Smarting up your charitable giving
The bad news is: the world needs changing. Poverty, Hunger, Inequality, Disease, it?s a long list, and battling it is pricey. The good news, Millions of Americans are willing to help. According to numbers published by the Chronicle of Philanthropy, US citizens have donated a healthy total of $62.7billion to US charities-and that?s counting only the donations to the largest charities. This is the highest yearly percentage gain on the Chronicles records. While this is great news, there are a few tips and simple tricks how you can make your money make even more of a difference.
The biggest catalyst for your money is time. Time is money, and money is time. The earlier you give, the more you give. More and more charitable foundations have realized that it actually costs them real money to miss out on gifts from donors that decide to wait with their contributions until they find the right charity. So what some very popular foundations do is they allow you to open an account, or fund in your name at their institution, where you can deposit money whenever you like. At the moment the money is deposited you can take a tax deduction for that amount. But there is no pressure whatsoever to decide at that moment in time who you want to give it to. In the meanwhile the fund is investing and working with your money, and your fund grows and grows.
Another great way to squeeze something extra out of your donations is to buy shares of a mutual fund in order to open your charitable fund. That way, when you decide to donate, the fund can sell them for you tax free-saving you the deduction of capital gains taxes on the profit the shares made. And lastly: focus your goodness! Even though there are hundred of worthy causes to give to, try to single out a few key causes that are closest to your heart, and give generously. This way you will do your part in reducing the amounts that charities will spend in trying to woo their previous donors to contribute again.
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