The Right Gift At The Right Time

(Moving Forward ↗️ May 2026)

Dear Friend,

A client recently asked, “How should I allocate my $25 million estate to my three favorite charities?”

Before cutting the pie into three pieces, there were some important questions to answer: what was her relationship to each organization, why did she want to leave them each a gift and what did she imagine each gift might accomplish?

My client shared three interesting pieces of information about one organization:

1. Its current budget is roughly $500,000. 

2. Its financial competence at any given time depends on the composition of the board and the finance committee.  

3. She was considering a bequest of five to six million dollars.

I had two immediate reactions. First: Wow – that is beautiful! And second: Is there an emoji for “one person saying something to another, the music screeching to a halt, and a deafening silence settling over the room”?

Let's get to it.

Joshua Chadajo

Founder & CEO

See who's playing now on Generosity Jukebox!

The Right Gift At The Right Time

A gift of five to six million dollars could very easily overwhelm the organization. (Think of lottery winners who go bankrupt.) To prevent that from happening, we needed to consider:  

• Was the organization’s budget really $500,000, or was this simply an off-the-cuff estimate? Upon further investigation, it turned out to be the latter. 

• What was the actual need? Was a gift of this size necessary for the organization to better accomplish its mission?

• Could the organization responsibly oversee the funds, ensuring they would be spent in ways to set the organization up for long-term success rather than failure? 

Based on the answers, we designed a 20-year gift that combined annual funding with an endowment component. In the first year, the gift included a substantial endowment contribution paired with a smaller – yet still generous – annual gift. Over time, the endowment portion decreased while the annual support increased. This structure allowed the organization to meet its current needs, strengthen its long‑term financial position, and gradually “grow into” the donor’s generosity. 

It was the right gift at the right time – and in this case, over the right period of time.

JEC Philanthropy is a boutique advisory firm providing personalized professional philanthropic guidance and support to high-net-worth individuals and families. JEC Philanthropy enables clients to give more, give better and give with joy. 

Contact me today to learn more about working with JEC Philanthropy!

Email joshua@jecphilanthropy.com,

call (646) 331-5674 or click below.

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