The Foundation works collaboratively with you to connect your clients to the issues and causes they most care about, to help them establish a philanthropic legacy that fulfills their charitable goals while ensuring maximum tax advantages. We respect the relationships that you have developed with your clients and are available to complement the services you offer.
The Foundation for Delaware County offers a range of charitable funds, allowing your clients to choose the vehicle best suited to their philanthropic goals. Because the Foundation is an independent public charity, all contributions are eligible for an immediate tax deduction and many contributions may qualify for a larger tax deduction than other charitable entities like private foundations.
For all our funds, we perform due diligence on grant requests, issue grant checks, and provide assistance through a wide range of donor services.
Start a Fund Donor-Advised Funds Brochure
The transfer of wealth from baby boomers to their heirs will move as much as $68 trillion within the next 25 years. For advisors, this is a tricky road to navigate. According to Cerulli Associates, more than 70% of heirs are likely to fire or change financial advisors after inheriting their parents’ wealth. To keep clients for more than one generation, advisors must build and maintain authentic relationships with the whole family.
Family philanthropy offers a powerful entry point to engage inheritors before wealth transfers between generations. It’s a meaningful signal that advisors understand their future clients’ needs and goals. Perhaps most importantly, it also begins a longer-term conversation that can be nurtured over time. Consider working with your clients on an intergenerational continuity plan that incorporates charitable giving.
Our Family Giving Program advisors help your clients put together a values statement unique to each family, set giving goals and decision-making strategies, and work together with family members to powerfully and sustainably impact our community on their own terms.
A fund at the Foundation provides an attractive alternative to the regulatory requirements and administrative burdens of a private foundation. Our professional staff takes care of all administrative and grantmaking activities, allowing your clients to focus on the rewarding task of supporting their favorite causes. In addition, a fund offers greater tax benefits and privacy due to the Foundation’s status as a public charity.
If your client has a private foundation already, it is not too late to take advantage of our services. Our staff can facilitate the transition of all or part of the assets from a private foundation to a donor-advised fund.
You may have a client ready to sell a business, which can be a significant taxable event. One effective way to avoid some of the tax liability is by donating a partial interest of the business to The Foundation for Delaware County.
Making a charitable gift, whether outright or to a charitable remainder trust, prior to the sale of a business provides maximum tax advantages. By giving an ownership interest or equity, the donor may avoid capital gains tax on the portion of the business that is donated, as well as claim an income tax deduction based on the fair market value of the gift. The seller simply gives the interest in the business to a donor-advised fund or charitable remainder trust, and the buyer then makes the purchase from the Foundation, which is, of course, tax-exempt.
By contrast, when a gift is made from proceeds received following the sale, the donor will have paid capital gains tax on 100% of the sale price, so the tax benefit comes solely from the income tax charitable deduction. A charitable fund would be set up to support your client’s charitable goals from those proceeds.
Oftentimes, the easiest way to support charitable interests is through a bequest, which permits your clients to support the community while retaining complete control over their assets during their lifetimes. Bequests can be set as a specific dollar amount, a percentage of an estate, or the amount that remains after other bequests, such as those to family members, are satisfied.
For your clients, planned giving may be as simple as including the Foundation in their wills. Donors may leave a percentage share of their estates, specify a dollar amount, or designate us as a contingent or residuary beneficiary.
Gift Planning
Gifts of appreciated securities offer important tax advantages, since their full fair market value is deductible as a charitable contribution up to 30% of adjusted gross income each year when itemizing deductions. Like gifts of cash, deduction amounts that exceed the limit can be carried forward for up to five additional years. Capital gains taxes do not have to be paid on the appreciated portion of the gift.
After the Foundation liquidates the securities, the value of the gift (net broker’s commission and fees) is available to support the donor’s charitable goals. We can accept gifts of publicly traded stock, publicly traded bonds, closely-held stock, restricted stock, partnership interests (such as limited partnerships), interests in limited liability companies, and mutual funds.
After age 59½, your clients may take a taxable distribution from their Traditional IRA without penalty. They may use that in any way, including contributing the distribution to charity. If they itemize their charitable deductions, then donating their IRA distribution should provide them with a charitable deduction that offsets their income.
Once they reach age 70½, they may transfer a gift from their IRA to charity without it being counted in their income or being taxed through a Charitable IRA Rollover. This is an easy and convenient way to make a gift from what might be one of your clients’ major assets. It may allow them to sustain or even increase giving as their cash-flow changes in retirement and can count toward their required minimum distribution. In order to qualify, the gift cannot exceed $100,000, and the transfer must go directly from their IRA to the Foundation and not be made outright. Charitable IRA Rollover gifts may not be made to donor-advised funds.
IRAs are one of the most heavily taxed assets your clients can pass on to their heirs. However, IRAs can be beneficial in supporting your client’s charitable goals. By naming The Foundation for Delaware County as a beneficiary, your client can take advantage of dramatic tax savings as there is no estate tax and no income tax on gifted IRA assets. This allows 100% of their gifted IRA assets to go to a charitable purpose that is important to them, while also allowing their estate to claim a charitable estate tax deduction.
What to Give
Monika Collins Vice President for Advancement and Philanthropic Services mcollins@delcofoundation.org 610-744-1015
