by Jason Howell, CFP®, CPWA®, CSRIC® , President and Family Wealth Adviser at Jason Howell Company
As hard as it is to believe, the end of 2024 is fast approaching! After Labor Day, time moves quickly. It can be hard to juggle calendars to accommodate busy clients who need assistance with year-end tax and estate planning matters.
The Community Foundation helps you and your clients stay on track by sharing important reminders for year-end charitable planning, including these need-to-know items:
Recently, the Community Foundation’s Renée Byng Yancey, Sari Raskin, Jennifer Cochran, Gaby Webster, and Amanda Bomfim visited Boxes of Basics, a local nonprofit that provides schoolchildren in need with clothing. Our team met program manager Sally Crockett and Founder/Executive Director Sarah Tyndall to learn more about their critical work and the inspiration behind it.
Recently, the Executive Director of the Family Counseling Center of Greater Washington (FCCGW), Chun-Shin Taylor, PhD, welcomed Sari Raskin and Amanda Bomfim of the Community Foundation to FCCGW’s office and counseling space. Their conversation was a wonderful teaching moment for Sari and Amanda, as the two learned more about past and present Korean-American culture and the client services FCCGW offers.
Each year, thousands of individual donors passionately support causes close to their hearts through the Community Foundation. Although we may never meet some of those individuals, we know how much of an impact they can make. For instance, we recently received an anonymous gift that pushed our Environment Fund past the $1 million endowment mark. This is the first issue area focused fund to reach this milestone! Given that such funding enables critical opportunities for our region, we are ecstatic over this milestone and the generosity required to reach it.
Mary-Carson Stiff, Executive Director of Wetlands Watch, presented “The Escalating Climate Change Impacts Throughout Virginia: How the Philanthropic Sector is Responding, and What You Can Do To Help” on the afternoon of August 21. Participants gathered over Zoom to learn about the growing climate concerns Virginians face in the years ahead.
Cool Springs Elementary School, a 2024 Healthy Kids grantee, will allow students to use functional fitness and yoga equipment to combine the 5 C's (contributor, collaborator, critical thinker, communicator, creator) with their 5 components of fitness.
The Community Foundation for Northern Virginia has awarded $19,130 to eleven schools in Northern Virginia through its 2024 Healthy Kids Grants. Schools awarded will be implementing new or reinforcing established programs focused on students’ nutrition, physical activity, or better mental health in the 2024-2025 school year. Over the course of fourteen years, the Healthy Kids Grants have awarded over $200,000 in support of healthy lifestyles through increased exercise, balanced nutrition, and constructive mental health practices.
by Lisa A.K. Kirchenbauer, CFP®, CPWA®, RLP®, CeFT®, Founding Partner and Senior Advisor at Omega Wealth Management
Often overlooked, most people focus on the technical documents of legacy planning: will, trust, powers of attorney, etc.… What those documents don’t provide is the “why” or context of wealth and values which can be critical for heirs to have. Over the years, having worked with a number of beneficiaries, without any context or direction, heirs can often go one of two ways...
The legacy of Amy Takayama-Perez is characterized by a commitment to educational opportunity, equal access, and inclusivity. According to her best friend Julie Simmons, Amy wanted to “build a longer table and make room for diverse perspectives at the table,” a goal she pursued for 23 years as the Dean of Admissions at George Mason University. Yet Amy’s time was cut tragically short when she passed away last year following a courageous battle against triple-negative breast cancer.
Nevertheless, Julie and the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia team carry on Amy’s torch through the Amy Takayama-Perez Fund for George Mason University and its scholarship programs. Here, we survey Julie’s philanthropic career with the Community Foundation and why she started a fund in memory of her best friend.
A retired IT professional turned philanthropist, Meera Pillai is an influential figure in Northern Virginia nonprofit circles who has become prominent through board membership and outreach. She left a lucrative IT career to pursue philanthropy, which she felt was her life's purpose. Since then, Meera has served as Board Chair of the Ronald McDonald House Charities of DC, a member of the Board of the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia, and a member of the Board of Educate Fairfax.
As a second-generation Indian-American, Meera appreciates the value of paying it forward, as such opportunities enabled her family’s pursuit and achievement of the American Dream. Indeed, Meera was pivotal in the recent launch of The Scholarship Fund for Northern Virginia, which supports local students pursuing higher education at a Virginia public college.
by Rich Harpe, Principal CPA at Matthews, Carter & Boyce, P.C.
In the digital age, clients often ignore—or even resent—forms and paperwork that aren’t yet online. But don’t let your clients fall into the trap of omitting critical assets from their estate and financial plans. Indeed, clients may forget to mention or outright neglect beneficiary designations on life insurance policies and retirement plan documents.
Questions?
Questions?
