Donor-Advised Funds
Legal Compliance Guidance
This chart details which organizations can receive grants from donor-advised funds and which ones cannot.
Legal Compliance Guidance, Fundamentals
Donors and advisors are prohibited from receiving more than incidental benefits from grants made from their advised funds. Penalties apply to those who received a prohibited benefit, to those who recommended the grant, and, in some situations, to fund managers who approved the recommendation.…
Legal Compliance Guidance, Fundamentals
The Pension Protection Act of 2006 created new categories of disqualified persons for donor-advised funds and sponsoring organizations under the intermediate sanctions rules.
Categories of Disqualified Persons Created under the PPA
Donors and donor advisors with regard to transactions with the…
Legal Compliance Guidance
Under the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA), the private foundation excess business holdings rule applies to donor-advised funds as if they were private foundations.1 That is, the holdings of a donor-advised fund in a business enterprise, together with the holdings of persons who are…
Legal Compliance Guidance, Fundamentals
What requirements must our foundation follow for substantiating contributions to donor-advised funds?
To claim a charitable, gift or estate tax deduction for any contribution to a donor-advised fund, donors must obtain a contemporaneous written acknowledgement from the sponsoring organization that…
Taxable Distributions for Donor-Advised Funds
Legal Compliance Guidance, Fundamentals
Public charities that hold donor-advised funds must comply with special rules regarding payments from such funds. Provisions under the Pension Protection Act of 2006 require certain payments from donor-advised funds to be made using expenditure responsibility, while certain other payments are…
Legal Compliance Guidance
Use this flowchart to determine if grants from donor-advised funds require expenditure responsibility.
Donor-Advised Fund Gift to a 501(c)(3) Donor
Legal Compliance Guidance
Can a 501(c)(3) organization with a donor-advised fund at a community foundation make a distribution to itself?
Unfortunately, when the law changed under the Pension Protection Act of 2006, this was left unclear. Intermediate sanctions rules prohibit grants and similar payments to donors from a…
Legal Compliance Guidance
Gifts from private foundations to field of interest funds, designated funds, and other funds that are not donor-advised, are entirely permissible and do not raise special concerns. Gifts to a donor-advised fund can raise red flags as a potential donor control issue. The law does not prohibit gifts…
Legal Compliance Guidance
In existence since the 1930s, donor-advised funds have been one of the fastest growing charitable giving vehicles of the past decade.[1] Capitalizing on this growth and on the increasing interest in international philanthropy among donors in the United States, a number of public charities have…
Legal Compliance Guidance
Imagine the following scenarios:
A donor advisor has not made a recommendation from a donor-advised fund for two years.
An agency has requested that your community foundation not make a distribution from an agency endowment until the agency requests a distribution at some point in the future.…
2009 Survey on Donor-Advised Funds: Donor-Advised Funds Provide the Majority of Grant Funds Awarded by Community Foundations
Research
Donor-advised funds are increasing in number and importance in the U.S. as more individuals, families, and organizations adopt this vehicle of philanthropic giving. A donor-advised fund enables a third party, usually a community foundation or other institution, to manage and distribute funds to…
In 2012 there were further signs that the once staid tradition of employees taking part in annual workplace giving campaigns has been upended by digital technology, younger workers with new ideas, and the need for more engagement between employers and employees. Those are the preliminary…
At next month’s Council on Foundations 2013 Family Philanthropy Conference, consultant Nathan James and I are hosting a session, “Is Family Philanthropy Ready for Adventures in New Giving?” We’ll be discussing potential intersections between family philanthropy and the new wave of giving tools…
Giving Circles: A 360-Degree Approach to Philanthropy
The Northern Virginia region includes Loudoun County, a traditionally rural area that has seen drastic suburbanization and growth in the past two decades. The shift in its focus and population caused those of us at the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia to ask an age-old question: How do we…
What Business Do Community Foundations Have In Business?
What business does a community foundation have hawking for-profit deals to its donors and other community members? How does it improve the quality of life in their community? How does it promote the spirit and practice of philanthropy and service? Well it turns out, some…