Philanthropy | Making a Difference: Scott and Julie Pinkerton and Gulf Coast Community Foundation

By Ryan G. Van Cleave | Photo by Matt Roback

If you know anything about the Venice Theatre (formerly Venice Little Theatre), you’ve likely heard of Yvonne Pinkerton, a.k.a. “Pinky.” Over more than four decades, she helped transform it and created programs that made it among the finest in theater education. Add in her 50+ year membership and activity with Emmanuel Lutheran Church, and it’s no surprise that Pinky’s youngest son, Scott, also shows the same community-focused spirit. “It was in our house all the time, and not just because my mom worked for a nonprofit. It’s just part of our DNA.” 

While Scott’s a Floridian through and through, he briefly left the Sunshine State to attend college in Ohio, where he met his future wife, Julie. Since 1985, they’ve both been living in Florida and making a difference in the community in a variety of ways. Today, Scott is a successful financial planner and managing partner at FourThought Private Wealth, which means he spends a lot of time working with people to help them find ways to support the causes and organizations they cherish.

As a Certified Private Wealth Advisor, Scott explains that his role is critical since his high-net-worth clients can often enjoy tax advantages to their giving of which they are often unaware. When Scott clarifies that a client’s mandatory distribution from their IRA can be given directly to charity without being taxed, as many as 80% of them are motivated to pursue that opportunity to help themselves and others. 

Scott doesn’t just work with individuals, though. He also provides financial advice and guidance for family foundations, businesses, and nonprofits. Thanks to those relationships, Scott has been partnering with Gulf Coast Community Foundation even before Gulf Coast existed. 

“I was on the board of the Venice Hospital Foundation,” he says. “They played a big role in forming the Venice Foundation which has now become Gulf Coast Community Foundation.” Through those efforts, Scott got to work together with Mark Pritchett, the CEO and President of Gulf Coast Community Foundation. “He’s a dear friend of ours,” Scott says about that long-term relationship, “and the love of his life, Gina, is one of our oldest and best friends.” Leave it to Pinky’s son to be drawn to fellow philanthropists!

Julie, too, has been deeply involved with the community. Beyond having served as a college advisor for 15 years at the Rotary Futures College Resource Center at Venice High School, she served on the founding board of Family Promise of South Sarasota County, an organization that helps children and their families in temporary need of housing. Of course, Gulf Coast was involved in the early discussions of that nonprofit’s formation. “The partnership and support from Gulf Coast to launch that nonprofit—now eight years strong—was invaluable. They have programs where they send out consultants to nonprofits to help them get through the mud,” Julie explains. 

In 2004, the Pinkertons gathered their three teenage daughters and discussed the idea of giving in general and the creation of a Gulf Coast-managed donor-advised fund in specific. “Once you put yourself in the shoes of another person, you have empathy,” Scott says. “And that leads to all sorts of positive results. That was our motivation.”

He adds that it can be challenging to make decisions as a group, but whether it’s handled formally or informally, having regular discussions about what matters helps a family grow closer, share values, and go out in the world in “a real upward spiral of positivity.” Through Scott’s work as a financial planner and in his own life—where he has military members and people with a range of political beliefs—he’s seen how people can come together around giving.

Something Scott encourages families to do is think about heuristics (a practical approach to problem solving or self-discovery). In his own family, they’ve got a deck of value cards that each contain words such as stewardship, adaptability, duty, etc. They go through and ask, “Which is more important?” By the end, as a family, they have maybe five or six core values. Creating that kind of clarity helps immensely in terms of focusing time, energy, and money at the things that matter most. Reviewing those values with regularity is important, too, since things change.

“I also talk about the 10-year rule,” he adds. “When making a decision, ask yourself, ‘What’s going to be important 10 years from now?’” Keeping that kind of perspective in mind helps guide decisions. It’s that same type of long-term, proactive thinking that he uses with great success at FourThought Private Wealth for retirement planning and comprehensive wealth management.

As a result of their family’s shared values, the Pinkertons have supported nonprofit counseling services “for many, many years,” Julie notes. “We’re also deeply interested in preschool education. A lot of our giving centers around education and poverty—the human side of things.”

Like his beloved mom, Scott’s been an active, long-time member of Emmanuel Lutheran Church. “We sponsor a lot of things through our church. Our faith is a big part of who we are. We do a lot with Lutheran World Relief—we know how well that organization works. We also support several other organizations that address global poverty.”

Julie adds that “when we’re deciding where to donate each year, I always want to know who Gulf Coast Community Foundation is supporting because they know the urgent needs in our community. Mark Pritchett and the others at Gulf Coast are great people and it’s a great organization. They make a real difference for all of us. We want to be a part of that.”

Pinky wouldn’t have it any other way.

FOR MORE INFORMATION on Gulf Coast Community Foundation, please visit www.gulfcoastcf.org or call 941.486.4600.