If you live in the US and like to donate to charity you can have your own private foundation and you don’t have to be a jerk about it! It can be a convenient way for you to do good in the world.
It’s called a Donor Advised Fund and you can donate large sums to it and then direct the money in pieces to charities you support over time. In between the money gets to grow if you choose to invest it, and you get the tax write off at the time of donation not distribution because you can never get the money back.
Why would you do this? Well maybe you had a windfall profit one year (sold your company?) and you want to donate a lot of it before the tax year ends but you’re not sure where yet.
Or maybe you want to donate something besides cash to a charity without the systems to accept it. Like appreciated shares in your company, or cryptocurrency.
If you do this for the right reasons it’s not sinister at all. It’s just a safe and tax efficient way to manage your charitable ambitious.
(Note: there’s a lot to argue about when it comes to what counts as a charity in the US and the nearly unlimited nature of the income deductions you can get from donating. But in the end I think as long as the tax code stays the way it is it makes sense for people who can afford it to give some money to a cause they support)
True. Don’t know about Daffy but I’ve looked at Fidelity Charitable which does something very similar. “Donate” now, save taxes now, distribute the money when you want but let it grow (however you want) until then.
Fidelity and Vanguard charitable are two of the biggest DAF providers. Daffy is not nearly as well established but I like the UX. Honestly I just use it because donating to most charities via bank transfer is a massive pain and Daffy makes it simple.
It’s called a Donor Advised Fund and you can donate large sums to it and then direct the money in pieces to charities you support over time. In between the money gets to grow if you choose to invest it, and you get the tax write off at the time of donation not distribution because you can never get the money back.
Why would you do this? Well maybe you had a windfall profit one year (sold your company?) and you want to donate a lot of it before the tax year ends but you’re not sure where yet.
Or maybe you want to donate something besides cash to a charity without the systems to accept it. Like appreciated shares in your company, or cryptocurrency.
If you do this for the right reasons it’s not sinister at all. It’s just a safe and tax efficient way to manage your charitable ambitious.
You can even set one up on your phone, in like 10 minutes: https://www.daffy.org/
(Note: there’s a lot to argue about when it comes to what counts as a charity in the US and the nearly unlimited nature of the income deductions you can get from donating. But in the end I think as long as the tax code stays the way it is it makes sense for people who can afford it to give some money to a cause they support)