Al Mueller had years of experience helping very wealthy people invest their money on Wall Street, but he felt a pull to help families give their money away to life-changing causes.
Photo by Micheile Henderson / Unsplash / Creative Commons
So in 2002, he founded Excellence in Giving, a faith-based firm to provide concierge-level philanthropic advising services to high-capacity donors.
“Our goal is to upgrade a generous giver to a discerning steward,” Mueller told MinistryWatch about the services provided by Excellence in Giving. He says the firm’s work can give confidence to donors that their gifts are being used well.
Philanthropic advising is a growing field with advisors handling large sums of charitable contributions. A 2024 survey of 258 U.S.-based philanthropic advisors revealed that each of them facilitated an average of $50 million in charitable giving.
Services by philanthropic advisors can range from strategic focus and spending targets to very specific research on potential grantees and assistance with legal filings.
Advisors may function independently or be part of a wealth management group or advising firm.
Michael Moody, professor of philanthropic studies at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University, has seen the advising industry balloon over the last 20 years. Nearly 2,000 members of LinkedIn identify themselves as “philanthropy advisors,” according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy.
Much of this growth is driven by the large sums of money in philanthropic donor-advised funds, which have reached $250 billion, and private foundations with assets of about $1.5 trillion.
“The capacity and expertise of those advisors to effectively guide their clients’ philanthropy is a bigger issue in the field than it has ever been before,” Moody told the Chronicle of Philanthropy.
Advisors play this critical role that has been really under-leveraged and under-appreciated,” says Katarina Czarniak, who leads P150, a network of professional advisors backed by several prominent foundations.
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Mueller said the advisors at Excellence in Giving aim to solve a dilemma faced by many high capacity donors: either start a private foundation that is time intensive and expensive or put money aside in a fund to “give later” when they have more time to do the necessary research.
“There’s something appealing to folks who want to have big results in their giving but don’t want to spend their time and energy on building the infrastructure themselves,” Alex Johnston, founding partner of the advising firm Building Impact Partners, told the Chronicle of Philanthropy. “The highest-capacity donors increasingly do not want to create large staffed entities.”
Instead of developing their own staff of subject matter experts, donors can outsource that work to an advising group and save some overhead and administrative costs.
Likening their services to a family foundation for its clients, Mueller said Excellence in Giving starts by helping donors develop their mission statements, examining their giving history, and working with them as a matchmaker to find the best nonprofits in an area of interest to receive their donations.
Excellence in Giving advisors develop a close, long-lasting relationship with clients built on trust because they have to get involved in personal matters.
While Excellence in Giving doesn’t have a formal training program for its advisors, it looks for hard-working, spiritually wise, and successful people who have “gravitas,” Mueller said. The group has a 90% client retention rate, adding credibility to the attributes Mueller looks for in his advisors.
There is no regulatory agency licensing these advisors. Czarniak cautioned that “[a]nyone can really call themselves a philanthropy advisor.”
The American College of Financial Services has established the Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy program, a designation that it claims will help with growth and retention. It focuses on skills like tax strategies, legacy planning, along with understanding client goals.
The Center for High Impact Philanthropy and the Lilly Family School plan to begin new advisor training programs this year.
21/64 offers training for philanthropic advisors, including family dynamics, but it is not specifically Christian in its focus.
As a faith-based firm, Mueller noted, Excellence in Giving is well-positioned to understand both financial and spiritual impacts of gifts and what drives a faith-based ministry in ways that secular advisors can’t.
Excellence in Giving serves between 30 and 50 families who give over $100 million each year. It develops an annual service agreement with clients based on how much time advisors will be working on clients’ needs.
It also carefully screens ministries based on 175 data points before giving them a “seal of transparency.” The form asks for many measurements about the health and growth of a charity that won’t be found on an IRS Form 990, Mueller said.
The National Christian Foundation (NCF) has been helping high-capacity donors make faith-based gifts since 1982 and has helped facilitate $21 billion in gifts. In 2024, $2.6 billion was given to 36,560 charities through NCF.
While NCF doesn’t have its own advisors, it has in-house staff to help advisors with strategies to serve its clients. Because of its decades of experience, NCF sees its role as complementing advisors. “We have a rich history in pioneering new ways to unlock more dollars for charitable giving and helping givers and their advisors convert assets into more kingdom impact,” Vice President of Public Relations Mary Beth Googasian told MinistryWatch.
Mueller wants Excellence in Giving to continue helping deliver confidence to ministry donors: “Obedience to God’s calling for their resources plus confidence in the ministry they are giving to will bring joy.”
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