“Nice to meet you”: Introducing your advisors to the CICF team

Written by Robin Elmerick, Senior Director of Effective Philanthropy

We are honored to work with many individuals, families, and businesses who support the causes that matter most to them and help make our entire community a better place to live. In many cases, trusted professional advisors, including attorneys, CPAs, and financial advisors, are helping donors make important decisions about taxes, investments, estate planning, and family wealth.  

All of this is wonderful! There’s one more step, however, that is often overlooked: Connecting the dots. If you are a fund holder with us, or plan to establish a fund in the near future, please consider introducing your advisors to our team. A simple introduction can make a tremendous difference in ultimately achieving your charitable goals. Here’s why: 

• Attorneys, CPAs, and wealth managers are experts in many aspects of financial and estate planning, and their work is essential in helping you develop and implement strategies through legal documentation, tax filings, and other technical guidance. Not all advisors, however, are experts in charitable giving.  

• Philanthropic advisors and gift planners (especially within a community foundation), by comparison, bring to the table specialized knowledge about charitable giving strategies, local nonprofit needs, philanthropic tools that may be best suited for your particular situation, and the types of assets you might consider giving to achieve your goals. 

• When you establish a fund with us as part of your charitable plan, our team will handle the paperwork and administration to create and manage that fund. This is often a relief to your advisors, not to mention a relief to you!  

Importantly, collaborative conversations among donors, advisors, and your community foundation parter are not only for ultra-high-net-worth families. Even relatively straightforward charitable plans can benefit from collaboration between your advisors and our team. In many cases, donors discover giving opportunities they might not otherwise have considered. What’s more, many advisors appreciate having philanthropic specialists available to help explore charitable strategies that benefit both the donor and the causes they care about. 

So what can you do? We invite and encourage you to take the lead! A simple email introducing each of your advisors to us is often all that is required to open the door to better communication and stronger planning. We are always happy to join a conversation with you and your advisors, but a baseline introduction is the most critical part.   

When professionals work together, the result is often a more coordinated and impactful charitable plan. By connecting your advisors with us, you help create a team that can support both your financial goals and your desire to make a lasting difference.  

We look forward to hearing from you—and meeting your advisors! Thank you for all you do to make our community a better place. 

About the Author

Robin Elmerick, senior director of effective philanthropy has been with CICF since 2019. A certified Impact Philanthropy Advisor, she works closely with fundholders to help them define their philanthropic strategies and maximize their impact. With a background in nonprofit leadership and consulting, she is passionate about bridging the needs of the community with the missions of nonprofits and the passions of our fundholders, aligning all three to create meaningful change in Central Indiana and beyond.