Year-End Giving

The end of the year already brings with it a sense of magic and inspiration as people come together to celebrate love, community and hope. Year-end giving adds to the magic. It is an important part of the year for charities and donors alike as year-end giving inspires people to open up their hearts a little more and support the causes/charities that they are passionate about. In this blog post I am going to cover four topics which include: -what donors need to be thinking about for year-end giving, and how donors can start preparing now for their year-end giving -what are the different types of ways you can do year-end giving -what do the processes look like for year-end giving -how Legacy Global Foundation comes into play with year-end giving What do donors need to be thinking about/ how can donors prepare for year-end giving? If there is anything I want you to take away from reading this blog post it's this: preparation is key to year-end giving. The end of the year is busy for everyone. There is much to do and there doesn't seem to be enough time to get everything completed. Ways that you can plan and prepare for year-end giving are as follows: -Know what kind of asset(s) you would like to give, and schedule a meeting with charitable planners (Legacy Global Foundation) as well as your financial advisors. -Discuss with your estate planning attorneys, CPA's, and financial professionals to see what kind of liabilities you might have this year, and how much you'd want to give an end-user charity or maybe your own family foundation, or any kind of charitable entity (donor-advised fund, fiscal sponsorship etc.). The sooner you talk to your financial professionals, the better. They tend to get exceptionally busy towards this time of year. -Anticipate ahead of time what you're going to be earning for the year. For example, if you are going to be making a ton of money you'll probably have some tax problems. To avoid tax problems you can anticipate how you can off-set those taxes while also looking at how it'll align with your charitable mission. -It is a good idea to discuss with your family at least once a year to either set or review your charitable goals. What are the different types of ways you can do your year-end giving and what do those processes look like? There are many different ways to go about your year-end giving. You can give cash donations or non-cash donations. For cash donations, the process is simple. What you give is what will be deducted. Our payment processors (DonorBox, Stripe, PayPal) allow you to give last minute. At Legacy, we can have cash donations completed minimum one week, and at maximum two weeks. Non-cash donations include stock, real estate, art work, cryptocurrency etc.. At Legacy we take basically anything! The process with how you donate non-cash donations can be a bit of a wait time because of how busy it can get for CPA's/finance professionals. For example, with real-estate make sure that you don't have anything signed (i.e. contract, pledge) because this can damage the gift. Signed contracts or pledges can void the gift completely. We advise that you do word-of-mouth. You also want to make sure you get an appraisal (it is important to note that the seller pays for the appraisal). Make sure that the appraisal is not old, but soon enough to where the gift is given. Typically within six months have an appraiser sign an IRS form 8283. The whole purpose of the 8283 is in case of an audit. Write the deed and get it filed with the county it resides in. Once the real-estate is donated it counts as a deduction. The process of selling the asset, investing the asset, or using the asset for charitable use depending on what it is - this can happen well after, but getting it into the charity to where it's filed with the appropriate places - that can take quite a bit. We do have a letter of intent/pledge that could possibly save you if you happen to miss the 12/31 deadline, but we recommend that you not use this because you don't want to give an auditor room to argue. Time frame for non-cash donations take around four to six weeks minimum. We offer this warning as a caution: if you wait last minute to do your year-end giving it can get complicated. There could be extra fees because of last minute giving (i.e. expediting fees), and those fees take away from the gifts. That is money out of your pocket! Late fees = lack of planning. If you are a charity needing donations, you can reach out to businesses, present them with your charitable mission and ask them to consider your charity for donations. Talk with the businesses about what can be donated and what can be counted as a tax donation. A good question to consider as a charity would be how can I, as a charity, try and help these organizations get their tax donation and also maximize donations to my charity? For businesses looking for charities to donate to, you should consider how much your business needs to donate, and who you are going to donate to. Some companies have this already pre-assigned well in advance. How does Legacy come into play with year-end giving? At Legacy Global Foundation we help with charitable planning. Charitable planning is a plan put together to help you support a cause or a charity that you are passionate about. We also help with complicated gifts to charity, and we help with tax strategies. Our clients range from donors, financial advisors, insurance professionals, wealth advisors and family offices. How do you know if the charity you are donating to is a legit charity? Legacy does the homework so that you don't have to. We vet charities to make sure that you know your donation is going towards good works. Legacy ensures charitable donations are used wisely, well, and efficiently - and that they don't end up in the hands of people who take advantage of the human impulse to help. Tools that we use to vet charities are Charity Navigator and Guidestar. We also make sure to get an IRS letter of determination from 501(c)3's. We look for annual reports, 990's etc.. We do it all! Contact us and let us know when to start your process for year-end giving! Check out these additional sources for additional information: If you want to be successful with planned giving, know your options https://www.legacyglobal.org/post/if-you-want-to-be-successful-at-planned-giving-know-your-options Love: An opportunity to lift the world https://www.legacyglobal.org/post/love-an-opportunity-to-lift-the-world How your impact on the world is really measured https://www.legacyglobal.org/post/how-your-impact-on-the-world-is-really-measured