How Do You Handle Charitable Giving?

[Golden sunsets]

Thanks for sharing to those who outlined their approach.

Kaneohe; This is good news, as we would need to ask for 15 or so checks as well. I presume that you did not have to withhold from the amount being treated as a QCD? Did the broker mail the checks directly to the charity and are the charities notified who the donor is, or did you have the checks sent to you and dispense them yourself to the recipients?

"Might depend on the broker perhaps, but mine does my 15-20 or so checks to various orgs w/o a fuss and they're not huge amounts. "

 

[VanWinkle]

Absolutely! I am well into RMD's, and for large donations I use QCD's. Every check I get from the brokerage has a stub indicating the institution or charity the money goes to.
Between state and federal tax, that saves me about 25%, so we both benefit.

Thanks Souschef for the confirmation on QCDs!!!

VW

 

[kaneohe]

Thanks for sharing to those who outlined their approach.

Kaneohe; This is good news, as we would need to ask for 15 or so checks as well. I presume that you did not have to withhold from the amount being treated as a QCD? Did the broker mail the checks directly to the charity and are the charities notified who the donor is, or did you have the checks sent to you and dispense them yourself to the recipients?

"Might depend on the broker perhaps, but mine does my 15-20 or so checks to various orgs w/o a fuss and they're not huge amounts. "

I did not w/h from the distributions. I had the checks sent to me.....easier for me to stuff them in the appropriate envelopes than to tell the broker all 20 addresses or to send all the envelopes to broker and hope the right checks got in the right envelope.

 

[gcgang]

My DAF is has been building faster than I've been donating, lately.

We set up a few deferred gift annuities when I was working. Income doesn't amount to more than a few thousand per year, but can be a good way to reduce stocks if you're still in higher income tax brackets.

 

[RobbieB]

I used to send them checks, but I've got all the ones I like on internet banking now and it's easy.

 

[street]

We give in chunks and at different events that the foundation has through the year. We don't budget for it we just give what ever or when ever.

I am on the board of directors for the charity I donate to.

 

[audreyh1]

We give once a year anonymously through our Donor Advised Fund (DAF). We have a budget related to the size of our DAF. We tend to give to the same charities. We chose charities that we are involved with and they are mostly local.

 

[GoodWishes]

We loosely have a target amount that we want to donate each year which we share. We first decide which charities we want to donate to. Most of them are the same every year. Smaller, local charities that we have connection with in some ways. We usually donate toward the end of the year. We always donate online which is hard to do anonymously.

 

[Camellia]

I like this thread. I have met some very generous philanthropists, and while some are personally odd, I admire them all.


1) Do you have a budget?

A general estimate every year of how much we want to give (bunched up every other year now due to increased standard deduction)

2) How do you decide individual amounts to give to each recipient?

We give mainly to 2-3 organizations, with small ($100) gifts to others, trying to maximize impact on those 2-3 while also supporting others when they are crowd funding.

3) If married do you share the budget equally with your SO?

yes

4) Have you set up a Donor Advised Fund?

no

5) Do you vet the recipient organizations?

yes

6) Do you give anonymously?

no


For the larger gifts we donate appreciated stock. That way the price of the stock becomes a factor in how much and when during the year we give.

 

[JoeWras]

For the larger gifts we donate appreciated stock. That way the price of the stock becomes a factor in how much and when during the year we give.

That's primarily why we got the DAF. Easy to give appreciated stock. It is the best asset to donate, tax-wise.

The DAF allows easy giving to the receiving charities, and one gift can be split among many charities very easily.

 

[audreyh1]

Can you have a QCD go into a DAF and then be dispursed to qualifying charities?

No, unfortunately.

That would certainly simplify the donation paperwork/tracking and maintain the anonymity.

 

[pb4uski]

Yeah, that is exactly what I was thinking.

 

[braumeister]

For me, the biggest advantage of the DAF is simply the ability to give anonymously. 95% of our annual gifts are anonymous, so we stay off the avalanche of begging letters. Since we set up the DAF five years ago we have roughly doubled the amount we donate every year. Fidelity makes it so easy, and the majority of our donations are set up as recurring annual gifts.

 

[pacergal]

1) Do you have a budget? Yes
2) How do you decide individual amounts to give to each recipient? Equal amounts to each
3) If married do you share the budget equally with your SO? Yes
4) Have you set up a Donor Advised Fund? Will look into closer to RMD time
5) Do you vet the recipient organizations? Yes
6) Do you give anonymously? No
7) Do your recipients vary from year to year? No, have the same two I give to each year, plus church and kids.

 

[gerntz]

QCD’s starting now. Can’t beat them financially for you and thus receivers.

 

[Bir48die]

My giving amount and where it all goes is somewhat fixed and somewhat fluid. I gave a considerable amount of money when I was working. Now that I'm retired I keep with roughly the same % but of course less than it should be.

I've always given at least half my donated money to the church. For quite awhile I donated the other half to secular charities. ALL OF THESE CHARITIES I WAS VERY FAMILIAR WITH AND HAVE NEVER HAD TO "VET" ANY OF THEM. In some fashion I had done some work with them or knew them intimately through others. Mainly the focused around homelessness, free medical work or food banks. Another was the hospital that helped my late wife live 3x as long as she was supposed to.

I have felt the need for my church to get 95% of my dollars as it shores things up with a new pastor. Once they get on better financial footing I'll probably adjust again. Just like many do with changing AA. Lastly, I do not nor have I ever pledged money. I give as I feel led and that's what I tell others. I did give a range of giving to my church once when they were doing a capital campaign but otherwise I just tell those who need to know that I will give something.

 

[FIREd]

I have a DAF set up at Fidelity. Now that I am retired, I use it almost exclusively to make charitable donations (anonymously most of the time). So I don't have a budget line for donations anymore, though I still make a few small donations here and there from cash flow.

There are a couple of organizations to which I give regularly. But otherwise, the charities I donate to change quite a bit from year to year. I tend to give based on needs. This year I gave mostly to a local non-profit institute which has had a beneficial impact on the local economy. They needed donations to expand. I also give money to disaster relief as needed. I mostly give to well known organizations so a thorough vetting is usually unnecessary.

 

[athena53]

I have felt the need for my church to get 95% of my dollars as it shores things up with a new pastor. Once they get on better financial footing I'll probably adjust again.

I kind of fell into a trap in this category. It can really be generalized to cases when anyone's donation is a large % of the charity's budget- not just churches. I've been gradually increasing what I give to my church. Unlike you, I pledge- I know what it means to them (and the bank) to have a commitment even if it's not legally binding. We're struggling- went through a couple of priests over the past few years, lost some key people, most recently two families who, combined, probably pledged 1/5 of our total pledge income, have left. (I'm guessing- haven't been Financial Secretary for a few years.) My current pledge is also close to 20% of total pledges.

Now I feel like I can't back down. I should mention that my withdrawal rate since retirement is 3.2% annually and I live (and travel) very well. I'm not short-changing myself nor do I have any illusions of buying my way into a cushy afterlife. I just know that this is a wonderful community and many people just don't have that much to give, so I do. (I also think it would be pretty crappy to post from Business Class airline lounges in Europe and then claim I have to cut my pledge because I'm having a hard time financially.)

I think that in the future I'll be very wary of being such a large part of the budget of any nonprofit.

 

[Offgrid Organic Farmer]

How Do You Handle Charitable Giving?
By that I mean;

1) Do you have a budget?

Yes.

2) How do you decide individual amounts to give to each recipient?

We stay within budget and we give whatever seems right.

3) If married do you share the budget equally with your SO?

Yes

4) Have you set up a Donor Advised Fund?

No

5) Do you vet the recipient organizations?

Yes

6) Do you give anonymously?

No

7) Do your recipients vary from year to year?

Yes

 

[Golden sunsets]

Just an update on the QCD route for giving. I checked with our broker and confirmed that all I have to do is give them a list of recipients with amounts. They will either mail the checks directly or mail them to us to deliver. No minimum check amounts, no maximum number of checks cut and no fees. Our accountant also confirmed that this is the route to go. No need for us to set up a DAF.

 

[RockyMtn]

We have used a Schwab DAF for the last ten years or so. Will fund DAF in alternate years with other bunched deductions given new tax laws. Always fund with appreciated stocks in order to sidestep cap gains tax.

We have a dozen or so charities that we give to. The Schwab DAF makes it easy....just hit the "grant again" button and enter the amount.

 

[audreyh1]

Just an update on the QCD route for giving. I checked with our broker and confirmed that all I have to do is give them a list of recipients with amounts. They will either mail the checks directly or mail them to us to deliver. No minimum check amounts, no maximum number of checks cut and no fees. Our accountant also confirmed that this is the route to go. No need for us to set up a DAF.

From what I read Fidelity let’s you write checks on your IRA and that’s what some folks use for QCDs.