Dog Days of Summer:Time for Gift Planning.

Chris Askin, CSPG, CFRE
President and CEO[/caption] I have heard that the “Dog Days of Summer” is a period marked by lethargy and inactivity, but personally and professionally, that description doesn’t apply to me. Unless you are tanning on a beach blanket, how can anyone become lethargic when we can enjoy all of the Artown events, great weather, and long days? I find myself sleeping about an hour less each night and am more motivated to move. At the Community Foundation, we have been busier than ever. We are working to launch the Caregiver Support Initiative; promoting and marketing the needs of our struggling youth; working with donors on their charitable plans; sending out hundreds of scholarship checks, and working with professional advisors and families to receive some significant bequests. The Board and staff also completed nine months of work to develop our first-ever, five-year strategic plan. To me, the Dog Days of summer represents a time of the year that is most productive at work, and because of the gift of longer daylight hours, there is time to spend enjoyable evenings with friends and family. At the Community Foundation, we find that the summer is the best time to meet with people to talk about gift arrangements and the planning they’d like to complete before year end. It is gratifying to sit down for a chat over a glass of iced tea and have the time to explore ideas without having that sense of urgency that comes towards the end of the year. Often it is the conversations we have in the summer that firm up as concrete actions by the fourth quarter.  If you, or a client, has toyed with ideas that you’d like to discuss, please give me a call. It won’t be long before the star Sirius is no longer rising with the sun and the Dog Days will be behind us for another year. If you would like more information about the Community Foundation and our work in the community, or if you would like to join us in our work, please give me a call. Chris Askin, President, and CEO 775-762-1932 *The image above was created for NASA by Space Telescope Science Institute under Contract NAS5-26555, or for ESA by the Hubble European Space Agency Information Centre.