Donor
Advised Funds
A donor advised fund can either be named or remain
anonymous and provides you with the opportunity
of supporting your favorite charitable causes in
both lean and profitable years. You receive your
charitable deduction in the year the fund is established
and may suggest distributions at any time in the
future.
Donor advised funds are popular options at community
foundations. You may ask other family members to
join you in suggesting distributions to the board
of the community foundation, but the community foundation
board of trustees makes the final decisions.
Many donors use advised funds, as well as designated
funds to support their alma maters, churches and
other favorite charities. While the final decision
on grant distributions rests with the board of trustees
of the community foundation, your fund is not subject
to the excise tax and payout requirements of a private
foundation.
A donor advised fund can be established quickly.
While the community foundation will charge a small
annual fee for administering your fund, research
indicates that, depending on asset size, it is still
less expensive than the annual operating expenses
of a private foundation.
For a list of area community foundations, which
offer donor advised funds, click
here.
Donor advised funds are also available through several
financial institutions:
Bank
of America – Charitable Giving
Fidelity
Investments Gift Fund
Merrill
Lynch
Vanguard
Giving
Circles
What are Giving Circles?
Giving Circles - a kind of social investment club
- are an enormously powerful way to impact social
change and pave the way for a new frontier in philanthropy.
Giving Circles enable a wide-range of people to
give voice to their values. In the same way that
venture capital supports innovation in the business
world, Giving Circles use a model of "venture
philanthropy," infusing nonprofits with financial
and intellectual capital, resources and contacts.
Joining or forming a Giving Circle provides you
with a hands-on opportunity to explore and collaborate
with others who share the desire to make focused,
social investments with impact. Across the country,
all kinds of people are forming Giving Circles,
and working together to make a difference.
Giving Circles come in many sizes, shapes and
forms. They are creative, organic and flexible -
adapting to the group's needs and changes. Key to
many of these groups is strong leadership (either
one person, co-leaders or a core group), and a commitment
to learning about giving through a group process.
Giving Circles: Grassroots Giving with
Impact
A giving circle often begins with an individual
who brings together a small informal group of like-minded
individuals whose members share a desire to:
- Leverage the impact of their charitable contribution
with expertise and volunteerism
- Connect meaningfully with the communities and
causes they care about
- Participate in a social network of people who
share similar interests and values
- Learn more about philanthropy as a vehicle
for social change.
Why Should You Start a Giving Circle
The advantages of forming Giving Circles are many,
but to start:
- Pooled dollars invested towards a key issue
can have a far greater impact than smaller, individual
gifts
- Collective "know-how" of a group
adds value and impact to volunteerism and charitable
investments
- Creating partnerships with a smaller number
of charities creates a deeper level of involvement
to better gauge your return on investment
- Participating in a giving circle is fulfilling
and fun!
Where Should You Begin?
There are many ways to establish a Giving Circle.
Some of these include setting up a donor advised
fund, creating a public foundation, or simply pooling
funds. To find out more about setting up your own
giving circle, please go to the Giving
Circles Knowledge Center.
Directory of Giving Circles
If you are thinking of joining a GC please be aware that many Giving Circles are closed social networks - you need to be invited to join. If you do not see a website associated with a particular GCin this Directory it probably is an indication that it is a closed circle.,
Giving Circles in Massachusetts and New
Hampshire
Boston Area Women's Tzedakah Collective, Brookline
Daily Muses Fund, Boston
Giving Circle Exeter, Exeter, NH
Hestia Fund, Boston
Kitchen Table Giving Circle, Boston
Next Generation Fund, Boston
Putnam Senior Executives Foundation, Boston
Social Venture Partners, Boston
Giving
Reports
Giving in Massachusetts
Want to know what’s going on with foundation
and individual charitable giving in Massachusetts?
Want to know what positive and negative factors
influence Massachusetts ranking of individual donors?
Do you know how many new foundations were created
in between 1999 and 2003, or what organizations
were the top recipients of grant awards?
Take a look at Giving in Massachusetts – a
new resource developed by AGM. This report summarizes
data from multiple sources to provide an overview
of 2002 charitable contributions in the Commonwealth,
listing top givers among foundations, grant making
public charities and corporate giving programs.
We welcome your questions or suggestions on how
future reports can further help you understanding
charitable giving in Massachusetts.
If you would like a hardcopy of the report, please
contact Mona Lindsey at 617.426.2606.
Giving
in Massachusetts
Understanding
the Giving Landscape
New Study Released Confirms Higher Participation
Rates in Overall Giving by New Englanders
New national research reveals that New Englanders
not only participate more frequently in charitable
giving than their counterparts across the country,
but they also give to secular (non-religious) causes
at significantly higher levels. A Closer Look
at New England Giving was commissioned from
the Center on Philanthropy and co-funded by organizations
in the six New England States: Associated Grant
Makers (Massachusetts), Connecticut Council for
Philanthropy, Maine Center for Philanthropy, New
Hampshire Charitable Foundation, Rhode Island Foundation
and Vermont Community Foundation.
View
Report
New
study debunks the ‘myth’ of Massachusetts’
stinginess
The report commissioned by the Boston Foundation,
which for the first time subjects the Generosity
Index to scrutiny by nationally recognized sociologist
and philanthropy expert Paul G. Schervish, Ph.D.,
the Director of the Boston College Center on Wealth
and Philanthropy.
The
Generosity Index
An national repoprt using IRS tax return data that
ranks each state based on the relationship of giving
to income published by the Catalogue for Philanthropy.
New England states consistently fall to the bottom.
Advisory
Services
Resource
Generation
Resource Generation works with young people with
financial wealth who are supporting and challenging
each other to effect progressive social change through
the creative, responsible and strategic use of financial
and other resources.
Their purpose is to promote innovative ways for
young people with wealth to align their personal
values and political vision with their financial
resources. They strive to strengthen cross-class
alliances with people and organizations working
for social and economic justice.
Resource Generation offers a variety of programs
for young people with wealth to explore how their
financial resources relate to social justice and
provide tools for them to take action. They also
offer forums to promote cross class and intergenerational
dialogues about money, class, and philanthropy.
More
Than Money
More Than Money helps individuals live
more joyful, balanced, and principled lives—through
publications and programs that provide a rare opportunity
for people to step back and consider how their individual
economic activity aligns with their most deeply
held values. Their publications and programs start
participants on the path of becoming more efficient
and clear decision-makers about their money and
their values in order to create a more meaningful
life.
Their work is powerful because aligning money and
values results in more caring relationships, more
volunteerism, more ethical and socially responsible
investing, more philanthropy, more functional families,
and a variety of related individual and social benefits.
They offer conferences, discussion groups, seminars,
coaching, and publish a magazine.
The Philanthropic
Initiative (TPI)
TPI is a not-for-profit organization offering individuals,
foundations, institutions and corporations a disciplined
and results-oriented approach to philanthropy. Since
it was founded in 1989, TPI has helped hundreds
of donors to have an impact on some of society's
most complex challenges through strategic philanthropy.
TPI can help individuals hold their efforts to the
traditional standards of due diligence and can serve
as a coach and sounding board as well. TPI services
include consulting, grants management and administration,
research, and publish a newsletter.
Donors
of the Future Knowledge Center
The New Ventures Initiative of the Forum of Regional
Associations of Grantmakers has just unveiled the
new Donors
of the Future Knowledge Center, available on
the Forum's Web site.
What can you find on the Donors of the Future Knowledge
Center?
Trends: which explain the cultural
and demographic shifts that are influencing the
donors of today and tomorrow
Resources: which provide insight
into these specific donors, vehicles, and their
motives
Mapping Tools: which put your state
and locality in context with the rest of the country
and can show how these trends will impact you and
your community
The Donors of the Future Knowledge Center, by its
very nature, is one to which we will continually
add resources. Therefore, if you know of a good
resource that is not currently on the site, please
tell us. Email any suggestions to Daria
Teutonico.
The Community Giving Resource
The Community Giving Resource (CGR) is a free online-resource for donors looking to give more actively and effectively to issues facing disadvantaged communities. Covering such topics as: housing, employment, education, healthcare, and the environment, CGR scours trends and research to provide straight-forward, easy to use information and resources to assist donors in gaining expertise. In addition, CGR offers “how-to” solutions, examples of funding strategies, and connects donors to other foundations and individuals working within their own communities. Visit CGR today: www.communitygivingresource.org
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