Charitable Solutions for Business Owners: Greater Impact, Fewer Worries

If you own a private company, you might have a long list of things that keep you up at night. After you tick through budgets, employees, customers and competitors, is your exit strategy at the bottom of the list?

If you’re not a late-night worrier, maybe you spend your nights dreaming of retirement, knowing that you’re working hard now to play hard later, so your exit strategy is top of mind.

Here at the Community Foundation, we see all kinds of business owners.

Tap into our Expertise for Corporate and Personal Giving

We enjoy working with public and private business leaders that have established corporate donor-advised funds for their corporate philanthropy programs. Our corporate services team has loads of expertise in assisting companies with all aspects of corporate charitable giving, from employee giving campaigns to disaster relief efforts.

We also work with business owners to assist with their personal giving, before and after retirement, and we enjoy helping them identify how they can make meaningful impacts in their communities.

Consider Donating Privately Held Business Interests

Where I sit, I work with business owners who are donating a portion of their private business before a sale. There’s a lot to contemplate before and during the process, so the Community Foundation’s complex assets team works alongside owners’ attorneys, CPAs and other advisors who can help their clients understand the potential tax benefits and the best time to make a donation. Check out our guide to donating privately held business interests that outlines what to consider before a donation and how the gifting process works.

Inspiring Your Philanthropy After Making the Gift

After you’ve sold your business and are ready to put your charitable assets to work, our philanthropic advisors are here to support and inspire your philanthropy. It’s important to our team to hear what’s important to you, especially when entering a new phase of life after a business sale. If you need guidance, our philanthropic advisors can help you identify, research and connect with nonprofit organizations and provide you with insight on grantmaking best practices. We are here to capture and document your future giving plans, too, which can complement your existing estate plan. You can read our short case studies that illustrate how we can help you document and accomplish your philanthropic plans now and after your lifetime.

We love to see retired business leaders approach philanthropy with the same enthusiasm they brought to their business operations, but with more free time and less stress.

If you’re in the weeds of the day-to-day, it may sound like a faraway dream. But we are here to help you reach a more philanthropic future, whether that’s tomorrow or years down the road.

Contact us to learn more.

Authored by: Corey Ziegler, General Counsel