Well-grounded
Inspired
Satisfying
Effective

At a time when philanthropy is evolving rapidly, many advisors, foundations, and nonprofits are struggling to keep pace with how today’s donors want to engage. Traditional fundraising often focuses on year-end appeals or transactional asks, missing the deeper conversations donors are eager to have about meaning and impact. Giving either doesn’t happen at all, or it falls far short of its potential.

That’s why WISEgenerosity’s new donor engagement platform is designed to reframe how givers connect with the causes they care about. Built from years of experience across financial advising, fundraising, and values-based planning, WISEgenerosity is not just a tool. It’s a mindset. A method. And, we hope, a movement.

WISEgenerosity empowers the three key parties of any transformational gift – donors, nonprofits, and professional advisors around a philosophy that begins with two essential life questions: Why are we here? and What do we do about it?

The answer, rooted in years of reflection and real-world experience, is generosity.

WISEgenerosity weaves together purpose and practice, helping individuals, families, fundraisers, and advisors approach giving not just as an isolated act, but as a collaborative way of living with meaning. At its core, WISEgenerosity is a previously missing bridge between inspiration and application when it comes to giving.

The Backstory
In addition to being the author and creator of WISEgenerosity, I have over 30 years of leadership in philanthropy and finance. I’ve sat in every seat around the giving table –as a donor, fundraiser, consultant, and professional advisor. The question, “what makes a life meaningful?”, sparked a personal journey. The result was WISEgenerosity – a donor engagement framework designed to help individuals, families, and institutions give with more clarity and joy, advisors to empower philanthropic clients more meaningfully, and nonprofits to create giving opportunities in direct alignment with the personal preferences and passions of the donor.

The Generosity Paradox
At the heart of this new approach is a paradox: when people give, they gain. Not just tax deductions or recognition—but happiness, enlightenment, and fulfillment.

WISEgenerosity helps to unlock what we call “a transformational program for living and giving.” This approach treats the sharing of time, talent, and treasure not as transactions, but as a powerful combination of considerate attitude and caring action.

Generosity, when done well, produces meaningful outcomes not only for the receiver, but for the giver and for everyone else around them. By helping advisors and nonprofits walk alongside donors as they explore their values, vision, and capacity to give, WISEgenerosity creates a more integrated and intentional generosity journey. When done wisely and well, generosity is one of the only human behaviors you just can’t have too much of.

From Inspiration to Application
WISEgenerosity empowers donors, nonprofits, and professional advisors with shared tools and frames of reference that position donors at the center of the giving process, making them the hero of the story. It then delivers generosity that is:

• Well-grounded – giving anchored in personal values, not just financial plans
•  Inspired – giving fueled by purpose and emotional clarity
• Satisfying – giving that is deeply rewarding, beyond metrics
• Effective – giving that also produces real, measurable impact

This approach generates purposeful, productive generosity that truly is W.I.S.E.

Transformational Generosity
WISEgenerosity is grounded in a vision of Transformational Generosity—a ripple effect that begins with the individual and expands outward.

Why It Matters Now

1. Donors seek more than basic giving outlets…they want meaning.
2. Advisors want to serve their clients more deeply.
3. Nonprofits need new tools to build lasting relationships in service to their vital work.

WISEgenerosity isn’t a fundraising script, a donor segmentation strategy, or a static client program. It’s a system for catalytic generosity—one that helps donors act not out of guilt or obligation, but from a place of alignment and abundance. It also is about shifting the giving timeline forward because generosity delayed is generosity diminished.

For professional advisors, WISEgenerosity opens the door to serving clients’ fundamental priorities and preferences – their “Why?” For nonprofits, it accelerates and amplifies donor relationships. For donors, it provides new self-awareness about what kind of generous they are called to be.

Looking Ahead
This article is the first in a four-part series exploring the principles, practices, and possibilities of WISEgenerosity. In the coming installments, we’ll dive deeper into how the system works, share examples of the process in action, provide simple yet empowering interactive tools (think “Myers Briggs for giving”), and offer practical ways to encourage communication, coordination and collaboration among the three key parties of giving: donors, advisors and nonprofits.

The new era of giving starts now.

You can learn more at wisegenerosity.com.

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Want to learn more about the ways we support donors, advisors and nonprofits?
Our philanthropic specialists are here to help! To learn more, schedule a call with us or reach us at 800-839-0054. Together, let’s #begiving.

About the Author
Chris Gabriel is a financial advisor at a major wealth management firm and the author of WISEgenerosity: A Guide to Purposeful and Productive Living and Giving. His practice serves individuals and families who prioritize giving and, on the other side of the generosity process, nonprofit organizations who want to be good stewards of their resources and to more meaningfully and effectively connect with their donors.

What began as a calling to align his spiritual, personal, and professional lives grew into a framework for helping others to give with clarity, confidence, and joy. Chris’s work invites donors, advisors, and nonprofits to see generosity as an essential virtue and as a path to personal, relational, and social transformation. More information is available at https://wisegenerosity.com.

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