Year-End Giving Ideas – Tom Conway
As we approach the close of another year, here are some giving ideas to consider as you serve your clients.
Current Year Planning Ideas
1. IRA Charitable Rollover - Through December 31, 2007, any of your donors who are over 70 ½ on the date of the rollover can give up to $100,000 to charity from their IRA accounts. This distribution has to go directly to a public charity, but cannot be made to a donor advised fund, a supporting organization, or a private foundation. At NCF however, we have created what is called a "Designated Fund". A "Designated Fund" is a single charity fund where the donor designates the charity that they want the money to go to. The donor can then determine the amount and the timing of the grants from that account. If the donor wants to split up the $100,000 among multiple charities, they would then create multiple designated funds.
So if your client wanted to give $100,000 from their IRA to their church and three other charities this year, but didn't want all of it to go to any of the recipients in 2007, they could make a $100,000 gift to four designated funds, and then could distribute the money to those charities on their own timetable.
Since this provision expires at the end of 2007, if you have a client with a large IRA, he might want to prepay his or her giving for multiple years to their favorite charities by using this tool.
2. Gifts of Appreciated Assets - With the jump in the market this year, you may have clients with appreciated stocks or mutual funds. If they have held these assets for more than a year, they are great assets to give. The client gets a deduction for their fair market value (which they can deduct up to 30% of their adjusted gross income), and once the asset is liquidated they can give the proceeds out of their donor advised account to the charities of their choice. Finally, if they liked the position they held, they can take their cash and go back and buy the position and now have a higher basis.
3. Year-end bonuses – You may have clients that will get bonuses at the end of the year. Rather than trying to find places to give prior to December 31 (so they can get their current year income tax deduction), they may want to open up a Giving Fund, get their tax deduction for 2007, and then buy themselves more time for prayerfully thought through giving decisions.

4. Non-liquid gifts - If you have any clients that are planning on selling a piece of real estate or a business interest this year, and have a desire to give some of the proceeds to charity, they should consider gifting an interest in the real estate or business BEFORE they sell it. This will give them a charitable deduction for the fair market value as well as avoid the capital gains tax on the sale of the portion they are going to give, thus enabling them to turn tax dollars into charitable dollars. If you have clients in this situation, it is best if you get the information to NCF as soon as possible so that we can do our due diligence on the asset, and avoid the year end crunch.
5. Prepaying 2008 contributions - It is often wise for clients who have had a big income year in 2007 to find as many deductions as possible this year. One way to accomplish this is to have them give into their donor advised fund their 2008 contributions. That way they get a larger deduction in 2007, and can do their giving out of their donor advised fund in 2008.
Estate Planning Ideas
Two ideas we have seen some clients implement in 2007 that have helped them accomplish their long-term charitable objectives are the Legacy Fund and the Disclaimer Funded Donor Advised Fund.
The Legacy Fund is a donor advised fund where the donor can control their charitable giving from the grave. We have come upon a number of donors who for one reason or another don't just want their kids to give away their money when they are gone. This generally is either because their kids may not be walking closely to the Lord or because their kids are not involved with the same charities that mom and dad have been supporting for many years. With the Legacy Fund, the client completes a Legacy Fund Agreement with NCF that clearly outlines where and over what period of time they want their funds allocated at the end of life. In many cases they create a Legacy Fund Committee that can include their children, sometimes their advisor, and someone from NCF. We then monitor the giving out of the Legacy Fund according to the donor’s wishes as outlined in the Legacy Fund Agreement.
The Disclaimer Funded Donor Advised Fund - This is a paragraph that a client can put in his or her will that allows their children, once the estate reaches a taxable point, to disclaim their inheritance and instead direct that money to a donor advised fund. This allows the children to decide how much they want to pay the government in estate taxes and how much they want to share with ministries.
Tom Conway serves as the Executive Vice President, Ministry and Advisor Services of the National Christian Foundation of Atlanta, Georgia and a Charter Member of Kingdom Advisors. He spearheads the work of the National Christian Foundation with ministries and professional advisors. In addition Tom has done both ministry and development consulting, and serves on the board on numerous non-profit organizations. Tom and his wife Susan have four children and live in Atlanta, Georgia. Tom can be reached at TConway@nationalchristian.com.