Philanthropy Advising

As philanthropy consultants, we advise families, foundations, and corporations on their charitable giving in order to facilitate the greatest impact.

We work with you to accomplish three goals:

1) Gain Clarity

Your giving is unique to you. No one else is poised to have the same scope of influence or to build the same relationships. Your giving can reflect your unique passions and values—matching the needs in your community and the world around you. We can help you create a customized Giving Dream Plan to define your passion areas, giving values, and how you can impact the world through your giving.

2) Invest Strategically

Once you’ve landed your Giving Dream Plan, we explore top organizations that best line up with your causes and values. We provide research and insight on potential non-profits, and help you create a customized Giving Portfolio of strategic investments that are unique to you.

3) Maximize Value

You’ll want to know how your donation was utilized—and what kind of difference it made. We provide ongoing support and reporting on impact that has happened through your charitable investments. We reassess the Giving Portfolio as needed to determine future investments. At the end of the day, you’ll know that your giving matters.

Levels of Service

We offer two options to meet your individual or corporate giving needs:

Ready to begin a conversation?

Form Your Giving Dream Plan

LiveGive facilitates a meaningful, engaging conversation that helps you explore the causes, people groups, and parts of the world that matter to you. Together, we’ll define your:

Giving Mission Statement

We’ll help you develop a concise, focused statement that defines the vision and goals of your long-term giving—and the legacy you want to leave for future generations.

Giving Values

Research shows that for some donors, the values behind the giving are even more important than the specific causes or passion areas they support. We spend time listening to you, helping you fine-tune your unique list of top values. Examples include sustainability, innovation, faith, leadership, diversity, accessibility, accountability, and more.

Key Causes or Passion Areas

Through questions and dialogue, we help you define the causes, people groups, or parts of the world that matter most to you and align deeply with your organization.

Significant Institutions & Relationships

We explore the history of your giving thus far to identify patterns that may inform your future giving. Let’s look at the places you’ve been, institutions you’ve engaged with, and people who’ve impacted you to influence your giving plan moving forward.

Top Areas for Giving

Vetting Organizations

LiveGive ensures that your money goes to organizations that are reliable, honest, and effective. While many organizations tout low operating costs as a sign of their effectiveness, we believe it is only one indicator—and not always the best one. We are looking for organizations that are seeing results and adding value to maximize your donation. These are the five steps we take in vetting an organization:

1) Financial Research

We provide a thorough financial review of organizations to be sure they fit the standards that matter to you. We look for any decrease in revenue or gaps in income that could flag an issue. We explore how an organization’s money is used relative to their mission.

2) Impact Assessment

We look at an organization’s impact over recent years to see how it aligns with your values. We examine their goals and strategic plans to assess whether they have the infrastructure to accomplish those goals.

3) Recommendations

We look for trusted third parties who have worked with the organization directly and who can give perspective on its effectiveness.

4)  Personal Observation

We connect directly with the organization, in person whenever possible, to see their effectiveness for ourselves and to build a positive relationship.

5) Cultural Context

We assess how an organization’s effectiveness fits into the culture and context of the work they are doing. Cross-cultural donations must take into account the unique, sometimes-sensitive nuances necessary for setting realistic expectations.