Investors who benefit from inheritance, the sale of a business or another "liquidity event" often want to give some of these resources to charity. But just how much focus do they want to give to this effort? And how important is it to them to create an effective legacy with their assets?
These are the types of questions that Morgan Stanley says its philanthropy management team can tackle as very few rivals can.
"Some firms have a few people – we seem them as snorkelers, while we are scuba divers," said the group's leader, Melanie Schnoll Begun, in an interview.
For the first time last week, Morgan Stanley's philanthropy team worked with the Social Impact Exchange to host a conference in New York. The event drew about 450 guests, such as existing clients and prospects, and highlighted the issue of "scale" as a means for donors and foundations to tackle social problems. (It featured a number of speakers, including one from Bank of America.)
The objective of such events is to bring funders, foundation leaders and nonprofit leaders together and discuss their common goals, collaboration and "how they can best achieve a collective impact," Begun said.
"We are delighted by the interest and had a huge waiting list for this year's event," she explained. "Next year, we hope to accommodate more guests."
Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley plans to host two smaller events in cooperation with SIE in Los Angeles and San Francisco over the next few months.
"We expect some advisors will join us," along with clients, clients' family members and others, she said. "We want to create a venue for advisors to get to know potential clients too – these are such great networking, academic and social opportunities."
