Thou Shalt Not …

6. Thou shalt not allow the tail to wag the dog.
Care should be taken to avoid outside influences from controlling the donor’s choices or from controlling the recommendations for a planned gift. To illustrate, a donor who establishes a charitable remainder trust in favor of your charitable organization might feel that the gift is made to benefit the nonprofit financially (albeit down the road as a remainder beneficiary), therefore the organization should pay the legal fees to establish it. The charitable organization, however, should not pay the fees for the donor’s trust documents, legal fees or fees for other professional advice. Payment of a donor’s fees by a nonprofit can risk the donor’s charitable deduction.