A Fledgling National Association Earns its Wings Founded in 1988, and known since 2016 as the National Association of Charitable Gift Planners, the National Committee on Planned Giving (NCPG) came of age as an effective professional association in 1990-1991, when…
Category: Topics
Introduction to Charitable Gift Planning in America
Charitable Gift Planning in Early America When did American gift planning begin? Written records are basic materials for historians. Unfortunately, no records of charitable giving by Native American populations before European settlement have survived, and there is little information about the…
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Wealth in America: its Concentration, and the Great Transfer
Research by John J. Havens and Paul G. Schervish at Boston College published in 1999 asserted there would be an immense surge of at least $41 trillion and as much as $136 trillion in wealth transfers over the next 50…
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Class-Action Lawsuit Results in New Federal Protections
A class-action lawsuit filed in Texas that went to the U.S. Supreme Court threatened to assess triple damages (original gift amount plus twice that amount) against every nonprofit that followed the ACGA maximum payment rate schedule. Terry Simmons, an attorney…
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Gift-PL Exploits a New Technology: E-mail
In 1993, Craig Wruck started an open email discussion site (list-serve) entitled Gift-PL at the University of Minnesota. Within a few months the number of subscribers grew to 500. In 1995 Wruck transferred Gift-PL to NCPG. Donald Kent, chair of…
National Media Coverage of Charitable Gift Planning
The field of charitable gift planning began to receive regular national media coverage when The Chronicle of Philanthropy began in 1988, with reporters dedicated to exploring breaking news about gift planning. The monthly newsletter Planned Giving Today was created by…
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Early Accomplishments of NCPG/NACGP
NCPG Board members and volunteers accomplished quite a lot in its early years, with support from a part-time staff. Here are a few highlights, ending around the year 2000 in order to keep this history to a manageable length. In…
Founding of a National Association for Planned Giving
Charles Johnson of the Lilly Endowment, Michael Boland of Harvard Business School, and Dick Wilson of NSFRE (all pictured above)1 became the leading advocates for a national organization with a decentralized structure: a federation of local and regional gift planning…
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The Tax Reform Act of 1986 Re-Opens the Window for Abuses
The Tax Reform Act of 1986 enacted fundamental changes that made a powerful impact on charitable giving. Capital gains tax rates were increased to the same rates as income taxes. This was a reform-minded provision that was perceived as closing…
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Accelerating Interest in the 1980s
Economic growth in the 1980s created new wealth. A national Round Table on Deferred Giving sponsored by the Northwest Area Foundation in 1982 underscored the opportunities for increasing gifts through bequests, trusts, and annuities, the need for raising standards for…
Gift Planning History 
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