Making a move, the kitchen sink, and getting more out of your giving
Greetings from the community foundation!
We hope summer is treating you well! If you’re already working with the community foundation to organize your giving and make an impact, thank you! If you have not yet established your donor-advised or other type of fund at the community foundation, we look forward to working together to explore the best options for you and your family.
It’s our pleasure to keep you up-to-date on issues and ideas that can help you make the most of your philanthropy. In this issue, we’re covering three strategies to help meet tax objectives, address community needs, and achieve your expectations for administrative simplicity.
–Unfortunately, many people (as well as their attorneys, accountants, and even financial advisors) are not aware that a donor-advised fund established at the community foundation is in most cases a far better fit for their clients than a donor-advised fund set up at a national financial institution. The community foundation offers much broader services, more personal attention, and deeper connections to the nonprofits whose work is essential to effecting positive community change.
–If you’re planning to leave your residence to your children in your estate plan, you might reconsider because they may not want it! The team at the community foundation can help you evaluate the various options for giving the family home to charity. You might be surprised by the possibilities.
–Building good habits is important in many areas of your life, and charitable giving is no exception. The community foundation is happy to offer tips and suggestions to make your philanthropic endeavors easier and more satisfying, which in turn makes it more fun to add regular giving into your routine.
As always, it is our pleasure to work with you as you fulfill your charitable intentions. Every day, we are inspired by the generosity of our donors and fund holders. Thank you.
–Your community foundation
This may be your best move yet!
If you’ve already established a donor-advised fund at the community foundation, you can understand why it’s become such a popular tool to organize your family’s giving and serve as a springboard for so many other ways to make a difference in our region.
Recently, we’ve talked with a lot of donors who work with the community foundation in a variety of ways, such as regularly contributing to a favorite organization’s endowment fund, supporting the community foundation’s operating endowment, making distributions from an IRA to a designated fund, or attending community foundation events to rally around important community priorities. Interestingly, we are discovering that some of these donors also have established a donor-advised fund at a national financial institution and in many cases did not realize that they could have set up their donor-advised fund at the community foundation.
It’s time to set the record straight!
For starters, the community foundation offers donor-advised fund holders the same tax and administrative benefits as a national financial institution, including:
- Online access to the donor-advised fund to view balances, contributions, and grants
- Simple process for requesting grants to favorite charities
- Streamlined tax reporting, often represented by just one letter to provide to an accountant at tax time, even when the donor-advised fund is used to support dozens of individual charities throughout the year
- All back-office administration, tax receipts, recordkeeping, and other requirements for the donor-advised fund’s 501(c)(3) status
- Favorable tax-deductibility of contributions to the fund
Unlike standard national financial institutions’ donor-advised funds, though, the community foundation offers high-level, customized services to its donor-advised fund holders, including:
- Concierge-level service by knowledgeable staff to structure estate gifts to charities and accept gifts of appreciated stock or complex assets such as real estate or closely-held stock
- In-house experts who have a finger on the pulse of community needs, the strengths of specific nonprofits, and how to structure grant making for the highest possible community benefit
- Opportunities to collaborate with other donors who care about similar issues and forums to tap into local and national subject matter experts
- Opportunities to go deep into specific issue areas, both through education and hands-on involvement
- Assistance with structuring and measuring the impact of grants
- Family philanthropy and corporate giving services to foster a well-rounded, holistic approach to philanthropy
- Administrative fees that are reinvested into the community foundation, itself a nonprofit, to help support operations, grow its mission, and help even more donors support the causes they care about
- Hands-on assistance from local experts who understand both local and distant needs, and welcome the opportunity to research and identify causes aligned with donors’ goals and priorities
- Staff members who live in the community they serve and often personally know the leaders and staff of grantee organizations and regularly hear about their needs first-hand
If you’ve established a donor-advised fund at a national financial institution, we’d love to chat about moving it over to the community foundation. At the community foundation, your hard-earned assets receive the attention they deserve as you and your family strive to make a difference in the causes you care about the most.
Not even the kitchen sink: Giving your house to charity is worth exploring
August is national Make-A-Will month and a great time to check in on key components of your estate plan. The reality, as we know, is that all property remaining at death has to go somewhere. And as heartbreaking as it may be for parents of grown children, it’s usually a mistake to assume that you should automatically leave the family home to children in your will or trust. Indeed, your children may not be nearly as attached to your things as you are, and the reality is that they may not want any of them–including the house.
But don’t let this get you down. When one door closes, another door opens. It may be time to explore giving your personal residence to charity. The community foundation can help!
Reach out anytime to discuss the possibilities with the community foundation team. As we begin the conversation, we’ll evaluate which type of gift format might be a good fit for your situation. For example:
- You can certainly deed your house to the community foundation outright. This might be a solid option if you are planning to sell the house in the near future to downsize or move to a retirement community. This is an especially good option if you do not need to rely on the sale proceeds to fund either your next move or your ongoing living expenses. And, if the total value of all your assets is in a range where you could be subject to estate tax, transferring your house to the community foundation takes the home’s value out of your estate, tax free, because of the charitable deduction. The community foundation will likely list the property shortly after you make the gift. Then, the proceeds from the sale will flow into your donor-advised or other type of fund to help you fulfill your charitable goals.
- If you’re hoping to get a little money from the sale of your residence, but you don’t need the full amount of its value, you can explore what’s known as a “bargain sale.” This transaction allows you to sell the property to the community foundation at a price below market value, allowing you to receive some income while still making a charitable contribution.
- Another option is to transfer your residence using a “charitable remainder trust.” You’d transfer title to the property to the trust, and the trust would provide you with income for the rest of your life (or a term of years). Any remaining value would flow to your fund at the community foundation to support the causes you care about. You’d also be eligible for an up front income tax deduction based on the present value of the amount projected to pass to your charitable fund in the future.
If you’re interested in giving your residence to your fund at the community foundation, our team will work closely with you and your advisors to carefully evaluate the opportunities and walk through all of the steps in the process. For example, it’s important to look at factors such as valuation (which must be documented with a qualified appraisal), whether there’s a mortgage on the property that would make a gift more challenging, how long you’ve held the property and your cost basis, and ensuring that a sale is not already formally or informally in the works.
You’ve spent years making your house a home. We look forward to exploring the possibilities for extending the joy your personal residence brings to you and your family by transforming the property into a source for community benefit.
Inspiring good habits: Tips for better giving
The team at the community foundation is committed to sharing tips and insights that can help you get more satisfaction from your charitable giving and in turn make an even bigger difference in the causes you care about.
Here are three recommendations:
Strive for energetic effectiveness. Whether a gift to charity is $25, $2500, or $25 million, it’s cause for celebration. Philanthropic support of all shapes and sizes can make a difference. What’s even better, though, is to apply discipline to those dollars so that the strategy matches the enthusiasm. Certainly media-based philanthropy efforts are effective to raise the overall awareness about charitable giving, but awareness is just the beginning. At the community foundation, our team is dedicated to helping you apply your charitable passions to make a meaningful impact, especially by helping you address root causes with your giving, above and beyond providing immediate relief to those in need.
Give from the heart. A recent Rolling Stone article illustrates how philanthropy can shape leaders by instilling values of empathy and responsibility. The author shares a heartwarming perspective based on participating in charitable activities as a child to rally around a sister with Down Syndrome. This makes such an important point: When your philanthropic efforts mean a lot to you, you’re more likely to stay engaged for the long term, resulting in significant cumulative community return on your personal investments. It’s really inspiring to see charitable individuals view their contributions as part of their personal and professional development.
Get your kids involved. The community foundation is always striving to offer ways for fund holders to involve their children and grandchildren in charitable giving. This is really important in light of the decline in charitable giving, especially among younger generations, which is becoming a significant concern. We encourage you to explore the factors behind this trend and reach out to the community foundation to discuss potential solutions and ways you can help.
Thank you for your commitment to philanthropy! If you’re already a fund holder, we are grateful that you’ve made the choice to organize your giving by working with the community foundation. If you’re considering getting started, we’d love the opportunity to work together.
The team at the community foundation is honored to serve as a resource and sounding board as you build your charitable plans and pursue your philanthropic objectives for making a difference in the community. This newsletter is provided for informational purposes only. It is not intended as legal, accounting, or financial planning advice. Please consult your tax or legal advisor to learn how this information might apply to your own situation.
