Good News For Gloomy Times
Half way through the year, like the mythical Janus, capable of viewing the past and future at the same time, I’m leafing through a pile of good stuff I should have passed on to Agitator readers, but somehow didn’t. Shame on me.
BUT … it’s not to late to put this great information to work in the second half of 2009. So, over the next week or so, this repentant editor will pass along some real gems.
From our friend Fraser Green of Ottawa’s FLA Group came a May memo heralding the fact that, despite the recession, Canadians have made charitable bequests totaling $54 billion this year – up a whopping 28% over last year according to an FLA Group Survey.
You can download Fraser’s memo here.
You don’t have to be Canadian to benefit from the memo’s insights.
• Direct mail donors are more than twice as likely to make charitable bequests as people who don’t give to charity through the mail. (Earlier research by FLA showed that 92% of all direct mail donors have wills!)
• Members of households with no children (11%) are almost twice as likely to make charitable bequests as those with children at home (6%)
• Household income does not have a significant influence on charitable bequest-making.
• The value of the bequests already made by living Canadians equals more than ten years’ worth of all annual giving in that nation. As Fraser brilliantly understates, “This is serious money!”
According to Fraser, “The data doesn’t lie. Legacy gifts in wills are recession-proof. This stands to reason, since most of the asset base of direct mail donors is real estate (as opposed to equities) based. While stock markets in Canada have taken a huge hit since last September, housing prices in most parts of Canada have remained very stable indeed.”
Whether real estate values in your country or region have declined or not, there’s good stuff here. Fraser and FLA Group, you deserve a raise.
Roger
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