How Can I Give?

Once you have decided that you want to give, you need to decide exactly what form that gift will take. There are many options to choose from. The list below includes ways to give during your lifetime. If you are interested in planned giving, that is charitable giving that will continue after your death, please see Planned Giving.

Direct Gifts
Affiliate Funds
Charitable Gift Fund
Corporate Giving Program/Corporate Foundation
Workplace Giving Program
Donor Advised Fund
Donor Designated Fund
Field of Interest Fund
Supporting Organization
Giving Circle
Life Insurance Gift
Pooled Income Fund
Qualified Terminable Interest Property (QTIP)
Volunteering

Direct Gifts
Making direct gifts to charities is familiar to most people. Many of us write checks to our favorite charities' annual fundraising campaigns, drop coins in collection boxes at our local supermarket, or participate in direct giving in other ways.

Direct gifts provide immediate financial support for a wide variety of nonprofit organizations working to meet important community needs in such areas as health care, the arts, the environment, civic improvement, and human services.

Affiliate Funds
Affiliate funds operate like freestanding community foundations for smaller communities. By affiliating with a local community foundation, these groups can enjoy the benefits of a community foundation without having to file incorporation papers, apply to the IRS for 501(c)(3) status, arrange for annual audits, or raise funding for staff.

Affiliates have a local board of directors who raise the initial investment, create awareness about the foundation within their communities, and determine recipients for grants.

Charitable Gift Fund
Charitable gift funds are charitable affiliates of for-profit financial institutions, such as banks and mutual fund companies. These funds are donor advised funds; therefore, the donor recommends which nonprofit organizations receive grants out of the fund with the board of the charitable affiliate making the final decision. Cash gifts are deductible at rates of up to 50% of adjusted gross income; gifts of appreciated property are deductible at rates of up to 30% of adjusted gross income.

Corporate Giving Program/Corporate Foundations
A corporate giving (direct giving) program is a grantmaking program established and administered within a for-profit company. Gifts or grants go directly to charitable organizations from the corporation.

Corporate foundations and corporate giving programs do not have a separate endowment. The expenses associated with the giving program are included in the company's annual budget.

Workplace giving campaigns
Federated funds—like the United Way and others—participate in annual workplace giving campaigns that raise millions of dollars for local, state, and national nonprofit organizations.

Workplace giving campaigns enable employees to set up an automatic deduction from their payroll checks to be donated to one or more federated funds, and sometimes to individual charities, of their choosing.

Consult your employer for details about the federated funds and other workplace giving options that are available at your company.

Donor Advised Fund
A donor advised fund is a fund held by a community foundation or other public charity, where the donor, or a committee appointed by the donor, may recommend eligible charitable recipients for grants from the fund. The public charity's governing body, such as the board of directors, accepts or rejects the recommendations.

Donor Designated Fund
A donor designated fund is a fund held by a community foundation where the donor has specified that the fund's income or assets be given to one or more specific public charities.

These funds are sometimes established by a transfer of assets by a public charity to a fund designated for its own benefit. In this case they may be known as grantee endowments.

The community foundation's governing body must have the power to redirect resources in the fund if it determines that the donor's restriction is unnecessary, incapable of fulfillment or inconsistent with the charitable needs of the community or area served.

Field of Interest Fund
A field of interest fund is a fund held by a community foundation that is used for a specific charitable purpose, such as education or health research.

Supporting Organization
A supporting organization is a special kind of giving vehicle for donors. It combines the tax advantages of a donor advised fund with some of the control afforded by a private foundation, while avoiding the administrative burdens, excise taxes and payout requirements of the latter. Supporting organizations are often – though not always – associated with a community foundation.

A supporting organization is always legally associated with another nonprofit organization or organizations. In varying degrees, a supporting organization operates in conjunction with its associated organization(s). Legally, however, a supporting organization is a separate entity from the nonprofit organization(s) with which it is associated, has its own board of directors, makes its own decisions, and has its own 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status from the Internal Revenue Service.

For some types of supporting organizations, trustees of the associated nonprofit are required to serve on the supporting organization's board.

A supporting organization is classified as a public charity, even when there is only one donor, or one family of donors that underwrites its activities.

Typically, donors who start supporting organizations use them to make grants to other charities. They can, however, serve other charitable purposes.

Giving Circle
A giving circle is a group of donors who place their charitable dollars into a pooled fund, and decide as a group which nonprofit organizations to support. Giving circle donors often commit to participate for several years at an established dollar level, and the funds are typically donated to nonprofits chosen by the entire group.

Giving circles vary in structure, size and focus. Some giving circles are very informal—a group of friends with a bank account who meet in each other's homes to discuss and decide on where their funds will go. Other giving circles have hundreds of members and governing boards, and may use a community foundation to manage the financial aspects of their giving.

Many giving circles offer their members a chance to work on grantmaking committees and evaluate nonprofits firsthand, via site visits and other volunteer activities. Often, giving circles provide a venue for discussion of broader issues related to giving, such as financial planning.
Learn more about starting a giving circle!

Life Insurance Gift
A gift of life insurance may be made either by designating a charity as a beneficiary of a policy or by arranging for it to become the owner of the policy. If the charity is designated as the beneficiary, the gift entails many of the same advantages as a bequest. If the charity becomes the owner of the policy, this can result in current income tax savings.

Pooled Income Fund
A pooled income fund is a life-income arrangement wherein the income from the donor's gift is paid to the donor (and/or designated friends and family members) for life at the rate earned by the total pool of gifts. A pooled income fund contribution has some of the same features as a mutual fund investment. Upon the death of the last beneficiary, the remaining funds pass to the charity or charities designated.

Qualified Terminable Interest Property (QTIP)
A qualified terminable interest property trust will provide the donor's spouse the right to income for life. Upon the spouse's death, the trust property will be passed on to a designated charity or charities. This arrangement is more flexible than the charitable remainder trust. Here, the trustee may be given broader powers including the right to invade trust principal for the support and comfort of the surviving spouse.

Volunteering
In addition to giving dollars to charity, you can help your community by donating your time and talents. Nonprofit organizations are in great need of capable, committed volunteers, and your volunteer contributions can enhance the financial contributions you make to an organization.

While many charities welcome volunteers, please keep in mind the fact that some are quite stretched and may not have the capacity to manage the work of volunteers.