Big money, bigger choices

Shifting from pauper to prince has meant that the board has had to become heavily involved in day-to-day operations - choosing advisers, hiring money managers, and formulating a business plan.

That business plan is crucial, Ms. Cummins says, since the gift will come in 30 annual installments, which are tied to various trusts and can change in size from one year to another. The organization will also have to spend 3.3 percent of its total assets annually, once it loses its status as a publicly supported charity, which will happen in the next few years.

Spending those installments - $14 and $15 million the first two years - does not mean a thicker magazine with more poems. (Although the poets who now publish there receive $6 a line instead of the $2 they earned previously.)

Instead, most of the money will be used to build a larger audience for poetry and to show the world how the art form is relevant to daily life. Exactly how to do that has not yet been decided.

"We can't be everything to everybody," Cummins says. "We need to say, 'Here's what we can do. How can we achieve the greatest impact? What makes sense to do now, what later?' "

Cummins hopes that the foundation's new president, who should be announced in about a month, will give the organization more momentum. She also expects that specific programs will be unveiled by the end of the year.

While many observers are anxious to see results, Poetry's go-slow strategy is in keeping with advice many financial planners give.

Jon Gallo, a lawyer in Los Angeles who specializes in estate planning, says that the first order of business for any organization receiving a large sum of money is to find topnotch financial advice and to design a five-year plan for how it will be used.

He advises that a long-range strategy be in place before the organization makes any major business decisions, such as hiring additional staff or purchasing property.

Poetry "got a dream they weren't prepared to deal with," Gallo says. But he believes that any difficulties the group has had so far are not insurmountable.

Even the monetary losses can be overcome, he adds, giving as an example: "If the bequest is $3 million a year, then the mistakes they've made have only affected one or two years. They have the ability to take corrective action."

Gallo's wife, Eileen, agrees. A psychotherapist, she has studied lottery winners'ability to adapt to newfound wealth. Ms. Gallo says that the challenges those winners face are similar to those that Poetry is now dealing with.

The prime determinants of success, she says, are good coping skills and a well-thought-out plan.

She describes one lottery winner who easily adapted to her new lifestyle, despite the fact that she lacked a a high school education. "But she had good advisers and picked people who could relate to her."

There's no reason, say both Gallos, why poets can't do just as well.

Page: 1 | 2