A Charity by Any Other Name
While working for the local university, a gift planning officer becomes very friendly with Mrs. Kraft, who informs him that she has included the university in her will. The university is her alma mater. The planned giving officer subsequently leaves the university and becomes director of planned giving at a nearby hospital.
Mrs. Kraft, upon learning of the gift planner’s new appointment, asks him to visit her. During the visit she tells him that she intends to change her will, removing the $500,000 bequest to the university and substituting the hospital where he now works. When he asks her why she is doing this, she replies, “I really don’t feel very close to the university anymore, and I really appreciate how I was treated when I was a patient at the hospital.”
How does the planned giving officer proceed in this situation, both with the client and the hospital? Does he inform his new employer about the facts of this situation?
Is there a duty of confidentiality? Can the former university planned giving officer even discuss this with his successor at the university?
Is the donor’s rationale for changing her bequest—that she had good care at the hospital and no longer feels close to the University—a reason important to the ethical position of the planned giving officer? Was the University’s planned gift lost due to lack of stewardship?
Is there a further issue as to whether the planned giving officer should contact donors of his former charity? Would this be appropriate, or not?
Model Standard VII states that the donor should be encouraged to discuss the proposed gift with the charity to which the gift is to be made early in the gift planning process. Does Model Standard VII Standard extend to cover notice to a charity of a donor’s intention NOT to make the planned gift?
