Gina Blohm serves as the chief development officer for the Community Foundation of Greenville.
In her role, Blohm supports individuals with their charitable giving and works alongside professional advisers to help their clients achieve their philanthropic goals. She also works to grow the unrestricted contributions to the Community Foundation and oversees the organization’s marketing and public relations efforts.
Blohm joined the Community Foundation in 2014 as the director of development after working as a development officer at Greenville Health System. She holds a bachelor’s in economics and marketing from The Ohio State University and is a certified fundraising executive.
Interview with Gina Blohm, chief development officer for Community Foundation of Greenville
(Editor’s note: This article is a news story by Upstate Business Journal and does not constitute legal, tax or financial advice by the Community Foundation. Readers should consult their own legal and tax professionals regarding their personal situation.)
Q. Why does Community Foundation partner with financial advisers?
Community Foundation of Greenville has worked alongside professional advisers — financial planners, attorneys and accountants — since it was established nearly 70 years ago. These partnerships are essential because advisers are often the first to know when their clients are ready to focus on philanthropy. CFG’s professional staff partners with advisers to ensure your clients make the most of financial and philanthropic opportunities that come with major life events. Whether expected or out of the blue, these events bring new possibilities as well as potential tax consequences for your clients and their families.
By collaborating with advisers, we can offer personalized giving solutions — like donor-advised funds or legacy gifts — that align with clients’ financial goals and values. Our focus is on the donor, your client, to make giving simple, strategic and personally meaningful. Our role is to serve as a trusted resource, ensuring that charitable intent becomes a lasting community benefit.
Q. What type of information does the Community Foundation provide your clients to help them meet their charitable-giving goals?
We provide technical expertise on how to establish charitable funds, including donor-advised funds, endowment funds, field of interest funds and scholarship funds. We help families and individuals evaluate which charitable giving vehicles and fund options align with their goals.
Our expertise pairs your clients’ charitable interests with the most current tax savings strategies to make their giving simpler and more powerful.
We provide guidance for complex giving situations, such as gifts of appreciated stock, real estate or closely held business interests. Advisers appreciate that we can handle the administrative and compliance aspects while they maintain the client relationship. We help advisers strengthen their client service by offering trustworthy services to facilitate philanthropy that is meaningful to them and has a lasting impact.
Q. What are some common mistakes when it comes to charitable giving?
Timing can be very important. The tax and charitable impact can differ dramatically depending on whether you donate before or after a liquidity event.
For example, if you give before the liquidity event, there can be many advantages. Those include avoiding capital gains tax, receiving a deduction for fair market value and maximizing your giving power.
When you contribute appreciated assets to a (donor-advised fund) before selling, the DAF can then sell them tax-free. Then you receive a charitable deduction based on the current value of the asset and not your cost basis. Because you avoided capital gains, more of your wealth goes to charity rather than taxes.
Working with both a financial adviser and a community foundation ensures that giving is purposeful, compliant and impactful.
We also see donors underestimate the value of unrestricted giving. Unrestricted gifts allow CFG to respond quickly to evolving community needs — something restricted gifts can’t always do. We saw the value of unrestricted gifts when CFG was able to respond quickly to community needs due to the COVID pandemic and recently in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
Q. Have you noticed any recent trends with charitable giving?
We’ve seen an increase in gifts of noncash assets, like appreciated stock gifts, which reflects donors’ sophistication.
Here’s an example: You bought $10,000 worth of stock several years ago that’s now worth $50,000. If you were to sell the stock and then donate the cash, here’s what happens:
- You owe capital gains tax on the $40,000 in appreciation.
- If your combined federal and state rate is around 20%, that’s $8,000 in taxes
- You’d only have about $42,000 left to donate.
Conversely, if you were to donate the stock directly to a charity or donor-advised fund:
- You avoid paying capital gains tax entirely on that $40,000 of growth
- The charity receives the full $50,000 value of the gift
- You can claim a charitable deduction for the fair market value of $50,000 if you itemize deductions
We’re also seeing more interest in impact investing. Impact investing is a strategy where donors invest money not only to earn a financial return, but also to create a positive social or environmental impact. Donors want their investments to align with their values, and over the last five years, we have had donors do this successfully.
Q. Which charitable giving vehicles/strategies would you recommend based on a person’s financial and philanthropic goals?
CFG offers a full range of giving vehicles:
- Donor-advised funds: For those who want an easy, flexible way to give now and recommend grants over time.
- Endowment funds: Ideal for donors who want their giving to have a perpetual impact; CFG manages these to grow over time.
- Designated or scholarship funds: For donors passionate about supporting a specific nonprofit or educational purpose.
- Legacy or planned gifts: For those wanting to leave a lasting mark through bequests, retirement plan assets or life insurance.
These options allow us to tailor giving to fit a donor’s financial picture, tax planning, and philanthropic goals — whether that’s immediate action or long-term change.
Benefit of donor-advised funds
The benefits of setting up donor-advised funds at a community foundation, according to Gina Blohm, chief development officer for the Community Foundation of Greenville:
Tax advantages
- Immediate tax deduction: Donors can take a charitable tax deduction in the year they contribute to the DAF, even if grants to charities are made in subsequent years.
- Avoid capital gains tax: Donating appreciated assets, like stocks or real estate, avoids paying capital gains taxes on those assets.
- Bunching: A donor can “bunch” multiple years of charitable giving into one tax year to maximize deductions.
Simplify giving
- Receive one tax receipt for the full value you contribute to your donor-advised fund: Instead of managing receipts from multiple charities throughout the year, donors can give once to their donor-advised funds and direct grants at a time that is convenient for them.
- Ease of administration: The community foundation handles record-keeping, compliance, and disbursement records.
Grow your charitable impact
- Investment growth: Funds in the account can be invested tax-free, allowing potential growth before being granted out to charities.
- Strategic giving: Donors can plan their philanthropy over time, supporting causes during key moments or in response to urgent needs.
Legacy planning
- Engaging family members: Donors can involve children and grandchildren in recommending grants that align with their family values.
- Successor advisers: You can name future generations to continue the family’s charitable legacy.
- Legacy giving: Remaining funds after a donor’s lifetime can continue to support designated charities or be managed by successor advisers.
Local impact
- While donors can make grant recommendations to any qualified charity in the U.S., the fee income earned by the community foundation stays local and is reinvested in the community it serves.
- Local expertise: The professional staff has a deep understanding of community needs, can provide reliable and financial information about local nonprofits, and serve as a connector.
