity to donate $250,000 or more to charity.
It also allows BRAF to strengthen its relationship with the local financial management community. Read the full story from the Nov. 19 edition of Business Report.
