How do you handle DAF donation attributions?

[The Cosmic Avenger]

This is our first year with a donor-advised fund...I actually opened it and funded it in the last few weeks. I just started making the donations for FY 2018 (even though I realize that our donations are done, I don't want to make the charities we've supported wait longer than usual for our annual support), and I'm torn on how to handle the attributions, which is what Fido calls the line where you can make your donation in your name and address, just your fund name, or anonymously. For most of them I put just the name of our fund, but for a few like local chapters we support, I put our names and address on there, too (which I'm not worried about, as we have a PO box). And for most of the biggest donations I put that, too, as the "leadership circle" newsletters do have some useful information, although one organization mostly floods us with solicitations, and so they only got our fund name as the attribution.

So, how do the rest of you handle the attribution for your grants, balancing privacy vs. membership/information?

 

[RunningBum]

Mostly anonymous, except for the local volunteer fire dept and rescue squad. It's a small community, and I went it known that I support them. There's too much sharing of mailing lists among charities.

 

[HarveyS]

I'm moving to all anonymous. I really get annoyed by all the mail that comes to me asking for more. What a waste of resources. In fact, the one group that sends the most was recently removed from my list of charities I support.

 

[audreyh1]

We only do anonymous donations.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

So those of you who are saying anonymous, why not just the name of your fund? Or is that not an option where you have your DAF? I don't care that much, but that certainly can afford as much privacy as an anonymous donation, depending on what you name your fund. I named ours "The Avenger-[Partner'sLastName] Charitable Fund", but neither of us has a unique or even very rare last name. I kind of want the charity to know that this fund makes the same contribution every year, as I know the reason they ask for monthly pledges is because it makes budgeting easier. (I have friends in donor relations/development.)

 

[audreyh1]

Our last names are obvious. It would not be anonymous. We mostly give to local charities.

We wish to remain anonymous. For us that is a major benefit of a DAF.

 

[gcgang]

I don't recall being asked "attribution ", other than anonymous or not. If not, it's in the name of the DAF c/o the custodian.

 

[cranberryjoe]

I just opened a DAF and made my first directives this week. I chose full non-anonymous attribution for one local charity I give to every year, in part because I want them to know I'm still giving, and also because they only nag me with a monthly email. It's possible I might give them a much more substantial amount in the distant future, so I'd like them to know I've been giving smaller amounts all along.

So far I've attributed only the name of my fund to national charities. I plan to remain anonymous to local charities (other than the one noted above) since most of them have a history of persistent nagging.

 

[Dd852]

We’ve always used the name of our fund - it isn’t huge, but it has grown to about $200K now. But I’m a bit concerned now as two charities have recently contacted me with the “Since you have a foundation...” line. No No No! It is not a foundation and I’m not Daddy Warbucks simply because we have a DAF!!!

 

[braumeister]

All but 2 or 3 are made anonymously. We opened the DAF five years ago and the number of begging letters has diminished greatly as we gradually drop off mailing lists. We still get the good feeling of knowing we're supporting worthwhile organizations, so there is really no downside to doing it anonymously IMO.

 

[LOL!]

Our DAF is named by our last name, but we once got a Thank You note with a completely different name back. So at the charity, whoever was sending out the notes just mixed our name up with someone next on the To Do list of thank you notes to be sent.

Charities often publish online an annual list of donors, so our trust name is found on the internet many times. Not being anonymous has not created any extra solicitations.

 

[RunningBum]

So those of you who are saying anonymous, why not just the name of your fund? Or is that not an option where you have your DAF? I don't care that much, but that certainly can afford as much privacy as an anonymous donation, depending on what you name your fund. I named ours "The Avenger-[Partner'sLastName] Charitable Fund", but neither of us has a unique or even very rare last name. I kind of want the charity to know that this fund makes the same contribution every year, as I know the reason they ask for monthly pledges is because it makes budgeting easier. (I have friends in donor relations/development.)

Uncommon enough last name that could pretty easily tracked. I don't think I give enough that they need to budget based on what I give. Now that I've got a DAF I tend to give early/mid year rather than end of year when most people do. I don't listen to instructions on giving from charities. NPR constantly tells me how terrible it is to own a car and that I should just donate mine to them, and that really annoys me.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

Uncommon enough last name that could pretty easily tracked. I don't think I give enough that they need to budget based on what I give. Now that I've got a DAF I tend to give early/mid year rather than end of year when most people do. I don't listen to instructions on giving from charities. NPR constantly tells me how terrible it is to own a car and that I should just donate mine to them, and that really annoys me.

That's funny, because my drive time is the only time I have to listen to NPR!

I thought my last name was slightly unusual, but I've found at least 3 or 4 others in public records (that AFAIK are unrelated to me) in my current state alone. I actually own the domain [myreallastname].com, and apparently there are more than I thought, as I occasionally get mail meant for some of them!

Anyway, if they have the fund name but not an address, I'm not worried. I think I'll keep the fund name as my default for now, but maybe start giving anonymously to some of them, too.

 

[FIRE'd@51]

Similar to OP's question. I've been contemplating setting up a DAF with Fidelity. It would be joint with DW. Is there a way to indicate which one of us is the donor since we give to different charities?

 

[braumeister]

Similar to OP's question. I've been contemplating setting up a DAF with Fidelity. It would be joint with DW. Is there a way to indicate which one of us is the donor since we give to different charities?

Yes. Every time you make a grant you have the opportunity to designate the source (which can be anything you want -- anonymous, DAF name, or any name you like).

 

[RunningBum]

btw, I never give my address, just the DAF name to those 2 local ones. Yet they still sent me a thank you, so they matched my DAF name to a previous donation or address with my full name. As I said, small community, pretty uncommon last name, so that's not hard, but it shows that charities might try to find you from just a name.

 

[athena53]

Most of mine are anonymous unless they're in fulfillment of a pledge, in which case they DO need to know it's from me. I don't provide the trust name because it's "The (My last name) Trust" and my last name is fairly uncommon.