When a client has very limited time to make plans (i.e. at year-end), he or she may find it difficult to quickly determine what specific charities to support. The PACF can help by establishing a Donor Advised Fund usually in just one meeting. Establishing a Donor Advised Fund allows your client to gain an immediate tax-deduction and still remain involved in the distribution of the gift, as the distribution is not connected to the deduction timing. Your client can then later work with our staff to learn more about non-profits in the area that may be of interest and to make grants at his or her convenience.
Once clients have provided for their family in their estates, they may soon realize they don't want their remaining assets to go to the government; instead they want to benefit charitable causes of their choosing. The PACF can assist your client by structuring an advance agreement that outlines the terms of use for a charitable fund that will be funded at some point in the future using a remainder gift through a will or trust.
We can suggest several ways to structure a charitable gift, including planned giving techniques that can mitigate or eliminate capital gains tax. These options then allow for the highly appreciated stock to do volumes of good work for our community. Your client receives market value (average of the high/low values on the date of the gift) for his or her charitable gift while the gains get put to work for charitable purposes.
It’s never a good idea to have “all your eggs in one basket,” and it’s especially risky during a volatile economic climate. If your client has charitable intent, a charitable remainder trust is a great way to diversify the holdings in a client’s portfolio and to create an income stream for your client, while at the same time doing good for our community. Donating stock to a donor advised fund, again, if one has charitable intent, will result in a diversification of the assets with the gain able to be used for charitable gift making purposes.
Many commercial entities offer “charitable gift funds” that are donor advised accounts. The PACF introduced its donor advised fund program in 1986 – five years BEFORE the earliest commercial gift fund. The major difference that you will quickly notice is the ability to access local staff who have strong knowledge of the region’s nonprofit sector and local needs. Our staff is not simply a voice at the end of a long-distance phone line – a physical meeting in the region is always possible and you can count on our staff to have the local knowledge that you need, or to find it quickly if it’s not readily available.