The meeting will kick off with a short Annual Business Meeting followed by lunch and presentation by Keynote Speaker Claire Costello, National Foundation Executive for Philanthropic Solutions at U.S. Trust Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Ms. Costello will present findings from the 2010 Bank of America Merrill Lynch Study of High Net Worth Philanthropy. This will include information that new research finds wealthy donors remain strongly committed to nonprofit organizations and reveals unique insights into donors' motivations for giving and why they stop.

Through an ongoing research partnership with the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, which began in 2006, the 2010 Bank of America Merrill Lynch Study of High Net Worth Philanthropy reveals significant shifts as well as consistent trends in the attitudes and giving behaviors of wealthy donors, including which nonprofit sectors they support, how they direct their largest gifts, what motivates them to give and to discontinue support for a nonprofit organization, where and how often they volunteer, and who they turn to for advice about philanthropy. The latest study also examines new areas of research, including how charitable decisions are made within households, investment risk tolerance as it pertains to donors' philanthropic assets, and how wealthy individuals respond to disaster relief.

This luncheon session is free to Planned Giving Council of Cape Cod members. Non-members are welcome, but pay $35. To register for this session, please call the Planned Giving Council at (508) 280-1822, email mwhitepgccc@aol.com or register online at www.capecodgiving.org. Deadline for registration is January 11, 2012.

About the speaker:

Claire Costello is the National Foundation Executive for Philanthropic Solutions at U.S. Trust Bank of America Merrill Lynch. She is responsible for providing thought leadership and identifying best practices for both philanthropic families and nonprofit institutions. Ms. Costello joined the Bank in 2008. Prior to that, she founded and ran the Philanthropic Advisory Service for The Citigroup Private Bank. Ms. Costello is a recognized expert in philanthropy. Her reputation results from her work assisting high-net-worth clients pursue their philanthropic ambitions and aspirations and her involvement with a variety of non-profit ventures. Today she supports philanthropic clients at U. S. Trust Bank of America Merrill Lynch in making a broad range of philanthropic decisions. Ms. Costello serves on the Advisory Board of GlobalGiving, the Hewlett Foundation Donor Education Committee and the Board of Directors of The National Center for Family Philanthropy.

The Planned Giving Council of Cape Cod is a local chapter of the Partnership for Philanthropic Planning, a National organization. For more information check out www.capecodgiving.org, call (508) 280-1822 or write to: Planned Giving Council of Cape Cod Foundation, P.O. Box 41, Yarmouth Port, MA 02675