To be successful both types of portfolio need to be based on a well-designed strategy. For both we need to be asking which methods and component parts best suit the individual needs of each client.

As we build a tailored giving strategy we take each client through the following stages:

1. Funding the ‘Giving Portfolio’ - asking ‘How much is enough?’. How much of your capital or income or both, do you wish to give now and how much do you wish to give at a later stage?
2. Giving Portfolio structure - What are your passions? How diversified will the portfolio be? How many charities do you wish to support? Do you wish to be ‘overweight’ in any one particular area?
3. “Investing” the Giving Portfolio. How do you choose which charities to support? (This process should be planned and structured).
4. Do you wish to ‘invest’ locally, nationally or globally? This could be the first allocation of funds in much the same way as we allocate a traditional investment portfolio between cash, equities and bonds.
5. Monitoring the Portfolio. What due diligence process should be followed?
6. What is the investment policy statement?
7. How should the funds be invested if they are not to be given away immediately?

Giving – The Facts

• Over the last 10 years charitable donations in Britain have fallen as a percentage of GDP while personal wealth has more than doubled.
• 32% of US employees make payroll deductions to charitable causes compared to only 2% of those in the UK
• Measured in proportion - the more we earn the less we give!
• Of the 163,000 charities that are registered in the UK, the top 6%, measured by total receipts, receive 93% of the money donated.
• The richest 20% of the world’s population own 77.3% of the world’s wealth.
• 50% of the world’s population live on less that £1.26 per day.