A Giver's Tale

A Giver's Tale

Money managers by Mark Gordon | Managing Editor

Giving away millions isn't easy. And the more you give, the more you're sought after.

Using the time-tested combination of hard work and luck, Elaine Keating has been able to accumulate millions of dollars over her adult life. And she was no silver spoon baby: Keating's father - who ultimately became a doctor - was dirt poor when he immigrated from Lithuania to America as a 14-year-old in the early 1900s.

The challenge now facing Keating, 76, is no longer how to accumulate money, although she still actively invests through a Northern Trust account. Instead, it's how to get rid of money.

The fulltime Longboat Key resident is president of the Keating Foundation, a charitable giving arm named after her second husband, Ed Keating, who made his fortune with EKCO Housewares Co., where, among other accomplishments, he invented the "E-Z Foil" disposable foil baking pan.

And while it sounds like one of those 'good problems,' it's proving to be more complicated, as the possibilities are nearly endless. To wit, there are roughly 18,000 registered non-profits - just in Sarasota and Manatee counties. And giving sometimes begets more complications.

"Everybody needs your money," Keating says. "Once you start giving, though, they could think of you as a whale."

Keating's experiences can serve as a guide for those Gulf Coast millionaires who have accumulated mass wealth over their lifetimes and are looking to help others, both individuals and institutions, with their good fortune. Keating, through the foundation set up by her husband, who died in July 2005, gives primarily to arts, social services and educational organizations.

Keating chooses her donation recipients based on personal passion - a tact endorsed by many experts in the charitable and nonprofit world. Art-based groups and schools, for example, have a deep meaning for Keating, as she admired various types of arts while growing up, but didn't often participate.

On the flip side, Keating and the foundation tend to stay away from disease-based charities: There are too many to choose from. Other Keating Foundation rules include keeping all gifts local and not giving to individuals. She also recently instituted a policy of only giving pledges that last five years, as opposed to all up front.

Once narrowing down the type of charity, Keating's next challenge is to pick a specific gift, be it a department within the Ringling School or a building for New College, for example. She starts that process by sticking with groups she's worked with before and knows well to help eliminate problems and miscommunications later on.

Still, as one of the more well-known philanthropists in Greater Sarasota, Keating is regularly solicited by organizations. Sometimes, she bites. But first, she and the foundation go through an extensive research process.

"We do our homework if it's something new to us," says Keating. "You should know where your money is going and how it's spent."

The how-the-money-is-spent part is a big piece to watch out for, says Stewart Stearns, president and CEO of the Community Foundation of Sarasota County. A reasonable approach, says Stearns, is when an organization's overall budget represents an 80%-20% balance of money going to programs and money going to the administrative side.

Elaine Keating: Money and investing

In 1953, Elaine Keating defied the times she was leaving in by not only working fulltime, but working in the male-dominated financial world. She and her first husband opened a storefront tax preparation office in her native Chicago. Initially using a card table as a desk, the pair made $3,000 that first year.

But by the 1960s, E. Mason Inc. had become one of the biggest tax-preparation firms in the Midwest. And the success fostered a lifelong interest in investing, following a childhood where Keating saw her mother as a saver and her father as a spender.

"I've always had a need to feel comfortable financially," says Keating. "That's a hunger that never leaves."

Keating currently has a personal investing account with Northern Trust, which focuses on stocks and bonds. But over the years, especially when she and her husband were younger, she took more risks, putting money into projects from Chicago apartment buildings to pork bellies and oil drilling. The former was a hit, the latter investments, not so much.

Keating's two priorities in investing are simple: Sleep on it if it's a big decision, and always ask experts for advice.