Executive Briefing
Welcome to the LEAVE A LEGACY® Iowa executive briefing section. The following information is designed to give you a concise and holistic view of the LAL initiative. Through this briefing, you’ll gain a firm understanding of the “crucial timing” of the campaign and its relationship to the future success of Iowa charitable nonprofit organizations. Additionally, you will learn about the forthcoming transfer of wealth by the baby-boomer generation and how its historic magnitude profoundly effects our mission.

A quality life: Most people would agree that living in Iowa has improved the quality of their lives. Perhaps this feeling is largely due to the services provided by thousands of charitable, nonprofit organizations that play an important role by extending help and support in many ways each and every day to residents in and around Iowa.

Community organizations: Arts, culture and humanities, education and research, environment and animal care, health care and health related, human services, places of worship, public and societal benefit, community foundations, and youth organizations.

Services: Supporting and inspiring at-risk youth; providing quality education and scholarships; providing quality health care to the underprivileged; preserving our natural resources; researching in the fight against deadly diseases; sustaining the arts and cultural organizations; providing meals to isolated senior citizens; and providing disaster relief.

History of generosity: Over 70% of households nationwide contribute to charity each year; however, less than 8% are planning a charitable bequest in their will or estate plan.

The great wealth transfer: Research estimates that older Americans will transfer between $40-$150 trillion of net worth to the baby boomer generation by the year 2040 — a historic intergenerational wealth transfer.

Downward trend: The IRS tells us that charity is receiving a decreasing share in estates -- from 21.8% in 1976 to 6.3% in 1992. In 1996, 82% of estates of deceased in excess of $600,000 left nothing to charities.

Window of opportunity: As charities struggle with the continuing loss of public dollars and government cutbacks, it is imperative that we develop a way to reach the general public (local, state and national) with the following message -- “There has never been a better time to give back to the community a portion of that accumulated wealth.”

Time is running out: Community organizations are well aware of the window of opportunity that lies ahead with the projected wealth transfer and the fact that time is running out.

A national interest: LEAVE A LEGACY® is a North American multi-year, collaborative public awareness and education campaign which brings a community’s nonprofit organizations, legal, financial and estate planning advisors and local funders together to educate the general public about the need for charitable giving and to encourage members of the general public to establish charitable gifts within their estate plans. The National Committee on Planned Giving sponsors this nationwide initiative.

Statewide initiative: LEAVE A LEGACY® is a national initiative sponsored in Iowa by a coalition of community-based programs throughout the state. This ongoing educational campaign encourages residents of Iowa and bordering communities to plan estate gifts to community organizations in their will or other estate planning instruments. It is a program designed to increase the sense of responsibility among the citizens of Iowa and bordering communities, which helps to ensure their quality of life.

Mission: The mission of LEAVE A LEGACY® in Iowa is to preserve and improve the quality of life in our state sustained by the people, programs and services of charitable nonprofit organizations.

Goal: The goal of LEAVE A LEGACY® in Iowa is to increase the number and amount of charitable estate gifts that benefit community organizations in Iowa and bordering communities.

Collaboration: LEAVE A LEGACY® in Iowa is a statewide collaboration of community organizations, grant makers, professional advisors, community leaders and a variety of media outlets established to increase public awareness and promote public interest in charitable giving through a will or other estate-planning instruments.

Inclusive: LEAVE A LEGACY® promotes the development of resources for a variety of community organizations by encouraging a type of philanthropy that allows even people of modest means to make much larger gifts than they might have considered possible.

Financial support: With financial support from community and private foundations, corporate giving programs, professional firms and associations, and community organizations, the local LEAVE A LEGACY® programs reach out to individuals through statewide mass media and already established media outlets of local community organizations and professional associations.

Public forums: LEAVE A LEGACY® programs also offer speakers' bureaus, will clinics, seminars and other public forums to encourage charitable estate and gift planning. The LEAVE A LEGACY® Iowa Speaker’s Bureau network has been trained, and is prepared to give presentations in an ongoing effort to educate the public.

Leveraging our resources: This kind of approach to a broad-based public awareness initiative is generally cost-prohibitive for most individual community organizations. Therefore, each local program seeks to develop a community (or regional) wide consortium of community organizations, professional advisors, and grant-makers to work together for the common goal of increasing the number of estate (legacy) gift pledges for all charities.

Unprecedented: The LEAVE A LEGACY® movement is developing into the largest collaborative effort among non-profit organizations and professional advisors in the country’s history. There are currently over 150 active community based LEAVE A LEGACY® programs throughout the country.

The Iowa LEAVE A LEGACY® network: Organized regional programs in Iowa with local steering committees include Sioux City, Waterloo/Cedar Falls, Dubuque, Davenport, Cedar Rapids/Iowa City, Des Moines, Council Bluffs, Northwest Central and North Central Iowa. Numerous small town and county initiatives are currently being organized. A statewide board of directors oversees coordination, collaboration and cooperation.

Web site and resources: A statewide LEAVE A LEGACY® Iowa Web site is currently online (www.leavealegacyiowa.org). A ten-minute LEAVE A LEGACY® Iowa video, brochures, and other education and public relations resources are available.

Sponsors and endorsements: LEAVE A LEGACY® Iowa is sponsored by six Iowa Planned Giving Councils and endorsed by the Iowa Council on Foundations and the Iowa chapters of the National Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP).

For more information: LEAVE A LEGACY® Iowa, 8345 University Blvd, Suite F-1, Des Moines, Iowa 50325, phone 515-440-2548 or 877-7-LEGACY, fax 515-883-2630, or e-mail: laliowa@assoc-serv.com