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When No, Thank You Is the Right Response: Gift Acceptance Policies and Protecting Your Organization

When No, Thank You Is the Right Response: Gift Acceptance Policies and Protecting Your Organization

Sharpe Insights: Conversations With Your Planned Giving Experts
• 48 min
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Some things are too good to be true. On this episode, City of Hope's Adrienne Gibson and Marina Katsnelson discuss the critical ways gift acceptance policies help frame donor conversations, why they can also be called non-acceptance policies, how to work with other charities if a gift isn't right for your nonprofit, and timing your "no" to preserve and strengthen donor relationships.    Panelist info: Host Grant Miller is an award-winning writer and editor for Sharpe Group who works closely with Sharpe clients to create compelling donor interviews for their newsletters. In addition to hosting the podcast, he frequently contributes to the Sharpe blog and Sharpe Insights Newsletter.  Adrienne Gibson serves as a senior executive director of planned giving at City of Hope. As a frontline fundraiser she cultivates, solicits and stewards deferred gifts. Adrienne strives to partner with donors to create personalized consultative plans that demonstrate the donor’s passion and provide creative solutions for real estate, income, and tax-related issues. Adrienne’s career in philanthropy began at Scripps College where she spent 13 years building her fundraising toolkit in annual giving, alumnae relations and planned giving. She then led the philanthropy arm at the YMCA of Greater Whittier for 2.5 years as the executive director of financial development. Marina Katsnelson currently serves as the senior executive director, estate administration at City of Hope. In this role, Marina oversees the estate and trust administration program, which includes managing probate and trust litigation, handling gifts of complex assets and facilitating realized bequests to City of Hope. Prior to joining City of Hope in 2021, Marina managed estate administration at The Nature Conservancy for eight years. During her time with The Nature Conservancy, Marina regularly provided expertise to fundraisers on estate planning questions, oversaw litigation matters, and worked on complex real estate gifts that included devises, conversation easements, and retained life estates. Marina received her law degree from the University of San Diego School of Law. She has significant experience with estate and trust administration matters and has previously given presentations at the National Association of Charitable Gift Planners Conference led a webinar for The NonProfit Times.