‘Generosity Coach’ Urges Givers to Pick Key Causes

Donors large and small should focus their giving and volunteering on a handful of key causes, a strategy that helps givers develop expertise and steel themselves to say no more often, the “generosity coach” Kathy LeMay tells Bloomberg.

In an interview marking International Corporate Philanthropy Day, Ms. LeMay, the author of The Generosity Plan and a philanthropy adviser whose clients include Morgan Stanley Smith Barney and JPMorgan Chase, said scattershot, one-time gifts dilute givers’ impact and confuse recipients that don’t receive follow-up donations.

Ms. LeMay said she gives about a third of her income to charity and to family and friends who live below the poverty line.