Charitable Giving

On Behalf of | Dec 12, 2018 | Charitable Giving |

As a student, I spent 6 weeks living in a Paris home in an immersion experience to learn French. There were several other students there too. One of them was a young woman from Iran who was related to the former Shah of Iran. I always wondered what happened to her after the fall of the monarchy. But one story she told us stayed with me all of the years since I met her. She recognized the poverty in her country at the time, and the contrast of her very great wealth and good fortune to the misfortunes of others. Apparently, there was no organized way of charitable giving at the time. So she used to go out into the streets from time to time with a wad of money, and just give it away to people living on the streets of Tehran. Well meaning but not very efficient.

Fast forward to my marriage, child, career, and good fortune. I too have recognized the needs of others over the years, and and in an equally random fashion as my Iranian friend: “Feel for others; open the check book, give to the charity.” It eventually got out of hand.

Now, I have found an interesting and organized way, to give through my practice, and will be describing that in my newsletters or blog in the near future.

A first initiative is to sponsor an event on-Cape with Flower Angels, a not-for-profit volunteer organization that creates beautiful flower arrangements and delivers them to people in Assisted Living Facilities and Skilled Nursing Facilities. All of the materials are donated. We will be at the Atria Assisted Living Facility in Falmouth on Friday December 7, 2018 giving their Jewish residents Chanukah flowers. Can’t wait! So excited!

Recently, I couldn’t resist the Giraffe Conservation Foundation, an NGO in Africa sponsored through a number of entities including a Zoo in Ohio. This foundation has helped re-locate giraffes to safe places and studied them and their habitat needs. I and fallen in love with giraffes as a result of seeing them this summer in the wild in Kenya. Statistics are grim for them. Due to poaching and loss of habitat 11 giraffes are murdered every day. So, my husband and I adopted a wild Giraffe named Kaoko, for a year, with a beautiful face and long eyelashes.

Some of my clients are really very organized about their charities and have come to Lannik Law to assist them with including charities in their estate planning. We at Lannik Law always get very excited to learn about our clients’ charities and love to help plan to implement their charitable dreams. If you have charitable intent and interests, please let us know!