Nonprofit Will Offer Free Advisory Services to Higher Education Donors; Help Structure Gifts to Maximize Impact on Academic Rigor and Excellence

WASHINGTON, Nov. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Fund for Academic Renewal (FAR), an innovative initiative of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, today announced that it will offer programmatic and legal advisory services at no cost to help donors structure major gifts to colleges and universities. The organization's leadership team, which includes former university faculty and administrators, will provide support to donors at every stage of the gift-making process, from initial planning and structuring gift agreements, to advising donors about how to measure the impact of their giving.

The most recent U.S. Trust Study of High Net Worth Philanthropy found that nearly all wealthy donors (94%) reported that they would like to be more knowledgeable about at least one aspect of charitable giving. FAR addresses this need by educating donors on common pitfalls to avoid and best practices to adopt, and by assisting donors in articulating their philanthropic objectives while ensuring those objectives are clearly articulated in a gift agreement. Because FAR is funded by a generous grant from the Diana Davis Spencer Foundation, it is able to provide advisory services to both large and small donors for free.

"Although colleges and universities are a top giving priority for many donors, many donors worry that their generous gifts are not achieving the enduring impact they intend," says Jacqueline Pfeffer Merrill, Ph.D., executive director of the Fund for Academic Renewal. "We are grateful to our benefactor for allowing our team of philanthropic and higher ed experts to support a donor-first approach that prioritizes honoring donor intent."

In addition to assisting donors in structuring their gifts, FAR can also serve as an intermediary between donors with like-minded interests who would like to maximize the impact of their giving by pooling their funds to serve a specific purpose or to support a particular college or university.

"FAR's free services enabled us to maximize our gift's impact to George Mason University by ensuring that 100% of the gift went to the institution, while safeguarding the intent of our gift," says Peter J. Wallison, the Arthur F. Burns Fellow in Financial Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute and a donor to the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University. "FAR's exclusive focus on giving to colleges and universities makes it stand out among other donor advisors in the wealth management and philanthropy space as the go-to resource for higher ed giving."

FAR's advisory team includes prominent higher education reformers and philanthropy experts who offer valuable insights. Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP serves as the legal advisor to FAR. The law firm has deep expertise in providing services to nonprofit organizations and in advising individual, foundation, and corporate clients on charitable giving matters.

About the Fund for Academic Renewal
The Fund for Academic Renewal fosters academic excellence by helping donors maximize the impact of their gifts to colleges and universities. We serve as a trusted advisor to donors, helping them to articulate goals, to match their philanthropic interests with academic programs, and to navigate the giving process. A program of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, the Fund provides free programmatic and legal advisory services to individual donors and family offices.

SOURCE Fund for Academic Renewal