Archive for the Category Charitable Giving

 
 

Start Your Own Charity

A donor-advised fund offers tax advantages. But a family foundation lets you call all the shots.

From Kiplinger’s Personal Finance:

Irving Kempner, the son of Holocaust survivors liberated by the U.S. Army, shows gratitude for his good fortune by giving to the American Jewish Committee, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and other charitable causes. When Kempner, a 59-year-old retired corporate executive (he was a vice-president of Gillette and chief executive of LoJack, the car-security company), makes grants, he does so through the Kempner Family Foundation.

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Giving with Strings Attached

A guide to making sure your gift accomplishes what you want it to.

From Kiplinger’s Personal Finance:

A donation to your favorite charity is more than a gift or a tax break — it’s an investment. Pick an inefficient charity and your contribution will be eaten by administrative costs and fund-raising expenses. You can attach strings to your gifts, but a targeted gift that misses the mark (or is diverted) will cause you financial grief.

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Charities That Deserve Your Dollars

For your money to make a difference, you need to do your homework.

From Kiplinger’s Personal Finance:

When Andrew Medvedev makes a donation, he wants to know exactly how much environmental good his dollar will deliver. Medvedev, a 29-year-old investment banker, looks at an organization’s goals and finances to figure out which of the more than 450 green charities in the U.S. are worthy of his bucks. “If we don’t have the planet, everything else is irrelevant,” says the Hoboken, N.J., man, who gives 2% of his annual income to the Animal Welfare Institute, the Conservation Fund and the World Wildlife Foundation.

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Do Good With a Donor-Advised Fund

Budding philanthropists can invest their money and give to their favorite charities.

From Kiplinger’s Personal Finance:

The perfect vehicle for budding philanthropists is a donor-advised fund. Such a fund lets you turn over assets (money, stocks, bonds) to a program run by a financial-services firm, a community foundation or a charitable group. You then advise the program to give to your favorite charities. The program invests your assets, and as they grow, you have more money to grant. You also get a tax deduction in the year you make a contribution.

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