by Amy Roy | Oct 11, 2018 | Charitable Giving, Featured, Foundations, Linked In |
“Plans are nothing; planning is everything.” Dwight D. Eisenhower A little planning can go a long way. Did you know that making a planned gift will not only help ensure the health of the organizations you support long into the future but can also provide benefits to you? What exactly is planned giving? And, how can you benefit from it? In short, a planned gift is the type of gift that requires a little more thought than simply writing a check or processing a credit card. It’s a gift, as the name implies, that you’ve planned for – you’ve given consideration about from where and how the gift will be received. The great thing about planned giving is that it allows you to give wisely and take advantage of tax strategies and giving vehicles that provide benefit to you while at the same time maximize the amount of charitable dollars that can benefit an organization. Planned giving can come in many forms and fall under three general categories. Outright gifts: One of the most basic and common is a gift of appreciated stock or securities that allow you to pass on the gains to your favorite organization. Making a charitable gift of appreciated stock that you’ve held for a year or more saves you the tax burden as you avoid realizing the capital gains, yet still allows you to deduct the current value of the stock if you itemize. Gifts that return income: Other types of planned gifts can be set up to provide a stream of income either to you or the organization you choose to support. ...
by Robert Freedman | Sep 12, 2018 | Charitable Giving, Donor-Advised Funds, Featured, Foundations, Linked In |
Antioch, Sep 11, 2018 (Issuewire.com) – The RainShine Foundation (RainShine), a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting remote Congolese communities, is proud to announce the launch of its donor-advised fund, the RainShine Donor-Advised Fund. RainShine has entered into a partnership with the Advise Us Foundation, a national public charity dedicated to making the processes of donor-advised and planned giving more accessible, collaborative and beneficial for charities, donors, and their advisers. Through a generous, anonymous gift, the RainShine donor-advised fund enables the organization to build up financial reserves and plan for long-term capital improvement projects. Through its charitable giving partner, Advise Us Foundation, RainShine supporters can contribute a wide range of assets to RainShine’s donor-advised fund, including cash, appreciated stock, bonds, mutual funds, restricted and closely-held or non-publicly traded securities, real estate, limited partnerships, deferred gifts, and other illiquid assets. Assets in the donor-advised fund grow tax-free. “The decision for RainShine to partner with the Advise Us Foundation was simple. We were seeking a like-minded organization that was small enough to listen to our unique needs but also big enough to provide the charitable giving guidance we need now and into the future,” said Rob Freedman, Founder and Managing Director of The RainShine Foundation. This partnership will help ensure RainShine’s work building schools and other community infrastructure can continue and eventually expand to other villages in the Bas-Uele region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. For far too long, this region of the Congo has been underserved by both the Congolese government and international NGOs alike. RainShine stands as the only international organization working to help the people of Epi achieve...
by Andrew Hibel | Oct 21, 2014 | Donor-Advised Funds, Featured, Foundations |
This year the Chronicle of Philanthropy revealed the “50 Most Generous Donors of 2013.” While many donors on the list donated to private foundations, the donor couple topping the list with the most charitable giving, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, gave their gift to a donor-advised fund. This was the first time a donor-advised fund was the top charitable recipient for living donors. Fifth on the list were John and Laura Arnold, who use a donor-advised fund in addition to a more traditional foundation. Similarly Pierre and Pam Omidyar, seventh on the list, use donor-advised funds in addition to foundations and social impact funds for their charitable giving. The biggest donors in America may be using donor-advised funds – but they aren’t the only ones. Donor-Advised Funds vs. Private Foundations – Numbers and Trends Over the past century, many large private foundations, like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, have made transformative gifts making an impact throughout the world. But while the biggest foundations often get the most notice, two-thirds of the 86,000 private foundations in existence have less than $1 million in assets. Nor are most foundation as old as most people think – sixty-percent of foundations were formed within the past 15 years – and forty-percent in the last decade. These are big numbers – over 34,000 foundations formed in the last ten years – and foundations are the right charitable vehicle for many donors. But they are being surpassed by a “user-friendly” charitable vehicle that’s lower cost, “faster” and more direct for many donors – the donor-advised fund. Over just the last five...
