RMD's

[sweetana3]

They are called QCD's, qualified charitable distributions. We now process all our charitable contributions thru our IRS/Keogh plans and it is nontaxable to us. Still reported but zeros out. A separate 1099 should be issued by the plan. The money is sent directly. If it comes in a distribution to you, this does not work. So they check cannot be made out to you.

We got a checkbook from Charles Schwab to use for these donations.

This way we get the full standard deduction and full benefit from the charitable contributions. So win win right now. Under the current administration and Congress, this could change at any time.

[Rachel]

Get some good advice about Direct Stock Transfers. You have the stock transferred directly to the qualified charity. You have to estimate about how much money worth of stock you are transferring -- it may turn out to be over or under the exact amount you envision because it can take a day or two for the transfer to take effect and dollar equivalents (prices)change daily and hourly.

[iris lilies]

Get some good advice about Direct Stock Transfers. You have the stock transferred directly to the qualified charity. You have to estimate about how much money worth of stock you are transferring -- it may turn out to be over or under the exact amount you envision because it can take a day or two for the transfer to take effect and dollar equivalents (prices)change daily and hourly.

I think of stock transfers to charities as big league stuff for significant donations.

The small organizations I donate to have no ability to manage stocks.

The largest single donation we will make this year is $10,000. All others are $1,000 -$2,000.

[Tybee]

Another reason I like my Donor Advised Fund. I donate appreciated stock into it, then they sell it and put it into their fund, and I get the donation contribution amount when I donate, but I don't pay capital gains on it, ever.

so I just donated one share of British Tobacco, worth 45 dollars, and they put that into the bigger fund, then I recommend a donation to whomever I want, and they get cash, not the stock itself.

[frugal-one]

Asked Vanguard what a qualified charity was…. told me to ask the charity? Who is “they” in donor advised fund? A brokerage firm or?

[iris lilies]

Asked Vanguard what a qualified charity was…. told me to ask the charity? Who is “they” in donor advised fund? A brokerage firm or?

a qualified charity has 501(c)(3) status

Tybee will tell you more about her donor advised fund. I looked into it for my Vanguard account and whike there’s nothing wrong with it, I just prefer to handle my donations myself individually each year. The big brokerage houses have donor advised funds they manage for their clients.

[iris lilies]

Asked Vanguard what a qualified charity was…. told me to ask the charity? Who is “they” in donor advised fund? A brokerage firm or?

Also, related to this: at age 70.5 we can take $ out of an IRA and give it to a qualified charity without paying tax. Vanguard writes a check made out to the charity, mails it to me, and I make a copy for my tax records and mail it to the charity.

[Tybee]

Here's the one at Schwab:
DAFgiving360 | Donor-Advised Fund | Charles Schwab

Here's the one at Fidelity:
Fidelity Charitable | Official Site

So you set up the donor advised account with your brokerage, and then you contribute to it. When you contribute to it, that is the tax related deduction. At that point, it ceases being your money and becomes part of the charitable fund's money.

But the money sits there in your fund, with your fund's name on it, and then you recommend grants. You submit your recommendation for the grant, then Schwab approves it and sends it.

I think only one time did they reject the recommendation because they could not find a person to talk to and no one had donated there before. They do check them all and won't donate if it does not check out.

Minimum donation seems to be 50 dollars. But I can contribute any amount. I choose to contribute appreciated stock rather than cash so that I don't have to pay capital gains on the stock and the money goes farther.

[iris lilies]

Tybee, that’s interesting that your Schwab account person rejected a recommendation for a donation. I can’t imagine that they could find someone to talk to at one of my little charities like “Ferals In Peril” which is the stray cat organization for my town. I would think 75% of the ones I donate to have never been given donations from a Schwab account.

did you follow up on that? It never occurred to me that the donor advised recommendation would not be honored. The more I think about it, the more I think that really stinks

[Tybee]

Tybee, that’s interesting that your Schwab account person rejected a recommendation for a donation. I can’t imagine that they could find someone to talk to at one of my little charities like “Ferals In Peril” which is the stray cat organization for my town. I would think 75% of the ones I donate to have never been given donations from a Schwab account.

did you follow up on that? It never occurred to me that the donor advised recommendation would not be honored. The more I think about it, the more I think that really stinks

They reached out and asked me for a name and they would have called and followed up, but I didn't have a name, and I did not know of the charity personally, and suspect that it wasn't off the ground yet, and probably did not have their EIN number yet. But if I had had a name, they would have done the calling, etc., and they emailed and called me to try to make it work out. About three times, actually. They want to honor every request. But the charity wasn't local to me, and I just found something else similar, as I wanted to honor the work my mom did in shipbuilding in WWII. I just did not have a person's name for them to call and follow up.

I looked up Ferals in Peril and it is on their list already, so that would be fine. I think anything with an EIN number is usually fine.

It was on me that I did not chase down the Liberty Ship fund from my hometown.

Here is their explanation of the process:

DAFgiving360 is a tax-exempt public charity. Contributions to donor-advised fund accounts at DAFgiving360 are irrevocable gifts to charity. We use the word “recommend” because once assets have been contributed into an account and accepted by DAFgiving360, DAFgiving360 has legal control of the assets in the account. Account holders and additional account users have account advisory privileges, as described in our Program Policies, which include the ability to recommend how assets are invested and to recommend grants to eligible charities. Before approving the grants, DAFgiving360 performs due diligence to verify the eligibility of each recommended grant recipient.