Corporate Philanthropy that Unites Communities

Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP is a New York-based law firm with offices in Washington, DC, Houston, Palo Alto and in the U.K. and Europe. About 15 years ago, Willkie’s DC office was looking for a way to give back to give back to the DC community that would complement the firm’s already-extensive pro bono efforts. Willkie’s goal was to enhance its impact on the community by concentrating its charitable giving on a key area of need in the DC region and harnessing the volunteer spirit of the entire office to serve a common cause, in a way that also would serve as a unifying force for the DC office.

In 2004, Willkie launched the Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP Greater DC Community Foundation as a component fund of the Greater Washington Community Foundation. The Willkie Foundation’s mission is to support educational and enrichment programs for underserved youth in the region.

Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP attorneys and staff are actively engaged with Principal Grantees.

As the Willkie Foundation was launched, The Community Foundation provided an array of services to assist in the foundation’s organization and management. The Community Foundation’s professional staff helped Willkie develop its grantmaking program, including the strategy and identification of investment opportunities, facilitating meetings, and training on how to review proposals and make grants.

The partnership between Willkie and The Community Foundation led to a highly-customized foundation structure that is unique among law firms, but could provide a blueprint for other law firms and organizations looking to achieve similar goals. The key components of the Willkie Foundation model are:

• Focused Mission: All efforts of the Willkie Foundation are directed toward organizations that provide educational and other enrichment programming for underserved youth in DC and neighboring jurisdictions.

• Partnership Consensus: The Willkie Foundation’s mission statement was developed and endorsed by the Willkie DC partners and counsel, whose voluntary, individual contributions are the primary source of funding for the Foundation.

• Office-Wide Advisory Committee: The Willkie Foundation is managed by a committee that includes partners, counsel, associates and staff across all practice groups.

• Rotating Principal Grantees: Periodically, the Willkie Foundation selects an organization with which it partners, typically for a period of 5-6 years, making it the recipient of the majority of the Foundation’s annual giving, volunteer hours and other support.

• Active Engagement with Grantees: Willkie attorneys and staff are actively engaged with grantees through events organized at Willkie DC for its grantees and through volunteer opportunities provided by grantee organizations.

• Undirected (General Fund) Grants: The Willkie Foundation selects its grantee organizations carefully, but then allows the recipients of its grants to determine how best to use the awarded funds.

The Willkie Foundation awarded its first grants in 2005, and since then has awarded nearly $2.3 million in grants to about two dozen organizations providing educational enrichment and other related services to DC youth. Examples of the work of the Willkie Foundation include:

• The Willkie Foundation’s first Principal Grantees, DC SCORES and Higher Achievement Program (HAP), received significant financial support that was instrumental in their growth and expansion. Along the way, Willkie attorneys and staff members participated in HAP’s mentoring program (a 26-week commitment), volunteered at their events, sat on their boards, organized school supply drives, and coordinated numerous activities for their students, including mock trials, shadow days and tours of Willkie’s offices.

• The Willkie Foundation has provided over $100,000 in “rescue grants” to organizations finding themselves in unexpected or difficult situations, such as a $10,000 grant to Life Pieces to Masterpieces, to replace equipment lost due to vandalism of its facility, and $30,000 to DC Scores to cover an unexpected budget shortfall.

• Willkie provided the lead gift in support of For Love of Children’s 50th Anniversary Capital Campaign, committing to a multi-year lead grant of $350,000. While FLOC was the Willkie Foundation’s Principal Grantee, Willkie lawyers and staff volunteered at FLOC, and Willkie organized events for FLOC’s students and volunteers at the firm, including a mock trial program, Scrabble and Uno tournaments, college fairs, resume reviews and mock interview and shadow days.

• In 2017, a gift of $75,000 in seed funding from the Willkie Foundation enabled the Homeless Children’s Playtime Project to leverage a matching grant to fund its first-ever Social Worker. Having a full-time social worker has led to more collaboration with partner agencies, more children enrolled in early childhood programs, more parents learning skills to support their children, and more children getting their needs met in school and in the community.

• The Willkie Foundation’s current principal grantee is Horton’s Kids. Aside from more than $200,000 in grants to date, Willkie has been an active participant in Horton’s Kids programming, including sending volunteers monthly to Horton Kids’ Homework Help sessions and participating in spring and end-of-year holiday celebrations and gift drives. And Willkie has hosted Horton’s Kids for resume and mock interview workshops, trivia night dinners and office tours.

As part of this continuing partnership, The Community Foundation shares its vast knowledge of and relationships with nonprofits across the region to help foster connections to organizations which share the Willkie Foundation’s charitable focus. This includes facilitating opportunities for Willkie employees to learn about the issues facing our region and the nonprofits who are working to address them.

“The Willkie Foundation has been so successful because it not only offers a vehicle to give back to the community by sharing our treasures, time and talent, but in the process brings together the entire Willkie DC community,” said Willkie partner Joseph G. Davis. “What excites people even more than the grantmaking is the fact that these groups and the youth they serve have become part of our extended Willkie family.”

Reflecting on the Legacy of Vicki Sant

All of us at the Greater Washington Community Foundation were deeply saddened to learn of Victoria (“Vicki”) Sant’s passing on Tuesday, December 11, 2018. Vicki was a long-standing champion of The Community Foundation’s ideals, having served as vice chair of the board, an emeritus board member, major donor, and President of the Summit Fund.

“The Community Foundation would not be the thriving organization and community leader that it is today if it wasn’t for Vicki Sant’s hands-on leadership and stewardship,” said Bruce McNamer, President and CEO of The Community Foundation. “Vicki was instrumental to our early growth and success, and The Summit Fund provided major financial support which enabled us to address community needs and to develop as a community leader.”

Vicki began an over 35-year relationship with The Community Foundation in the early 80s when she and her husband, Roger — the co-founder of a global power company — established The Summit Fund as a donor-advised fund at The Community Foundation. As a board member, she chaired The Community Foundation’s grants and programs committee and served on the Steering Committee for the Creative Communities Initiative, focused on creating a strong support system for artists in the region. Vicki was eventually named a board member emeritus, a position of honor she shared with the late R. Robert Linowes.

The Summit Fund of Washington, established by Roger and Vicki Sant, was the first supporting organization of The Community Foundation. Vicki was the co-founder and president from 1993 to 2015, focused on two specific causes of importance to her: restoring and protecting the Anacostia River and reducing teen pregnancy in the District of Columbia. Her other passions included international population issues, global environmental issues and the arts.

“Vicki embodied the true spirit of philanthropy.  She became a mentor of mine in the early 90s when I was a young program officer just starting out at The Community Foundation, and her love and guidance made such a huge difference in my life. Her impact came not just from her strategic mind but also from her enormous heart and emotional intelligence,” said Silvana Straw, Senior Community Investment Officer and Philanthropic Advisor at The Community Foundation.

Vicki’s long history as a fundraiser for nonprofit organizations also gave her a unique nonprofit -friendly perspective on philanthropy. She once shared that, “Knowing the complexity of running a nonprofit has helped me enormously as a donor and helped me experience the partnership donors and grantees share as they each work toward the same common goal.”

“Vicki was my great friend—kind, caring and funny.  Most of all we shared a total commitment to children both here and around the world.  She was always an inspiration and had the attitude that anything good was possible, and that attitude meant that good came to pass,” said Charito Kruvant, a Community Foundation donor and former board member, and Founder and Chairperson of the Board of Creative Associates International. 

Underlying her commitment was a belief that, in her eloquent words, “our community’s greatest assets are its citizens, and that their creativity, ideas and energy are essential to the resolution of the challenges facing our community.”

Year-End Giving Tips from Leslie Smith of Chevy Chase Trust

With the end of the year quickly approaching, professional advisor Leslie Smith hopes individuals, families and businesses recognize that expertly managed and cost-effective donor-advised funds offer numerous financial advantages. Leslie, Senior Managing Director with Chevy Chase Trust, notes that a fund at the Greater Washington Community Foundation offers a special opportunity to learn about the issues facing the community and can support worthy causes, such as providing scholarships for students or helping to create a brighter future for vulnerable neighbors. There’s no better time to consider the financial benefits than in the last days of December.

Leslie has a long history with The Community Foundation—including as co-chair of The Foundation’s Professional Advisors Council and serving on The Community Foundation’s Advisory Board in Montgomery County and its Sharing Montgomery Grants Committee.

“I quickly went from having an academic understanding to comprehending the tremendous benefits of community foundations and donor-advised funds,” she says. “The bottom line is private foundations are not a very efficient option for most donors.” 

Leslie estimates that she and her colleagues have helped dozens, if not 100 or more clients set up donor-advised funds over the years. One client told Leslie that she wanted to focus on her own charitable giving after her husband passed away. A volunteer with the Literacy Council, the client was personally moved by stories of her immigrant neighbors who were determined to learn English while raising their families and working full-time, usually at low paid jobs. She wanted to find a way to help their children go to college. Leslie introduced her to Anna Hargrave, executive director of The Community Foundation’s local office for Montgomery County. Anna arranged a meeting with staff from the Literacy Council and Future Links, a nonprofit that provides academic support, internships and scholarships to underserved high school students. Fast forward four years: Leslie’s client has provided scholarships to three students, so far. 

“Every time we meet, she talks about those students and her terrific experience with The Community Foundation,” Leslie says. “Of course we also talk about her portfolio, but it’s her charitable giving and those scholarships that really make her light up.”

Leslie and her colleagues at Chevy Chase Trust not only refer clients to The Community Foundation, they also host learning events for clients on topics like hunger and poverty and roll up their sleeves and volunteer in the community. They are not alone. The Community Foundation partners with many corporations, professional advisors and financial institutions throughout the region who have demonstrated a strong commitment to addressing the community’s greatest challenges. 

Leslie recognizes that giving through The Community Foundation makes it possible to maximize the tax benefits and impact of philanthropy. As the year comes to a close, Leslie offers these five tips for end-of-the-year giving:

• As you are considering your tax situation, you may find the cap of the deduction for state and local income tax as well as property taxes (a $10,000 deduction limit for all) results in higher than expected taxes, despite the reduction in federal rates. It may make sense to give more to charity, or to accelerate charitable giving into the current year.

• Always consider gifting appreciated securities rather than cash, to avoid the capital gain on the securities. 

• If you want to take advantage of the standard deduction rather than itemize, it could make sense to bunch charitable giving into alternate years so that one year you itemize and the next you use the standard deduction. 

• If you don't want to make larger gifts to your usual charities in one year, a donor-advised fund can provide the mechanism to make a large deductible gift now, then take your time deciding how it will be used to benefit the community in the future.

• If you are at least 70 1/2 years old, consider using your IRA to make a direct contribution to charity. You may give up to $100,000, which can include your Required Minimum Distribution. A donor-advised fund does not qualify for these donations, however, The Community Foundation offers other giving vehicles that allow you to take advantage of this type of gift.