HAWAII GIFT PLANNING COUNCIL
PRESIDENT’S STATE OF THE COUNCIL REPORT ON 2017
Curtis K. Saiki, President
January 12, 2018
It has been an honor to serve as Board President of the Hawaii Gift Planning Council (HGPC) and to
work side by side with a tremendously talented and dedicated team of leaders. We had a rigorous
and effective year—working to implement the strategic plan developed under our immediate past
President’s leadership, Anne Marie Rizzo. I may be the President in title, but Anne Marie is still the
heart and soul of the organization. Thank you, Anne Marie, for your encouragement and positivity!
Our primary focus was three-fold: (i) to enhance our education program offerings; (ii) strengthen our
Board; and (iii) identify and grow the Council’s value to our membership with the hope of increasing
membership. The following recaps our work together on these endeavors.
Year in Review
Financials: We finished the year with $5,700 in net revenue as compared to our projection of $325.
That’s 17x better than what we projected thanks to well attended educational programs and
sponsorships. Our balance improved from $20,000 to $25,000. Thank you, Patti Look, for your steady
hand and financial expertise.
Board Strength: Our board remains strong at 10 dedicated members. We held 3 well-attended,
Board meetings and several more in furtherance of educational event planning. And we virtually met
almost every day by e-mail, or so it seems! This was truly an invested team of leaders. Ellen Kazama,
you are a recording rock! Thank you for keeping us on track with your minutes and meeting agendas.
Susan Lampe, can’t say enough about your insight and wisdom on outreach and marketing. Mike
Coppes, you always encourage us to take a global view of what we do as an organization and provide
the much appreciated support of the UH Foundation. Janice Knapp, you provide a historical
perspective on the organization that helps to shape our future work. Thank you all for your
awesomeness!
Membership: HGPC is one of 97 councils across the U.S., considered part of the National Association
of Charitable Gift Planners. Our local membership ranges between 30 and 38 at any given time. This
appears to be a small number, yet, when measured against other councils with similar populations,
we are right there. Susan Lampe, our Membership Committee Chair, has worked with us to lay out
plans to grow our membership over the coming years, and to develop partnerships with allied
professional organizations to advance the profession of charitable gift planning in the state of Hawaii.
Mahalo for your leadership, Susan!
Member Value & Awareness: Communications Committee Chair, Lara Siu, continues to lead us as we
evolve our website: http://hawaiigiftplanning.org. This site offers tremendous resources to members
and to the public, connects to our national organization, and most importantly, provides easy access,
registration and payment for educational programs. Lara, thank you so much!
Educational Offerings: The Education Committee, under the leadership of Kristi Bates, held or cohosted
3 educational offerings and a full-day Annual Conference. HGPC also offered CFRE credits for
each program. More than 200 fundraising and allied professionals attended one or more of these
programs and the Annual Conference featuring Jay Frost drew 83 professionals. With two years of
success in hosting a “big time” event and offering programs that our members are interested in
learning about, it’s fair to say we’ve enhanced HGPC’s reputation of providing exceptional educational
programs. Kyle Karioka, all of us appreciate your willingness to help in any way, from speaking on a
HGPC panel at NPD to bringing goodies for us at meetings. Keep the sweet treats coming!
National Re-branding: The Partnership for Philanthropic Planning went through a re-branding
process in 2016, using feedback from 90 of the 97 councils. The organization is called the National
Association of Charitable Gift Planners. In 2017, we refreshed our “brand” to reflect the national
organization on our website and collateral, but retained our name – Hawaii Gift Planning Council.
Conclusion: Thanks to the efforts of the board, HGPC enjoyed a significant increase in membership!
We had 13 new members in 2017, which represented an 33% increase from 2016. While we
should’ve ended the year with 43 members, we had some expirations that were not renewed during
the year which brought us down to 37. In hindsight, it was a great year. I can’t thank everyone
enough for their contribution to make this possible. Looking forward to a prosperous and positive
2018!
HGPC MISSION:
Creating Opportunities To Change Hawai`i & The World Through Charitable Giving
Insights & Resources @ http://hawaiigiftplanning.org