I DO Like Mondays
By Richard Weinstein, President & COO
Ocean Reef Community Foundation
Once you’ve spent enough time at Ocean Reef (which really is not very long at all), you quickly find that the old question of “What day is it?” doesn’t hold the same weight it holds elsewhere, especially when compared with the importance that same question has beyond the Card Sound Entrance (doesn’t that sound more pleasant than “Front Gate”?) Yet “What day is it?” is still an important question here because you need to know which day of the week is the one for the LGA and MGA, the tennis clinics, bridge or canasta, when is the croquet match, or which night is poker and which one has which Member special at which restaurant. (OK, fine … to make sure this is an all-inclusive newsletter, “something, something, something day of the week”: Pickleball!)
So, the days of the week do still matter. What’s evolved, however, is the emotion that surrounds each one. As a marketing person, I first thought that Monday and Tuesday needed a rebranding as compared to Friday and Saturday. But the more I investigated this, it turns out that Tuesday is doing just fine all on its own, and Monday has its own special and valuable identity as well. It seems that Thursday is really the one that needs a little refresh – just look at the music that relates to each day of the week.
We have Stormy Monday and Blue Monday; the Carpenters noted how rainy days and Mondays always got them down, and both the Mamas AND the Papas can’t trust that day … and there are many others in this vein. And Monday is even included in “three-day weekends”! Saturday night is alright for fighting, even if it may be hard sometimes to get a date, as noted by Sam Cooke. Tuesday has almost as many songs as Monday … Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Tuesday’s Gone, Ruby Tuesday by the Stones, Tuesday Afternoon, Moody Blues.
Other hints are available in the common vernacular: Wednesday is the clear owner of the middle of the week, and no one can take away “Hump Day.” Friday, well, come on, really? No contest, I mean there’s even a nationwide chain of restaurants, and no one ever said, “Thank God it’s Thursday.” Sunday is quite simply the day of rest (or golf or fishing, depending on who you talk to).
So let’s take a closer look at Thursday. Sure, some try to pass it off as “Friday Eve,” and there’s been that ever-so-brief movement of “Throwback Thursday” which only helps to support it as a “used to be” kind of day. Thursday Makeover could be a whole reality TV show where other days of the week come to support (or conspire against) its renewed and reinvigorated version! But with no direct connection to the weekend, and just the place holder preventing us from getting there directly from Hump Day, how can we improve Thursday?
Let’s pause for a moment to consider a different way to make any day extraordinary.
The Ocean Reef Community Foundation (ORCF) has its special days, most notably, our All Charities weekend, celebrated last month. But if you are someone that has, or is considering opening, a Donor Advised Fund (DAF) with ORCF, your community foundation, then every day of your week can be special because each day offers a chance to make a difference, and you choose where that impact is applied.
A DAF allows you to donate a tax-deductible lump sum (see your tax advisor for specific details and allowances) for the year you make that donation. Then it provides you with as much time as you need to advise us to which charitable organizations you would like to have those funds distributed. You can take a year, two years, or as long as you desire. “This sounds too good to be true,” you might say, but actually, with ORCF it is even better, because typically there is a fee for managing a DAF and we do not charge any management fees for Ocean Reef Club Members who open a DAF with ORCF.
And now with ORCF’s new online DAF Portal, fund holders can request distributions any time and any day of the week. You can see your balance, and review any grant requests you have entered. It makes giving to your favorite charities convenient and cost free.*
Which brings us back to how we can assist with the rebranding of Thursday. Even though, as the poem goes, Thursday’s Child has far to go, consider that if everyone reading this opened a DAF next Thursday, we would be sending a real message to all those other days of the week.
Watch out, Tuesday, Thursday is the new giving day in town!
*Ah ha – gotcha! You thought that asterisk would take you to some disclaimer that would have the real charges in small print! But that is not the case: there really are no management fees or charges. If you start your DAF today (assuming it is not in an invested account and you do not make any distributions from it), you will have exactly the same amount available to you a year from now (although it could potentially have a higher balance if it is in an invested fund and has a good return for the market over these 12 months).
