About Endow America Network Foundation, Inc.

 
The Endow America Network Foundation, Inc. is a 501c3 organization under the Internal Revenue Code of the United States.
 
 
EIN #  26-0521329
 
Attention grantmakers - if you support public education about planned giving, we would like to be invited to apply for a grant.   
 
Attention Corporate Sponsors - If you are a corporate sponsor of public education about planned giving, we have corporate sponsorships available.     
 
  

Our Team:

Les Winston, CAP, Chairman of the Board

John Capurso, Chief Executive Officer

Jaclyn Farnham, CAP, Executive Director

Wanda Myles, Director, Station Programming & Operations

 
The Endow America Network is a national community foundation (501c3) raising awareness of tax-advantaged solutions that enable individuals, and the charities they support, to establish long-term financial stability and sustainability.
 
Our Mission
Our mission is to educate financial advisors, NGO executives, and the public in the use of charitable devices to endow individual donors and charities nationwide.
 
Our Vision
Endow America Network’s vision is to cultivate a financial education ecosystem that encourages and elevates generational understanding and philanthropic giving.
 
Endow America Network Foundation Programs: 
Our Pooled Income Funds are powerful financial planning tools.
A Pooled Income Fund is a type of trust that enables donors to make tax-deductible cash or noncash contributions in exchange for tax avoidance and income. After the lifetime of the last income beneficiary, the donor's interest in the fund is transferred to the charity. Minimum gift is $10,000.
 
Pooled Income Fund benefits to the financial advisor include:
▪ The advisor can maintain his/her clients’ assets under management;
▪ A gift of this type can deepen and enhance the advisor’s relationship with his/her client.
 
Pooled Income Fund benefits to the NGO include:
▪ Using these tools will attract larger contributions that will help grow endowment for the charity.
▪ Use the PIF to accept Noncash assets to help you build a bigger personal endowment, i.e., public investments, closely held business interests, real estate, collections, intellectual property.
▪ Endow America Pooled Income Funds require no administrative or legal fees from the NGO.
▪ The NGO receives immediate cash contributions relative to the size of the gift and the age of the youngest income beneficiary.
 
Pooled Income Fund benefits to the donor include:
▪ Immediate access to favorable income and tax incentives;
▪ Cost to the donor is minimal and tax deductible; and
▪ The donor directs to their favorite charities the remainder of their fund at death.
 
Les Winston, Endow America Network Founder and Social Secharity creator (receiving Fithian Leadership Award from Todd Fithian)
Initial Scholarship Gift Which Funded the First Scholarships Awarded
 
In 2010, AiP Foundation, Inc. (now the Endow America Network Foundation) was named a recipient of the Eva Marder Charitable Remainder Trust. The donation was earmarked specifically for $500 CAP® Scholarships and allowed the Foundation to award 68 scholarships.   Les Winston, AiP Foundation Chairman of the Board, gave us the story behind the Eva Marder Charitable Remainder Trust gift:
 
Eva Marder was a hard working retail merchant alongside her husband David. For many years, they owned a ladies wear store near Lincoln Road on what is today known as South Beach, Florida. The business was successful and operated until they retired in 1981. Evie's life was thrown into upheaval when David died soon after retirement, and she was left alone to handle everything that had been done by David for all the years they were married.
 
I met Evie in 2000 through a referral from a client. Evie was 85 at the time and had been managing her own plans and investments. She had recently gone through some medical issues, and she became very anxious about her future.  I began advising Evie and together we reached a plan that would do everything Evie wanted. I spent many delightful hours with this affable, good humored, and generous lady. Evie used to refer to me as the son she never had, and I was happy to be her most trusted advisor. Many times, she would thank me for how relieved and calm she felt about her future.
 
In 2005, I told Evie about the CAP® designation I had earned from the American College. Evie said, "what did you need that for, you did all of that for me already". I explained that it took me 20 years to learn by my own experiences, what could now be taught in three graduate courses. That must have impressed Evie because just prior to her passing in 2009 at age 94, Evie made the AIP Foundation the sole beneficiary of the Eva Marder Charitable Remainder Trust for purposes of endowing scholarships for the CAP designation. She said at the time,"I hope this will make more (advisors) like you".  
 

Our Beginnings……

EANF received 501c3 status from the IRS in 2008 under the name Advisors in Philanthropy (AiP) Foundation, Inc., a charitable arm of the AiP membership community. Under the leadership of Les Winston, the Foundation received a private donation earmarked for scholarships to supplement the cost for students earning their Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy (CAP) designation. The donation was made specifically to create “more advisors like you [Les]” from a dear client. Over 100 scholarships were awarded between 2010-2016. EANF Chairman and Founder Les Winston and Executive Director, Jaclyn Farnham, both maintain their CAP designations.

Les Winston received the highly esteemed national AiP leadership award in 2016 from his peers in recognition of his efforts, and he grew more certain that he was onto something, and that more training was needed… for everyone. The public needed to be educated about the charitable planning tax tools that were created by Congress in 1969. No organization was focusing on that. There were companies recommending and providing information about Donor Advised Funds (DAFs), but when it came to charitable tools that returned income to the donor (CRTS, CGAs, PIFs), there was little education for the public and more needed for advisors.

It was time to review the Foundation’s mission and broaden its educational purpose. Steering more towards public education versus CAP scholarships, the Foundation split off from the AiP membership organization in 2020. The Foundation changed its name to Endow America Network Foundation (EANF) to align with a refined mission and literally started charting a course to educate all Americans and enhance the training for advisors. Based on the simple premise that most Americans know a 401k plan is for retirement and a 529 plan is for college funding, the EANF vision for the future is one where all Americans know what a 664 plan is – it’s an endowment plan using charity.

What is Social Secharity?

Around 2015 Les Winston coined the term “Social Secharity” to describe charitable planning tools that produce income or endowment for the donor and charitable endowment, purposely playing on what everyone is required to pay, Social Security… your involuntary giving.

EANF soon refined its message to all Americans to use Social Secharity to save tax, create income and give to their community, leaving a legacy. This planned giving makes sense especially with highly appreciated non-cash assets that will trigger capital gains tax and increased income tax when selling them. Social Secharity planning produces larger gifts for non-profits because most American wealth lies within non-cash assets. Social Secharity planning allows the donor to sell the asset within the charitable trust device and retain an interest in the value of that asset. The theory of Social Secharity is that tax code 664 = Endowment squared (endowment for the donor and for the donor’s charity).

A new vision emerged… Social Secharity as the solution to America’s societal problems. It’s a solution that already exists but isn’t used widely because most Americans don’t know about it. Endow American Network Foundation, Inc. (EANF) believes American’s can solve many problems in our own lives and in society, if we just know more about Social Secharity.

Endowing Endow America

Funding for the Foundation during the scholarship phase was provided by a generous donor, advisors who were CAPS, and fundraising at the Conference on Philanthropy, through 2019. As Covid hit the country and the economy changed, EANF created 2 Pooled Income Funds. Two advisors on our Board, working with their clients, recommended a PIF solution to a planning problem, and EANF was able to help. EANF received a percentage of the contributions at the start and quarterly trustee fees. A portion of the donation at the end of the beneficiary term will also come to EANF. With these larger gifts, EANF has grown an Endowment, and created an example for other nonprofits in how to take larger gifts of non-cash assets.

Public Education - Podcasts, Presentations, Discovery 664 Academy

From the start of the Foundation, Les Winston hosted an educational show on Miami Community TV and it continues to this day.   In July 2022, a 3-hour course was developed for advisors, approved for Florida insurance CE and presented in Miami. In 2024, Les started hosting a podcast on Spotify, and an online training course called Discovery 664 Academy. The Academy is for Americans who want to be better informed about their planning options. EANF created a new website and social media options to help educate the public. A team of professionals, including a marketing manager, creative producer, writing and design experts, have been working together to create the messaging needed to interest and inform the public, and to move Americans towards a promising future of increased retirement income and charitable giving!

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