Step-by-step: Helping clients organize their giving with a donor-advised fund

by Josh Dukelow, gift planning officer

Your clients will arrive in 15 minutes. As you are reviewing the file everything is in order. The estate planning documents are up to date, you’re ready to share the latest investment results, and you are prepared to debrief the 2022 tax season and make planning recommendations for the remainder of this year. It sounds pretty typical up to this point, right? 

As you review the materials, you notice the names of several charitable organizations that your clients have supported every year for over a decade. This is it! An opportunity to add even more value to your clients. Charitable giving habits are actually an important window into helping a client make planning decisions and fulfilling their philanthropic intentions. 

Here’s a simple playbook to guide you through a client conversation about establishing a charitable giving plan using a donor-advised fund at the Community Foundation: 

1. Highlight your clients’ charitable giving history. They might not be aware of how much they are giving or how long they’ve been supporting their favorite charities.  

2. Gather more information about what motivates them to support those particular causes. Family tradition? Past involvement with an organization’s services? Desire to impact a particular area of need? Identifying their “why?” will be time well-spent. 

3. Talk with your clients about their community involvement to surface other organizations they might want to support. Do they serve on any boards of directors? Do they volunteer at local organizations? Have they or their loved ones benefited from a local group? 

4. Review any charitable giving provisions in their current will or trust. Are the clients leaving a bequest to favorite charities? Which assets do they plan to use for that gift? 

5. Ask your clients if they’ve ever considered organizing their giving through a donor-advised fund. If they are not familiar with donor-advised funds offer to introduce the client to a member of the Community Foundation team. We’d love to meet them! 

6. Explain that a donor-advised fund can be an effective alternative to a private foundation, thanks to fewer operating expenses, maximum tax benefits (higher AGI limitations and fair market valuation for contributing hard-to-value assets), no excise taxes, and confidentiality (including the ability to grant anonymously to charities). 

7. The client may also want to know that a donor-advised fund at the Community Foundation may be a more effective choice than one offered through a brokerage firm because, at a community foundation, the donor is part of a community of giving and has opportunities to collaborate with other donors who share similar interests. In addition, the donor is supported in strategic grant making, family philanthropy, and opportunities to gain deep knowledge about local issues and nonprofits making a difference. 

As always, the Community Foundation is here to help. Reach out to Alison O’Carroll, director and philanthropic counsel, at 404.333.0241 or aocarroll@cfgreateratlanta.org to discuss creative gift solutions and gifts of complex assets that can support multiple nonprofit causes using a donor-advised fund. If you want to brush up on the basics we’re happy to present at your office too!