A donor-advised fund, or DAF, is like a charitable investment account for the sole purpose of supporting charitable organizations you care about. When you contribute cash, securities, or other assets to a donor-advised fund at a public charity, you are generally eligible to take an immediate tax deduction. Then those funds can be invested for tax-free growth, and you can recommend grants to any eligible IRS-qualified public charity. DAFs can easily be set up at Vanguard, Schwab, Fidelity or even local community foundations. You can simplify recordkeeping too, because with a donor-advised fund, you don’t have to keep track of every gift acknowledgment from every charity you support—just the receipts from your DAF contributions.

You can make a difference today at Villa International and save on taxes. For those who are 70 ½ years old and older, you can give any amount (up to a maximum of $108,000) per year from your IRA directly to a qualified charity without having to pay income taxes on the money. This popular gift option is commonly called the IRA charitable rollover, but you may also see it referred to as a qualified charitable distribution, or QCD for short. A qualified charitable distribution will be put to use today and allow you to see the difference your donation is making. Beginning in the year you turn 73, you can use your gift to satisfy all or part of your required minimum distribution (RMD). Talk to your financial advisor or CPA to see if this fits your tax situation.

Donating securities is one of the most effective ways to give from a tax planning perspective. Despite being a tax-smart way to give, it is not well understood or even widely used. And it’s easy to do. Donating stock sounds like a headache – but rest assured it is about as easy as it gets! It only takes a matter of moments to donate electronically to many worthy charities. Talk to your CPA or financial advisor about these strategies to see which one fulfills your gifting needs.