As new director of planned giving for Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, A. David Scholder is trying to show the rich (and not so rich) that it pays to donate stocks, bonds and other assets to the hospital.
“Lay people don’t really know this stuff. Even in law school, typically there are only one or two pages on charitable giving, and it’s something that creates significant tax advantage strategies,” he says.
Planned giving allows the donation of assets such as real estate, stocks or bonds to benefit the hospital and provide the donor with a charitable trust or annuity, depending on the value of the asset. The annuity is administered by the medical center and is partly tax-free for the donor.
Scholder says working on planned giving programs is different from simple fund raising.
“When you are fund raising, you’re there with your outstretched hand,” he says. “With planned giving, there is much more of a partnership with donors.”
Planned giving donations represent 10 percent of Cedars-Sinai’s charitable income. Scholder hopes to raise that figure to 35 percent over the next 10 years.
He says major individual gifts to the medical center have ranged in value from $10,000 to $50 million. But donating that money can be a lot of work.
“I would say, having money is more of a burden than people realize,” he says. “With the affluent, it’s very important not just to work with the individual donor but also to work with the donors’ advisors in order to be successful.”
Scholder came from the for-profit world, previously working as a financial manager for health care professionals. He founded Abacus Solutions, a financial management company in Santa Fe, N.M. and Los Angeles.
In 1995, he changed course by taking a yearlong study program at the American Institute of Philanthropic Studies at Cal State Long Beach, the only program of its kind in this country. He then became California director of planned giving for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
Jolie Gorchov
