In this issue, we’re covering three highly-requested topics:
- Giving Season: It’s here! What does that mean for you and your clients?
- How donor-advised funds (DAFs) can help your clients giving even when stocks are down
- Clarifying GivingTuesday so that you can be prepared to answer clients’ questions and help them participate in a meaningful way
As always, we are here for you! Please call or email anytime with your charitable giving questions. More often than not, our San Diego Foundation (SDF) team can help your clients. We love serving as your first stop for all things philanthropy.
Giving Season
Did you know more than one-third of all annual giving occurs during the last two months of the year?
This November and December – known as the “Giving Season” – join local professional advisors who turn to SDF for charitable tax expertise, community knowledge and grantmaking guidance to strengthen client engagement.
We help you and your clients give for good, while you retain complete control of your client relationships.
As you consider what your clients can donate with year-end deadlines approaching, reference our 2022 Contributions Guidelines to plan gifts accordingly.
Explore Year-End Giving Resources
Year-End Giving in a Bear Market: DAFs Come in Handy
Giving appreciated stock to charitable organizations is certainly a highly-effective tax strategy. During years when highly-appreciated stock is in short supply, however, implementing this strategy may be easier said than done.
This is when donor-advised funds come in especially handy.
Now is the time to discuss charitable giving with those clients who regularly added to their DAFs throughout the market’s long bull run. If these clients intend to ride out today’s market conditions in their personal portfolios, this year’s bear market doesn’t mean the clients’ year-end charitable giving has to take a hit. These clients can use their DAFs to support their favorite organizations, sometimes even at levels consistent with prior years.
Related, now is a good time for clients to evaluate the DAF investment portfolio(s). SDF is happy to assist your clients in this process.
Similarly, for some clients, this may be a year to consider contributing cash to a DAF instead of donating highly-appreciated stock (which has been the go-to gift for so many of the last several years). Gifts of cash could reduce the burden on a client’s personal stock positions that may have fallen in value dramatically, giving these positions more time to recover value and, at some point in the future, be contributed to a DAF at a higher value (thereby resulting in a higher tax deduction for the client).
Finally, consider encouraging your clients who’ve not yet established DAFs at SDF to consider doing so now. Not only does a DAF help organize charitable giving, but over the long term, it can also protect a client’s ability to support favorite charitable organizations even when market conditions are rough.
Our team is always happy to help your clients maximize both the philanthropic and financial elements of their charitable giving strategies.
Answering Clients’ Questions about GivingTuesday
Among the many client questions you and other attorneys, accountants and financial advisors can be prepared to answer as year-end approaches is, “What is Giving Tuesday? And why the hashtag that often precedes it in print or online?”
Giving Tuesday–or “GivingTuesday” to be more accurate–has become a philanthropic phenomenon of sorts, generating support and enthusiasm from a wide range of people and institutions. Many of your clients are likely reading about GivingTuesday in the media, especially after the Gates Foundation recently announced its $10 million gift to support the effort.
Celebrating 10 years in 2022—and vastly different from both the Black Friday and Cyber Monday that it follows—GivingTuesday is a day of generosity. Generosity of time, effort, money, concern or any other well-intended act of giving.
Facts about GivingTuesday:
- Started in 2012
- More than a day, GivingTuesday is a movement and an organization
- Founded at New York’s 92nd Street Y and celebrated globally
- Falls on the first Tuesday following Thanksgiving, always
- Though not strictly a fundraiser, money “moved” has grown from $28 million in 2013 to $2.7 billion in the U.S. in 2021
Clients typically get involved in GivingTuesday by supporting their favorite charitable organizations. Many nonprofits promote GivingTuesday as an important source of funds for their organizations, and they frequently encourage their donors–your clients–to give via cash, check, online and even non-cash assets. Your clients also can participate in GivingTuesday by recommending grants from their DAFs to their favorite nonprofit organizations.
Far beyond simple acts of benevolence, GivingTuesday is steeped in the idea of “radical generosity”. As the organization states, “Radical generosity invites people in to give what they can to create systemic change.”
Beyond monetary donations, systemic change comes from participating in activities like social media advocacy (the # in #Giving Tuesday that creates ripple-effect awareness online), sharing love, spreading kindness, supporting a food pantry, shopping local or hosting a food or coat drive.
To help clients learn more or get answers to additional questions about GivingTuesday, please reach out to SDF. Our team welcomes your call.
Learn More
For nearly 50 years, we have partnered with a large network of wealth advisors, estate planning attorneys, tax planners and other advisors to help high-net-worth clients and families achieve financial planning objectives and charitable giving goals, while maximizing tax deductions.
If you’re interested in learning how we can help meet your clients’ financial planning and charitable giving goals before 2022 comes to an end, contact me at (858) 245-1508 or jrogers@sdfoundation.org.
