André Donikian to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award

Leader, mentor, teacher, expert, innovator, pioneer, and icon are words used to describe Pentera Founder André R. Donikian, who will be presented a Lifetime Achievement Award September 16 by the Philanthropic Planning Group of Greater New York (PPGGNY).

"We are bestowing this honor out of our gratitude for what André has done for PPGGNY, for its members, and beyond," says PPGGNY President Meryl R. Cosentino, senior director of gift planning at Stony Brook University. "André has trained so many of us in the field, and we owe a lot to him. PPGGNY wouldn't exist if it weren't for André's groundbreaking work in our industry. To refer to him as a pioneer is an understatement.

"We are especially grateful to André because now we have Claudine," Cosentino says of Pentera President and CEO Claudine A. Donikian, who serves on the PPGGNY board and chairs the communications and marketing committee. "She and Pentera are really instrumental in PPGGNY and in bringing us into the twenty-first century."

One of the Early and All-Time Leaders in the Field
While still a law student in the late 1960s, André was working part-time under the guidance of his mentor Richard W. Coughlin, and they began conducting training sessions for professionals in the field. As a young attorney, André was among the first to realize the implications of the Tax Reform Act of 1969 and continued developing gift planning materials and training programs that became the template and benchmark for promoting and educating about planned giving nationwide.

One of André's most significant professional achievements was founding Pentera. Inc. - a company known for its high-quality and innovative marketing resources - which he started in 1975 and entrusted to Claudine in the mid-2000s to run and to bring into the digital age. The gifts stimulated by the marketing ideas in Pentera's materials would no doubt total in the billions of dollars.

André's early influence is described by longtime PPGGNY member Ron Brown, who is planned giving's leading historian in addition to his current role as senior philanthropic advisor at Columbia University.

"There is no question that André was one of a handful of people responsible for the existence of our professional organization (the Partnership for Philanthropic Planning, formerly known as the National Committee on Planned Giving, or NCPG)," Brown says. "What I would point to is the pilot training program that the Lilly Endowment launched for colleges in Indiana. André took the lead to train those schools. The program was so successful in the eyes of Charles Johnson (then the Lilly Endowment vice president for development) that he decided to do a lot more for all sorts of charities, including NCPG. If it hadn't been for André launching the successful program in Indiana, Lilly may have never decided to launch the national organization - and it might never have gotten started, as Lilly funded the first five years of it. The relationship between André and Charles Johnson of Lilly was crucial for our field, and André deserves a lot of credit for that."

Jon Heintzelman, who has directed major and planned gift programs for Northwestern University and Loyola University Chicago, says that "André Donikian clearly is one of the early and all-time leaders in the field."

The First to Discuss Advantages of Gifts Using Retirement Plans
Much emphasis in planned giving is now on gifts involving retirement funds, but André was the very first to discuss the tax cost of passing retirement funds to heirs and the advantages of making charitable gifts with them. He also called attention to the advantages of contributing distributions of company stock from retirement funds.

Ron Brown tells how André has helped him and so many other planned giving professionals think more creatively.

"One of the things that struck me most about André was one of the first presentations of his I heard," Brown says. "He was talking about an accepted bit of wisdom: giving appreciated stock to charity; everyone knew about all the advantages. But he said, ‘You know, because of the step-up in basis, people should hold onto it and give it to their kids and give something else to charity (such as an IRA or other type of income in respect of a decedent).'

"It helped me rethink my preconceived notions. André is a genius at helping people spell out what their assumptions are and helping them think, ‘Is this valid? Or is there another way that we should be thinking about this?'"

Fellow planned giving guru and longtime friend Frank Minton says of André, "Even more important than his creative planning ideas is his spirit. He is a person with huge accomplishments without a huge ego. He is renowned for his generosity, his lavish entertaining of his friends, and his sense of humor. He is truly a ‘mensch,' a human being in the fullest sense of the word, and it is a blessing to count him as a friend."

André also is highly respected in the planned giving industry for mentoring other planned giving professionals and for answering gift planning questions - usually within 24 hours of receiving a call, e-mail, or online question.

"He always has time to mentor a younger member, and he gets excited when he gets a chance to mentor," says Alexandra P. Brovey, an emeritus president of PPGGNY and senior director of gift planning at the North Shore-LIJ Health System Foundation. "André will always give you time to answer your questions, even the stupid ones. He doesn't have to, but he does."

One of the Most Effective Presenters on Planned Giving in the Country
Don Kent, who does financial planning with high-net-worth families for Bernstein Private Wealth Management and was on the board of NCPG with André while directing the planned giving program for the Jewish Federations of North America, lauds André for his teaching ability and presentation style.

"At conferences I would attend any and all of his sessions that I could and I was never quiet in his sessions - and he actually liked it," says Kent. "He likes being challenged, and that means he really knows what he is talking about. He is very good at telling stories that make planned giving come to life. It's clear that he is describing real-life situations, and that makes these technical and dry topics interesting.

"There are many experts in the field and many attorney experts in the field, but André is one of the most innovative and thoughtful - and one of the most entertaining. It's a rarity to have such substance with the kind of humility he exhibits."

Jon Heintzelman described André as "one of the most effective presenters on planned giving in the country." Margaret Holman, a planned giving consultant who has worked in development for several institutions and is one of three president emeriti of PPGGNY on the awards selection committee, likes to tell a story about one of André's presentations for PPGGNY.

"Several years ago André was a speaker for us at a small west side hotel, and the staff decided to change the meeting room from a regular conference room to the shuttered bar," Holman recalls. "All the participants sat at bar tables, and André hopped up on a bar stool and regaled the group with several jokes to lead off, then got into the serious presentation. Needless to say it was the most relaxed presentation for both André and the participants - and to no one's surprise, received the highest evaluations."

The PPGGNY Lifetime Achievement Award
The September 16 awards luncheon to honor André is at the 3 West Club in New York City. The award includes a lifetime membership in the organization. Attorney Jonathan G. Tidd was the first honoree in 2013. This is only the second time PPGGNY has bestowed the achievement award, said PPGGNY past president Vikki Jones, planned giving officer at Weill Cornell Medical College who was on the awards selection committee.

"A few years ago we thought about honoring people who helped us make planned giving what it is today," she says. "André's leadership and dedication to our field make him an obvious selection."

Selection committee member Margaret Holman calls André "one of the premier thought partners and leaders in the gift planning profession." Committee member John Bacon, director of planned giving for the New York Public Library, says that "André's legacy and reputation are certainly award-worthy."

See www.ppggny.org for more about the event.