Charitable lead trusts offer powerful benefits to both donors and nonprofits: immediate significant funding to the charity, while ultimately returning the trust’s remainder to the donor or to family members. Importantly, these benefits are available to organizations of any size, and in many cases do not require extensive administrative infrastructure. And yet, lead trusts remain underutilized.
Anecdotal and industry evidence points to several contributing factors: historical constraints on applying lead trusts to endowed funds and capital projects; risk management considerations; and limited familiarity with lead trusts among both fundraisers and donors. In this session, Alasdair Halliday will describe practical approaches he has used to overcome these barriers—expanding the designations that lead trusts can support and increasing the overall volume of these high-impact gifts.
