LEGACIES

Gone are the days when the majority of people want to golf through their retirement years. They have too much to offer the world, there’s a new sense of responsibility, and maybe most important is the realization that money in and of itself doesn’t achieve significance . . . it’s how one spends it that can truly achieve significant results.

There are more people with expendable wealth than ever before. This coupled with the trend to end global poverty and meet the needs caused by HIV/Aids is causing a lot of people to set up foundations. People see Bill Gates doing it, and although they might have few less zeros attached to the end of their bank statement, they feel there is enough there to make a difference.

The mindset of making a significant difference coupled with the needs in the world today has the potential to lead to some exciting results. So when foundations are set up . . . what is next?

1. Should the funds go to a charitable organization to be spent through them?
- Often third party spending doesn’t result in enough personal significance for the founder

2. Should the foundation leaders look for projects themselves?
- This takes an incredible amount of time . . . and building an oil and gas company or being a real estate developer is very different than finding legitimate projects to support throughout the world

3. Are the funds being spent conscientiously?
- In Canada, there are a lot of laws and guidelines set up to dictate how the funds can be spent. The Ant-Terrorism Legislation alone and the implications of what can happen if due diligence isn’t followed should make foundations set up proper procedures
- Not to mention putting money towards sustainable development rather than doing harm to a project/community/region

4. Are there results to show for it?
- Foundations are set up by businessmen who are always looking for results on investments – and no different will be the expectation of funds being spent on international development

And the questions mount. Soon, the operations of keeping a foundation is just as daunting as running a business full-time. There are consultants, like myself, who can assist these foundations in setting things up, and I hope to see a growing number of freelance project managers who can operate their projects at a professional level.