Ekstrom Alley Clontz & Associates

Of travel I've had my share, man

7/27/2023

EAC’s theme song for 2023 may be “I’ve Been Everywhere” (cue the Man in Black). We’ve been on-site with clients in Anchorage, Aspen, Denver, Detroit, Fort Worth, Hagerstown, Hudson, Jasper, Kearney, La Crosse, Madison, Reno, Springfield, and Stevens Point and online in convenings of community foundations in the United Kingdom and New Jersey. For the rest of 2023, you’ll find us in Corydon, Louisville, Madison, other communities, and at these educational forums:

Purposeful Planning Institute 2023 Rendezvous
Jul 31 - Aug 3, Westminster, CO
Erika Seth Davies and Tony Macklin are leading the annual conference’s first session on helping donors and clients include racial equity in their investing and impact investing.

Direct PE/Real Estate Investments in DAFs, SOs and LLCs
Aug 23 and 24, online
Bryan Clontz’s firm, Charitable Solutions, continues its free monthly gift planning webinar series. You can catch up on past sessions here.

Mission Investing Institute
Sep 14-19 via Zoom and Nov 6-7, Los Angeles
Erika Seth Davies is part of the faculty of this signature introductory learning program offered by Mission Investors Exchange, National Center for Family Philanthropy, Northern California Grantmakers, and SoCal Grantmakers.

Philanthropy West Virginia’s Annual Conference
Oct 2-4, Wheeling, WV
Ralph Serpe will present “Build a Board” and “Scholarship Displacement”

2023 DAF Giving Summit
Oct 2-4, Clearwater Beach, FL
Tony Macklin is co-teaching a session on “Strengthening Your Philanthropic Services” and then staying to co-teach a session on philanthropic services for the Ren iPhi Users Group.

Give, Grow, Grant
Oct 11-12, Wausau, WI
Ralph Serpe will lead a session on developing unrestricted assets at this community foundation conference.

2023 Annual National Conference for Growing Community Foundations
Oct 18-20, Wichita, KS
Steve Alley will facilitate “Succession Planning: Why It’s Never Too Early to Start Thinking About It” and Sheryl Aikman will co-teach the “Business of Community Foundations.”

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EAC On the Road and Online

8/14/2022

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EAC’s team loves seeing our colleagues in person and our travel has picked up quickly in 2022. We’ve recently led in-person strategy meetings and retreats in Illinois, New York, and South Dakota and are heading next to Alaska and Maryland. We’re also continuing to lead professional development opportunities for foundation staff and their stakeholders across the nation.

Recent Webinars

Erika Seth Davies co-led the webinar Investing with Intention for the Giving Practice and RBC Global Asset Management in March (recording available free to the public) and Impact Investing: Aligning All Capital for Good for the National Center for Family Philanthropy in July (recording available to members).

Bryan Clontz and his team at Charitable Solutions continued their monthly webinar series about gift planning. Recent topics included NFTs, hedge funds, private equity, cryptocurrency, outsourcing gift annuities, and supporting organizations. (Recordings available free to the public).

Tony Macklin facilitated the 2022 Community Foundations Family Philanthropy Network Workshop for the National Center for Family Philanthropy in June (recording available to members). He also led Defining Your Philanthropic Purpose for Schwab Charitable (recording available free to the public).

Coming Up

Grantmaking 101 and Grantmaking 201
Aug 24-25, Indianapolis, IN
Tony Macklin is on the faculty of this annual program for staff and volunteers newer to the grantmaking process.

Philanthropy Speaks 2022
Sep. 21, Fredericksburg, VA
Bryan Clontz is speaking about charitable gift planning for the Community Foundation.

Indiana Philanthropy Alliance 2022 Philanthropy Leads Conference
Sep. 27-29, Indianapolis, IN
EAC is a contributing sponsor, including presenting the biannual Hazelett Award. Sheryl Aikman is co-presenting “Agency Funds: Avoiding Pitfalls and Maximizing the Opportunity” and she and Tony Macklin will be staffing the vendor roundtables.

Annual National Conference for Growing Community Foundations
Oct. 12-13, Wichita, KS
EAC is a sponsor. Steve Alley is leading the board retreat on “Why Strategic Plans Fail and How to Stop It from Happening to You.” Sheryl Aikman is co-presenting “Funds that Work: Designing and Transforming Funds for Impact and Relevance” and moderating the “Keeping Capital Local” plenary.

DAF Giving Summit: Be the Impact
Oct. 24-26, Miami, FL
Tony Macklin will be facilitating a session at this inaugural event for the Donor Advised Fund sponsor industry.

Professional Advisor Fall Seminar
Nov. 10, Indianapolis, IN
Bryan Clontz will lead the Central Indiana Community Foundation’s annual professional continuing education program.

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EAC Online and In-Person

1/24/2022

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EAC's team members are frequently asked to lead sessions and workshops for community foundations and their stakeholders. A few recent examples include:

2nd Half of 2021
Steve Alley and Tony Macklin led plenary sessions on trauma-informed philanthropy and models of community resiliency for the 2021 Annual National Conference for Growing Community Foundations.

Sheryl Aikman discussed Challenges All Nonprofit Leaders Will Face in an episode of the Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership podcast.

Bryan Clontz spoke about "Creative Charitable Planning with Non-Cash Assets: A Case Study Approach" with the Planned Giving Group of New England and the Community Foundation of Greater Buffalo (video link). He also spoke about the "Top 10 Charitable Trends Every Advisor Should Know in 2021" with the Capital Region Community Foundation and Community Foundation of Soutwest Louisiana.

Erika Seth Davies advised the new report Capital at the Crossroads: Integrating Racial Equity into Total Portfolio Activation released by Trillium Asset Management, Croatan Institute, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, and REEFS. She also spoke at the 2021 FAOG conference about Making the Allocation to Diverse Managers and at SOCAP21 about Funding Women and Girls.

Tony Macklin discussed options for Family Philanthropy and Donor-Advised Funds with members of the Grantmakers of Western Pennsylvania and co-presented the Melton Case Study for the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation's professional advisors.

Ralph Serpe and husband Bryan Tate wrapped up a six-part Unrestricted Asset Building series for Philanthropy West Virginia.

Q1 2022
Bryan Clontz is continuing his free monthly webinars on gift planning and gift acceptance topics through Charitable Solutions, LLC.

Tony Macklin is leading a Feb. 15 conversation about family philanthropy topics for the Charitable Gift Planners of Northeast Indiana, participating in the National Network for Consultants to Grantmakers' March 8 webinar about donor-advised funds, and leading a March 15 webinar about strategy conversations with donors for the National Center for Family Philanthropy.

Want to explore options for an EAC team member to speak, facilitate, or train for your foundation or philanthropy group? Please don't hesitate to reach out to them individually or contact Steve Alley at steve.alley[at]eac-associates.com.

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EAC WEBCAST with Community Capital Advisors

10/11/2021

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Marc Rand, Managing Partner of Community Capital Advisors recently invited Steve Alley and Tony Macklin to join a webcast about community foundations (videos below). Our broad discussion included strategic planning, racial inequities, impact investing, and other trends.

Community Capital Advisors helps community foundations and other place-based funders maximize their local impact by prudently aligning their investment capital, policies and practices with their mission to advance racial equity, inclusive economies, sustainable growth and healthy communities. Marc was the Program Director for Loans and Affordable Housing at Marin Community Foundation and Senior Advisor Bert Feuss was Senior VP of Investments for the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. EAC consultant Erika Seth Davies also advises CCA's work.

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How is your foundation building community resiliency?

10/4/2021

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In 2020, we faced a quartet of tough issues – pandemic, uneven economic recovery, renewed focus on racial injustices, and political divisiveness – that have continued in 2021.

What lessons from the past 18 months is your community foundation carrying forward beyond 2021? How are you helping your organization and your communities be more resilient – the sustained ability to withstand, adapt to, and recover from adversity?

We want to hear your answers to those questions, with examples small and large, internal and external. Please email Tony Macklin at tony.macklin@eac-associates.com by October 12 with a couple sentences about your answer and he’ll follow up for additional information. We have some examples below and we know you have your own ideas.

We’ll feature the ideas in the final plenary at the National Conference for Growing Community Foundations and later on this blog. Thank you in advance for your willingness to share your ideas with your peers!

Examples to spark your thinking
Are you changing your practices and policies for the long run?

Streamlined grant programs, more flexible grant programs
HR policies and practices that are more flexible on remote work or family care leave, or that help with long-term trauma recovery
Improving diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in internal policies and practices
Convening and leadership activities focused on the tough issues

Are you helping nonprofits and communities not just recover but be able to withstand future challenges?

Supporting longer-term health and mental health issues
General operating support, multi-year support, capacity building
New or strengthened collaboratives around more equitable recovery or preparation for future pandemics or disasters

Are you helping people move past divisions toward the brighter futures that can unite your communities?

Community visioning processes
Initiatives that connect people like Everyday Democracy or On the Table
Increasing civic participation between election cycles
Helping donors think differently about inequities, other cultures, other viewpoints

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National Scholarship Displacement Bill

9/11/2021

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Are your scholarship awards closing the gap between what a student has and what they need to attend school? Chances are, if you run a needs-based scholarship program, some of your awards are being displaced.

Representative Andy Kim of New Jersey plans to introduce a national scholarship displacement bill in September. A working draft is attached below.

The Adams County Community Foundation in Gettysburg, PA is advocating for this bill which is focused on transparency and data, and would require universities to notify students if their scholarship is displaced. The bill also calls for a U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) study of the frequency and demographics of scholarship award displacement.

Rep. Kim is seeking support from scholarship providers in all 50 states. If any scholarship provider would like to join the Adams County Community Foundation and be listed as a supporting organization, please let me know. Rep. Kim would be notified of your support and reach out to members of Congress in your district in an effort to seek their support.

If you have questions or would like to be listed as a supporting organization, please email me at rserpe@adamscountycf.org so that Congressman Kim's office is alerted.

You can learn more about scholarship displacement here: https://central-scholarship.org/advocacy/scholarship-award-displacement/ and here: https://www.disscholared.org/

Many thanks,
Ralph Serpe
President & CEO, Adams County Community Foundation (PA)
Consultant, Ekstrom Alley Clontz & Associates

helping_students_plan_for_college_act_of_2021_discussion_draft.pdf
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EAC Online and In the News

9/21/2020

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The EAC team is continuing to grow the knowledge and skills of foundations and their stakeholders.

Sep. 2 – Balancing Purpose, Payout, and Permanence
Senior Consultant Tony Macklin wrote new guides and led a webinar for the Council on Foundations and National Center for Family Philanthropy. They help foundations reflect more deeply on how they choose to balance four factors in payout—purpose, conditions and trends, time horizons, and assets for mission—especially in times of greater crisis or opportunity.

Sep. 3 – Senior Partner Bryan Clontz wrote about the Tax Implications For Donations Of Bitcoin for Forbes

Sep. 22 or 24 – Unique Benefits of Donating S-Corp Stock Under the CARES Act
Bryan is speaking on two webinars (same on both dates) to learn about the nuances and benefits of charitable gifts of S-Corp stock as a result of the CARE Act.

Sep. 22 – Changing the Racial Justice Algorithm
Consultant Erika Seth Davies joins other experts on this call for ImpactAlpha’s subscribers.

Oct. 7-9 – 2020 CGP Conference
Bryan is leading a session on Gift Acceptance Models that Work: Building on Opportunities for Non-Cash Gifts.

Oct. 7-8 – 2020 Community Foundations Family Philanthropy Network Workshop
Tony is organizing and facilitating this annual workshop for the National Center for Family Philanthropy’s members.

Oct. 26-27 – 2020 Annual National Conference for Growing Community Foundations
EAC is a sponsor of this annual conference and Managing Partner Steve Alley is presenting two sessions: Rethinking How To Find Good Board Members And Keep Them On Board And Evolve Your Board Meetings As Your Foundation Evolves on the 26th and Drowning In the Sea of Opportunity, Why Can't We Get Anything Done on the 27th.

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EAC On the Air and Online in 2020

7/2/2020

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Image licensed for free commercial use at https://pixabay.com/photos/mic-microphone-podcast-studio-4250217/

The Ekstrom Alley Clontz team has missed being on the road and talking with our clients and their stakeholders in person. Like you, we’ve been on tons of conference calls and video chats to keep clients’ projects moving forward. We’ve also been speaking, facilitating, and writing online to help foundations and their allies make the world a better place.

Jan. 9 – Here's how some colleges 'displace' your private scholarship so it doesn't benefit you
Ralph Serpe advises donors and scholarship managers to ensure scholarships deliver the results that donors hope for and that students need.

Mar. 6 – The Real Money is in Assets (45 min.)
The Gift Planning Development Podcast hosted Bryan Clontz to discuss non-cash assets and how they can dramatically improve fundraising outcomes.

Mar. 23 – Expand Your Comfort Zone: Taking (and Taming) Risks in Philanthropy (58 min.)
Tony Macklin led this session for the Jewish Funder’s Network 2020 conference. JFN had already started scenario planning processes (a risk taming strategy) to think about the impact of the pandemic on philanthropy and later shared this free toolkit for other foundations and nonprofits.

Apr. 21 – The Results are in! The Secrets of Successful Gift Annuity Programs from the 2019 Joint ACGA-CGP Survey
Bryan joined a virtual panel at the American Council on Gift Annuities annual conference

May – Bryan penned a series of articles for Forbes on establishing and managing Employee Relief Funds.

May 21 – Community Foundations in the Evolving Landscape of Family Philanthropy Services
Tony facilitated a conversation on how community foundations can better define and communicate their value proposition in an increasingly crowded field of philanthropic and family advising expertise. Recording available to members of AdNet and NCFP.

Jun. 3 – Addressing Racism in the Asset Management Industry (13 min.)
Erika Seth Davies spoke with the Beeck Center on addressing racism in the asset management industry, and why the events of these past weeks show why it's always the right time to talk about this. The video was a follow-up to her May 27 article Hiding in Plain Sight: Racism in the Room Made Visible by COVID-19 and How to Create New Pathways

And Coming Up…

July 8 – Policy and Practice: Critical Strategies for Dismantling Structural Racism
Erika kicks off a free webinar series for SOCAP 365 to look at best practices, tangible examples and next steps for action for system-level conversations with a hyper-local lens.

July 10 and 29 – Hiding in Plain Sight
Erika will host a two-part webinar for the Beeck Center on the issue of racism in the asset management industry.

Aug. 19 – Involving Donors in Community Crises and Leadership Opportunities
Tony will host a peer learning webinar sponsored by the Council of Michigan Foundations, Philanthropy Ohio, and Indiana Philanthropy Alliance.

Aug. 20 – Community Foundation Business Models for Family Philanthropy
Tony will facilitate NCFP’s fourth annual deep dive into how community foundations structure their business models for more intensive services to multi-generation and multi-branch families. (NCFP members only)

Oct. 26-27 – 2020 Annual National Conference for Growing Community Foundations
Stay tuned for the team’s involvement in the first online version of this popular gathering.

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5/6/20 Teleconference for Clients: Brave communications in an unsettled world

4/22/2020

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How do you keep moving forward (personally, professionally and for, with, and within the community) when the ground underneath you continues to shift? EAC invites our clients to an online conversation - Wednesday, May 6, 2020, 1 - 2 p.m. EST - on how the current pandemic impacts us, our work, and our communities: for one hour. Leading the conversation will be EAC Managing Partner Steve Alley and Stacey Cox, PhD. Stacey and Steve originally met and became friends when she was on the board of the Grant County Community Foundation in Silver City, NM, a board she now chairs. Stacey is a psychologist, coach and consultant who specializes in individual and community trauma and resilience, along with nervous system health, all of which she believes are inextricably linked. A native of New Mexico, Stacey is also a veteran of the non-profit sector, having served as a CEO for over 20 years. For more info on Stacey, click here.

Stacey Cox, PhD

More About the Conversation
The whole world is concerned about their inability to think clearly. This is a symptom of nervous system dysregulation. We should normalize it for people and for our communities. And, as the world “opens up”, these are the truths we should be aware of:

We need to realize that we will continue to be re-traumatized as “cells” of Covid19 re-emerge.
It’s time to review our core systems, especially non-sensical silo-ed funding systems, which are now clearly exposed, and are, often, in the way of service.
Many people are likely to have at least mild short-term PTSD, and it’s more likely in Nonprofits due to the types of people drawn to the work.
Together we are experiencing community trauma. We cannot heal in isolation. Community traumas are healed in community.
Now is the time to build trauma sensitive and trauma informed orgs so we can heal together.
When we are finally able to work in the same place again, we can’t pretend everything is the same. Pretending will make the trauma worse. We know traumatized people need a plan and some idea about what to expect - even if it’s just for a day.

Please join us as we discuss these critical issues and share suggestions, stories and ideas of how you can become more grounded and aware as we all work to stabilize ourselves, staff, stakeholders, and our community.

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EAC on the Road and Online - Fall 2019

9/3/2019

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View outside an airplane window showing clouds and an airplane wing

Attribution: FASTILY, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

The EAC team is helping community foundations and their advisors learn effective philanthropy strategies in a number of ways this fall:

Sep. 5 – The Melton Family Case: Climbing the Philanthropic Learning Curve
Tony is co-presenting this national webinar for NAEPC and Trusts & Estates, applicable for your asset development staff and professional advisors.

Sep. 17 – 2019 Building Unrestricted West Virginia
Ralph is presenting the keynote on Building Unrestricted West Virginia progress and lessons learned

Sep. 18 – 2019 Pennsylvania Community Foundation Gathering
Ralph is presenting two sessions: Scholarship Displacement and Building Unrestricted Assets

Oct. 27-29 – National Conference for Growing Community Foundations
EAC is an annual sponsor of this terrific conference. You can find team members at our sponsor booth and presenting or co-presenting at these sessions:

It’s Almost Halloween, But It Doesn’t Need to Be Scary: Taking the Fear Out of Community Leadership – Tony Macklin
27 Things That Community Foundations Do That Drive Me Nuts And How To Address A Few Of Them – Bryan Clontz
Powerful Planned Giving with a Shoe-String Staff and a Shoe-String Budget – Bryan Clontz
Peer Expert Consultations – Brian Frederick
Gifts of Land, Timber and Mineral Resources...Oh My! – Bryan Clontz
How To Grow In An Intelligent Strategic Manner – Steve Alley
"Old School Meets New School" Trends and Changing Conversation – Brian Frederick

Nov. 13 – Southeastern Council of Foundations 50th Annual Meeting
Tony is facilitating the community foundation pre-conference workshop on developing a portfolio of philanthropic services.

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Of travel I've had my share, man

EAC On the Road and Online

EAC Online and In-Person

EAC WEBCAST with Community Capital Advisors

How is your foundation building community resiliency?

National Scholarship Displacement Bill

EAC Online and In the News

EAC On the Air and Online in 2020

5/6/20 Teleconference for Clients: Brave communications in an unsettled world

Register to RECEIVE the Private GotoMeeting link

EAC on the Road and Online - Fall 2019

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