From One Red Paper Clip…

Recently, I heard a story on public radio about a young Canadian man, named Kevin McDonald. Kevin sat at his desk in July, 2005 with no money, and wondered how he might ever be able to afford a home for his wife. He looked on his desk which was bare, save for one red paper clip.

Kevin determined that he would trade his red paper clip online and see what happened. He went on Craig's List, and traded his red paper clip for a pen that had a fish on it. Fourteen trades later he had traded an Alice Cooper rock CD for a "snow globe" with a likeness of the rock band "Kiss" and put that back on the block.

He soon discovered that TV actor and producer Corbin Bernsen was a rabid snow globe collector who offered to trade a speaking part in an upcoming movie project for Kevin's globe. Kevin then placed that on his internet blog which paid big dividends.

So impressed was a little town in Canada, that it offered Kevin a home on Main Street, if they could use his name and story. The town would in turn build the largest red paper clip in the world for tourists to "come and see." Deal done! In a span of one year, Kevin turned a single red paper clip into a three-bedroom home for his wife and children!

You may rightly ask, "What does this story have to do with charitable giving?" Well, with a little luck and careful planning and management, a charitable gift thoughtfully made and managed can be enlarged many times over, just like Kevin's paperclip.

A number of years ago, a Lee County resident left a small strip shopping center on a tiny piece of land to the Community Foundation for specified charitable purposes. The Community Foundation sold the shopping center for $2.5 million to create a fund in the resident's name.

Through prudent investment and specific and careful giving, the Community Foundation has given more than $4 million from that fund, creating a number of local vibrant and well-known charitable organizations, as well as providing scholarships to students and grants to schools, the Southwest Florida Children's' Hospital, churches, and local service organizations such as The Salvation Army, Harry Chapin Food Bank, and Hurricane Charlie disaster relief. The fund still remains at nearly $3 million.

Another example is of two benefactors of the Community Foundation created endowed scholarship funds that, through a state program, doubles the amount of scholarship money available for underprivileged and at-risk students who meet certain standards. Not only has the Foundation been able to double the amount of scholarships that are granted each year but through investment management, the fund continues to increase year after year.

Now this isn't precisely the "One Red Paper Clip Story," which involved some prudent investing and a lot of luck, but it is an example of prudent charitable giving and prudent investment of the gift multiplying the impact of the gifts in perpetuity.

For more information on how you can turn a red paper clip into a home- or a goose into a golden gift egg contact the Southwest Florida Community Foundation at (239) 274-5900. ¦

John W. Sheppard, a long-time member of the board of trustees of the Southwest Florida Community Foundation, is a retired estate planning attorney and author of several books on the subject of estate planning and planned giving. He can be reached through the Foundation office.