The Donor Fund | Imamother

amother

Sun, Feb 06 2022, 12:37 pm

Can you tell me a little about how this works. How is this different from just having a tzedaka account and what is the minimum? What are the benefits?

STovah

Sun, Feb 06 2022, 2:20 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Can you tell me a little about how this works. How is this different from just having a tzedaka account and what is the minimum? What are the benefits?

Donor Advised funds have been around for a while. Benefits are that you get the tax deduction upon funding the account, and you don’t need to keep track of your donations beyond the payment to the donor advised fund. They all have different minimums and fee structures.

amother

Yarrow

Sun, Feb 06 2022, 3:03 pm

I use OJC for a while now. Love it. Just donate bigger chunks when I can afford and just write out checks from there when I have a place I want to donate to. They also have a CC option which is great for all those online campaigns. Best thing is no keeping receipts for years.

amother

Sun, Feb 06 2022, 4:11 pm

Just confused what would be the benefit of this over just a regular account? I'm also specifically asking about the lakewood based "donor fund". Anyone have experience? I'm very new to all this so all help appreciated.

amother

Almond

Sun, Feb 06 2022, 4:20 pm

Yes if you need to keep track of your donations for tax purposes then donors fund is the best choice (at least in Lakewood). I take the standard tax deduction so I don’t use it.

amother

Slateblue

Sun, Feb 06 2022, 9:54 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Seems to me the benefit is they keep track of all the tax receipts so you don’t have to busy yourself with that

STovah

Sun, Feb 06 2022, 9:58 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Doesn’t matter if it’s the Lakewood based “donor fund” or OJC or the Jewish Communal Fund, or the Fidelity or Morgan Stanley gift funds. You fund the account. You get a tax deduction for that donation. The money then sits in your donor advised fund account and you ‘recommend’ grants to whichever organizations you’d like to send money to. You don’t need to keep track of any other donations for tax deductions and you don’t need to keep receipts. It also became more popular when the standard deduction increased, so one year you give a large donation to your donor advised fund account, and itemize your deductions that year. The next year you don’t donate, and you take the standard deduction.

doodlesmom

Wed, Feb 09 2022, 6:04 pm

We use the donors fund and its great to have our charity so organized.
We had an audit for a couple years back, thank gd our charity had gone through the Donors fund at that point. All I needed to do was print out my donations from there instead of tracking every receipt for every donation I made.

I also like to use their “vouchers” when kids or anyone come collecting at the door, because
A. I know the kids won’t just keep the cash
B. It all gets tax deducted when if it would’ve been small cash it wouldn’t have.
C. I don’t need to go searching for small bills.

amother

Slateblue

Sat, Nov 26 2022, 6:27 pm

Can anyone explain more about this?
What fees do they charge?
Can I donate small amounts at a time for example $200 a week as my maaser?

amother

Aubergine

Sat, Nov 26 2022, 7:26 pm

You can also use a donor advised fund to eliminate the capital gains tax you would normally pay if you sold your stock, by donating the appreciated stocks to the fund.

amother

Slateblue

Sat, Nov 26 2022, 9:20 pm

amother Aubergine wrote:

You can also use a donor advised fund to eliminate the capital gains tax you would normally pay if you sold your stock, by donating the appreciated stocks to the fund.

That means I’m giving away my stocks to tzedakah. Which is very nice but if I need it for retirement or simchas…

amother

Lilac

Sun, Nov 27 2022, 11:40 am

I was the recipient of a donor fund check. The check was worth less than the dollar amount, because a fee was deducted when it was redeemed.

(the person who gave me the check was not aware of that. It was supposed to be payment for something, but they wanted to go thru the donor fund....they didn't realize I would get less than the amount of their payment.)

amother

PlumPink

Mon, Mar 18 2024, 12:02 pm

amother Lilac wrote:

bumping this.
I want to give maaser to someone in israel who I know personally needs the money badly (family member in kollel). How can he cash my Donor fund check if he is not part of an organization?

RM3

Mon, Mar 18 2024, 4:50 pm

amother Slateblue wrote:

That means I’m giving away my stocks to tzedakah. Which is very nice but if I need it for retirement or simchas…

I’ll explain.
If you anyway give $10k/yr to Tzedaka, and you have a stock that appreciated $10k in value. Transfer the stock into your DAF account. And take the $10k in funds that you would have deposited in your DAF for Tzedaka and instead deposit it into your brokerage account and buy that same stock again at the now current high price.
What you’re left with now is that you have $10k in your DAF for you to distribute(same as every year).
You own the same stock you used to own. But now you reset your basis to the higher price without having to have paid any capital gains tax. So when the day in the future comes and you want to sell the stock, your capital gains tax will be much lower.

amother

NeonPurple

Mon, Mar 18 2024, 4:58 pm

amother Lilac wrote:

How much less?