Intentional Giving Is More Than Writing A Check

What a nonprofit strategist taught us about the assets no brokerage account can hold.

In conversation with Angela Burgess, Nonprofit Strategist.

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I wrote a check the morning after big charity dinner last year.

It felt good, but also incomplete.

I gave reactively, as many of us do.

I didn’t have a plan, a structure, or someone asking me if the check was the highest and best use of what I had to offer.

That gap between intention and impact bothered me.

I spend my professional life building structure and meaning for our client’s financial lives.

Yet, when it comes to the way most of us engage with causes we care about, we wing it.

According to Fidelity Charitable, 79% of investors want their advisors to understand their philanthropic goals, but very few feel those conversations are happening.

That disconnect led me to Angela Burgess.

Angela spent years in finance before hopping to the other side.

She runs Broad Oaks Consulting, helping nonprofits raise money with confidence.

Angela understands both worlds.

When we sat down, I expected a conversation about donor-advised funds and tax-efficient giving strategies.

Instead, she reframed the entire concept of what it means to give.

“I have two main goals. The first is to change the way people think about nonprofits. The second is to inspire people to use what makes them uniquely human to support them.”

That second part stopped my note-taking.

What makes us uniquely human. Not what’s in our brokerage accounts.

Beyond the Brokerage Account

Angela’s premise is simple but easy to miss; money is just one tool in a much larger toolbox.

When we limit our giving to only monetary gifts, we let our most powerful assets idle away.

“Creating change in your community doesn’t just rely on your dollars,” she explained. “It does, but we have so much more to give.”

In my work structuring portfolios, I think a lot about roles. Every dollar is assigned a job and a rule to follow. One of those jobs is diversification, a role that’s uncorrelated with typical stocks and bonds.

Angela’s insight extends this principle beyond the portfolio.

Intentional philanthropy is a form of diversification for your legacy.

Your financial accounts reflect only one dimension of your true wealth. Your expertise, your relationships, your influence, and your leadership reflect all the others.

If you only “invest” through your brokerage account, you’re concentrated in a single asset class of impact.

From our conversation, four distinct dimensions of this broader wealth emerged. None require a brokerage account.

1. Your Expertise Has More Value Than You Think

Roughly 92% of nonprofits operate on less than $1 million a year.

Lean teams, stretched budgets, no room for the back-end infrastructure that delivers meaningful impact.

While front-line programs get attention, it’s the systems behind them that determine whether the work scales or stalls.

This is where your professional skills become meaningful. Not the generic “volunteer hour”. Your actual expertise. The things you’ve spent a career doing.

“Think about a professional project you’ve completed in the past and go talk to a nonprofit,” Angela suggested.

If you’ve built financial models, cleaned up messy operations, written clear job descriptions, or designed systems that made a business run better, those skills are exactly what most nonprofits need and can’t afford.

While professional expertise can provide high-impact infrastructure support, its value is qualitative and should be viewed as a complement to, not a replacement for, a structured financial plan.

2. Who You Know Is an Asset You Can Share

What struck me most about Angela’s approach was her emphasis on relationships. Too often, nonprofits and donors exist in separate orbits.

Money flows one direction, gratitude flows back, but few build together.

Angela said it best: “All of these methods start with having a conversation and building a relationship with the nonprofit.”

She encourages supporters to ask a simple question: “Who do you need to connect with to really move the needle?”

Maybe you know someone who could offer pro bono legal services.

Maybe you have a connection to a private foundation whose mission aligns.

A single warm introduction, made with intention, can unlock resources that no single donation could.

The key is thinking about your network as something you can put to work on behalf of a cause, not just a collection of contact cards.

3. Attention Is a Currency

You don’t need a large social media following. You need a circle of people who trust you.

Angela shared a personal example. She hosted 40 friends in her home for one of her nonprofit clients, a gathering focused on education. Five people offered to host similar events. Two asked what they could do with $100,000.

That’s the ripple effect of lending your voice to something you believe in.

It doesn’t require a platform. A wine-and-cheese night for 10 people, an email forwarded to five friends, a single social media post that tells the story of an organization’s work.

These small acts of attention create social proof, and social proof opens doors that money alone cannot.

4. The Deepest Commitment: Your Governance

Board service is the deepest form of giving. It’s where you move from supporter to steward, providing the oversight and strategic thinking that shapes an organization’s future.

The need is real. A Stanford survey found that 68% of nonprofit board members believe their board has, at most, a moderate understanding of their own organization’s strategy. That’s a governance gap with consequences.

But Angela offered an important nuance that too many people miss.

Board service should not be a one-way street. “We should be getting something out of it,” she said. “Whether it’s becoming a better leader, becoming a connector, or gaining presentation skills.”

Before you commit, do the same due diligence you’d apply to any serious decision.

Ask for the board member expectation agreement. Find out if there’s a training program. A well-run board is a chance for mutual growth, not just another obligation on your calendar.

Intentional Giving Starts with Structure

Here’s what this conversation reinforced for me.

We apply discipline to building wealth. We apply systems to running businesses.

But when it comes to giving, most of us operate on impulse and emotion.

We write checks after charity dinners. We say yes to board seats without doing homework. We give money when what’s actually needed is our time, our network, or our voice.

At Silveria Wealth Group, we think of the Reserves role as the foundation that creates emotional stability. When your near-term needs are structurally secure, you gain the clarity to make longer-term decisions without anxiety.

Philanthropy benefits from the same principle. When your financial structure is sound, giving becomes an act of intention rather than obligation or guilt.

And when you think of your giving as the diversification of your legacy beyond a brokerage statement, you start to see the full picture of what your wealth can accomplish.

As of 2024, Cerulli Associates projects an $124 trillion wealth transfer over the next two decades.

That’s an unprecedented opportunity to build purposeful plans at scale. But it requires, as Angela says, that “we just care a tiny bit more.”

And caring more starts with a simple, courageous act: picking up the phone and treating a nonprofit leader like a human and potential partner.

Angela sat in front of a room of financial advisors. When she suggested they call an executive director, they all tensed up.

“We need to move past the idea that we’re intruding on people and embrace the idea that we’re looking to get to know them.”

A Few Questions Worth Sitting With

Consider the organizations you support.

• Is your giving planned and intentional, or reactive?

• What professional skills could you offer for a short-term, high-impact project?

• Who are three people you could introduce to a cause you believe in?

• Is board service something you’ve explored with an organization that matters to you?

Angela’s final point left the biggest impression on me. Speaking about the cumulative effect of this kind of engagement.

“When you multiply those ripples, they become waves. And those waves are what ultimately drive change.”

Building a purposeful financial future means thinking about all the wealth you hold, not just the financial kind.

It means seeing your expertise, your relationships, and your voice as assets that deserve the same intentionality you bring to everything else that matters.

The return isn’t measured in dollars. It’s measured in the change you help create.

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About Angela Burgess:

Angela Burgess is a nonprofit strategist who helps organizations build sustainable funding models. With a background in wealth management, she brings a business-minded approach to the philanthropic sector, helping nonprofits tell their story and build lasting relationships with supporters.

A Note on Our Services

Philanthropic planning and giving strategy are components of Silveria Wealth Group’s Wealth Advisory service, which is offered as an incremental engagement beyond our standalone Investment Management service. Investment Management clients who are interested in integrating philanthropic planning into their broader financial picture should inquire about our Wealth Advisory offering.

Conflict of Interest Disclosure

Silveria Wealth Group encourages intentional giving as part of a purposeful financial life. Readers should be aware that when SWG recommends or facilitates the deployment of client financial assets to charitable causes, this creates a conflict of interest: charitable contributions reduce a client’s investable assets under management (AUM), which in turn reduces the advisory fees paid to SWG. We believe transparency about this conflict is essential. Our fiduciary obligation is to act in our clients’ best interests, and we believe that a well-structured giving plan, when appropriate to a client’s overall financial picture, serves that obligation.

Important Disclosure Information

Silveria Wealth Group, LLC (“SWG”) is a registered investment adviser in the State of Idaho. Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training.

The content of this article is provided for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as personalized investment, legal, or tax advice.

No strategy or investment style can guarantee a profit or protect against loss. Investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principal.

Please consult with a qualified financial professional, CPA, or attorney regarding your specific situation before implementing any strategies discussed here.