Stretching a budget and other tough financial choices occupy many minds this time of year. For families coming out of homelessness, those decisions can be heartbreaking. The Financial Sustainability Initiative that Gulf Coast launched with United Way Suncoast this year is starting to offer some insights into how our community has helped. It even suggests a tip or two for philanthropists looking to make the most of their own charitable gifts.

Families who started out in our financial literacy program last spring have gained knowledge and built assets that can aid them in decision-making this holiday season. Many of these parents now have new financial skills, which brings hope for them and their children’s future. The dedicated Salvation Army case workers and United Way volunteers who work closely with these folks have been remarkable teachers.

One young participant, a single mom named Megan, is a wonderful example of success. She gets incredible help from her (new) friends, or her “people,” as she likes to call the team of advisors that now surrounds her.

Megan used to take eight buses a day to get to work, daycare for her son, and home again. Errands to run? Two more buses for each one. But with guidance from Sharon, her volunteer coach, Megan quickly made progress on improving her situation. Sharon saw that Megan had left money on the table in tax credits. So, with help from United Way, Megan filed two years of taxes—for free—and got back thousands of dollars. Some went straight into a matched savings account provided through our initiative. The rest is in a college savings plan for her son.

Megan is still working and she’s also halfway through an accounting program at Suncoast Technical College. She meets regularly with Sharon, too. They go over her finances and her plan; they also just talk. They’re friends.

Megan heads one of 16 families that helped launched our financial sustainability initiative. Since then, another 16 have entered the program. That takes a lot “people” to provide the network of support we wrap around these families. Philanthropy also makes an initiative like this possible. Donors are among those “people” rallying around vulnerable families like Megan’s, even if she never meets them. Which brings me to year-end giving… 

You’re probably receiving appeals every day from nonprofits whose work you believe in. It is the season of giving, even in a community where giving is a year-round pursuit. Yet many of us who take for granted the lessons being taught in those financial-literacy workshops might actually be leaving money on the table when it comes to our own charitable giving. For example, simply using an appreciated asset for a gift instead of writing a check could produce significant tax savings. Perhaps enough to make a much bigger gift—and help even more Megans—than you imagined.

The decision to give can be a very easy one, but sometimes it’s hard to know how to make a gift go its farthest. That’s what a community foundation is here for: to help donors, and their professional advisors, by listening to what you want to accomplish, and then assisting you in structuring the right gift to achieve it. Maybe even exceed it. Think of us as your “people” when it comes to charitable planning—in December, and all year long. 

Mark Pritchett is president and CEO of Gulf Coast Community Foundation.