IL Board Treasurer
Strategy and Planning Consultant
Flora Moon is a strategy and planning consultant who leverages her change management and communication expertise as well as domain knowledge of media and sustainable development for a diverse client base. Her company, COZMOZIZ, serves global 1000 corporations, non-profit and educational institutions.
Formerly an award-winning documentary filmmaker, she has worked with Public, Network and Cable Television entities all over the world.
Jean Russell joined Inspired Legacies during our development process. Jean hails from the prairie lands of Illinois. She holds a double bachelors degree in English and Philosophy from Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois. Jean began her communications career at ISU's University Galleries. Now, she runs Spinorb, a communications and coaching consulting company working with nonprofit leaders, social entrepreneurs and other better world builders. She is a certified NLP Coach.
Upcoming Events
Oct 9: What Can One Person Do! World Affairs Council, Houston.
Oct 10 - 11: Central NY Comm Fdn - Inspired Philanthropy Professional Advisors As Leaders in Legacy Planning. Donor Leadership workshops.
Oct 12 - 13: Women's Funding Network, Thanks a Million Project Planning, Abiquiu, NM.
October 22: Inspired Giving, Inspired Living, Cincinnati, OH.
Oct 23 - 25: Falcon Fund Planning - NYC.
Oct 26: NJ Comm Fdn & PNC Bank, Living and Leaving Your Legacy, Princeton, NJ.
Oct 27 - 30: Women Donor Network Conference, New Orleans, LA.
Nov 3 - 5: Astraea Fdn for Justice, Donor Activist Conference, Dallas, TX.
Nov 5 - 7: The Heritage Institute, Counseling the Affluent, Portland, OR.
Nov 8 - 10: Women's Fund of Western Massachussetts, Annual Dinner Keynote & Legacy Workshops.
Nov 11: Resonant Companies, Barbara Culver, Strategic Philanthropy, Chicago, IL.
Nov 15: Women's Philanthropy Institute & The Winston-Salem Comm Fdn & Women's Fund, Lunch Keynote & Dinner - Living & Leaving Your Legacy, Winstom-Salem, NC.
Donors, funders, advisors and community-based foundations--wait till you see this resource! What a great gift planning site it is! http://www.newdea.com
Please feel free to send us links to resources that address legacy or philanthropic planning and revitalize democracy through citizen participation.
Making Change Happen
There are now some 1.7 million nonprofits to choose from.
Each quarter we will share links to nonprofits and over the year include many that our readers share with us. We urge your own due diligence of these nonprofits.
Many of us have spent a lifetime being very careful to earn, invest, and give our money and time. Recently, Inspired Legacies spoke with some of our clients about their giving intentions and learned some of their planning techniques and best practices. We wanted to share some with you in this issue.
Many people have wonderful intentions, but they are not understood or known fully by heirs nor advisors. We have to take time to put together our vision, specific goals and desired methods.
Have you thought about and truly detailed your wishes for your family foundation or personal giving when or before you die?
Are you sure your team of advisors and heirs understands your wishes?
Do you only want to have your final grants or gifts made locally?
Do you grant the agencies free will on how your money is used?
Do or don't you want to fund endowments?
In working closely with advisors, could you discover new ways to give now?
Inspired Legacies engages with you to be sure your final wishes are met. We can help you make check lists and unravel some of your fears and concerns. We can invite your heirs and advisors to the table to make your wishes absolutely clear.
Often the missing piece is communication. We are certain that more conscious transitions can help heal families and enable more intentional giving. Most of us don't want to pay more than our fair share of taxes, but indecision often leads to Uncle Sam being our greatest beneficiary!
We imagine healthier families and nonprofits that can plan for their futures and advisors who are absolutely sure of what their clients' intentions are. Come and join the fun, "unleashing the generosity generation." Yes, this is our new tag line! Let us know your best practices and your concerns.
We encourage you to use our materials. We would like to know that you are using them, so please fill out our contact form or email your proposed use and full contact information. Feedback is encouraged. Please also make a donation to Inspired Legacies to commiserate with the value you find in it's use. This helps us cover costs and create more tools for you and the world.
Be sure to check our next issue in early December for strategic year-end giving tools and tips.
It's been a rewarding July-September. We have established our office in Houston. We created new materials and programs to help facilitate better partnerships between donors and advisors and nonprofits.
Inspired Legacies has created a powerpoint describing our services. Highlights below include:
What We Do:
We find and share best practices to promote the greater good.
We support planning that is prudent and inspired.
We address issues of family values and dynamics.
We train and elevate financial and philanthropic advisors.
We build effective networks and teams.
We gather and share key referrals for legacy planning and strategic giving.
How We Do It:
We build on Tracy Gary's reputation as a recognized leader of inspired and strategic philanthropic planning.
We develop and present donor education materials, tools, and workshops.
We work with the major donor and advisory community, helping to build legacy mentors to unleash strategic, transformative, meta-level giving.
Inspiring Legacy Mentors -- In its first few months, Inspired Legacies has already:
brought recognized legacy mentors together to celebrate and share best practices.
mentored donors, advisors, and nonprofits on donor-inspired giving and community-centered change.
created youth giving circles (starting in Houston, then nationwide) to inspire young people toward legacy mentorship.
supported whole families getting involved in giving together.
In this quarter we worked with a variety of organizations including:
Delta, Delta, Delta Sorority
The Ohio Fund for Women and Girls
The Chambers Family Fund
The Nautilus Group
Riverbend Church
The Greater Cincinatti Community Foundation
Mercy Foundation
The United Way
The Fine Arts Fund
Community Shares of Wisconsin
The Women's Funding Network
Falcon Fund
Sample clients:
Multi-millionaire inheritor sisters seeking referrals and goal setting.
Old wealth ranch siblings partnering with their trustee bank on philanthropy.
Fortune 500 corporations advisor trainings and legacy planning curriculum development.
Community and women's foundations coaching on million dollar plus legacy gifts and work with advisors.
Legacy planning for a family of collectors.
Family foundation facilitations and donor intent statements.
These first 10 clients alone represent over a half billion dollars in transformative giving and investing.
If you would like to see our powerpoint and invite us to possibly work with your family or as part of your personal planning team, please do Tracy Gary 415-377-9447.
Recent Inspired Legacies events span the US and Canada.
- current locations in blue, previous locations in green -
Letters to Loved Ones
Dear Adult Kids, all five of you!
I want you to know my full intentions and my full financial picture. Therefore annually on the 2nd Tuesday of January, I am instituting a required family meeting. Our full advisory team will be there to answer your questions.
I want to assure you, according to my doctors, I am healthy. This is about my desire to do everything I can to help you have the support and information you will need to carry on this great opportunity to do great things for our family, community, and country through our wealth and leadership.
I want you to know my full intentions for my end of life decisions (and beyond) and my full financial snapshot now. Please clear your calendars and celebrate this intentionality!
Cheers, til then.
Mom
PS. John will send you a full notebook of my plans and financials in advance. Don't forget to bring it to the meeting. I will also send out a proposed agenda for your input and a reminder a month prior to the meeting. Thanks for clearing your calendars.
We dedicate this issue to the memory of Scott Fithian, 45, who died in September of pancreatic cancer. Scott was a charismatic catalyst who shaped and lead the values-based planning movement in the financial and philanthropic world, through his firm, The Legacy Companies. We wish Todd Fithian and the staff, as well as the extended community, whose many hearts Scott touched, our condolences and our commitments in Scott's name.
Betsy Weedon died in this Spring. We were saddened to learn of her death. Betsy was one of the founders, with Tracy, of donor education for women with wealth in the mid 1970's in San Francisco. Always a thoughtful and principled strategist, she was a donor activist for social change and community justice. As the Zen Center said in their memorial about Betsy, "she posses that rare quality of being able to listen intensely to the people around her, thus helping them create a greater sense of themselves. Her generosity was boundless."
View from the Founder
Legacy Tools
Inspired Products
Legacy Partnerships
Letters to Loved Ones