Make a Contribution
Make a tax-deductible gift upfront and use your balance to recommend grants to charities whenever you're ready.
Contributing to your DAF gives you an immediate tax deduction for your gift and allows you to invest and recommend grants to charities from your balance over time. Contributions are non-refundable, irrevocable gifts to Charityvest, Inc. which apply to your DAF balance.
Making your first contribution to your Charityvest giving account is as simple as clicking Contribute to fund on your dashboard.
You have a few different options to consider when making a contribution to your Charityvest fund that we have laid out below.
Add your bank account
Adding your bank account is the simplest and most affordable way to contribute cash to your Charityvest fund. We cover the fees, so 100% of your donation is available to grant.
We use our secure third-party partner Plaid to connect your account with your username and password, or you can share your bank's routing number and your account number, and we'll verify your account ownership by placing two small verification deposits in your account.
To add a bank account, you must have two-factor verification turned on for your account. You can receive two-factor authentication to U.S.-based mobile phones or by using an authenticator app like 1Password, Authy, or Google Authenticator. This enhances the security of your Charityvest account.
All banking information is encrypted-at-rest and stored in a third-party data vault. No one at Charityvest can access your bank account information.
Add your credit or debit card
Using your credit or debit card to make contributions to Charityvest is convenient, secure, and instant (it may also earn you some valuable rewards points!).
We partner with Stripe to accept a wide variety of credit and debit card brands, both U.S. and international.
Stripe partners with Charityvest to offer us reduced fees on our credit and debit card processing. However, processing fees are unfortunately an unavoidable part of contributing with cards.
To handle this, we add the unavoidable credit card fees on top of your contribution. For instance, a $100 contribution to your fund becomes a $102.56 charge on your card. The full charge is tax-deductible, and we keep track of that on your annual giving receipt, and a contribution of $100 will become immediately available in your fund.
Other ways to contribute
Adding a bank account or card is a useful way to make cash gifts to your Charityvest fund, either one-time, or on a recurring basis. But, there are other simple and tax-smart ways to contribute.
Stocks, ETFs, and crypto. You can contribute non-cash assets like stocks, ETFs, and cryptocurrency. Donating long-term appreciated stocks, ETFs, and crypto has significant tax advantages and provides a substantial fund balance from which to make grants to many charities.
Transfer your DAF. If you have an existing DAF, consider making a transfer of your current DAF to Charityvest. It's simple.
Complex non-cash assets. We facilitate donations of complex assets such as pre-IPO equity, real estate, PE/VC interests, and even NFTs.
Other ways to give. And if you have to send a check or a wire - we're here for you, too.
Funds availability
Once a contribution is successful, cash must be cleared into our partner financial institution before it can be sent to charity or invested. As a general rule, you should expect your contributed amount to be fully available for grants, gifts, or investment within 3 business days of the successful transaction being posted to your account.
Timing expectations
Contributions made directly on Charityvest.org using your bank account, credit and debit cards, and donations of cryptocurrency are processed automatically, and should be reflected in your account activity instantly (or in the case of cryptocurrency, once the transaction is confirmed on the blockchain).
If your contribution is processed manually, you will see it appear in your account within 1-2 business days of when our team receives your contribution.
We have a dedicated team responsible for manually posting the following contribution types:
Checks, ACH or wire (including DAF Transfers)
All contributions are subject to funds availability standards.
Still have questions about contribution times? Please contact our support team via Intercom chat or via email: support@charityvest.org
Contribution tax timing
Each contribution type has distinct timing requirements in order to count for a given tax year. We consider the end of the tax year to be 11:59:59 PM PST on December 31st.
Bank account, debit or credit cards: must be submitted on Charityvest.org before the end of the tax year.
Checks: checks mailed to Charityvest must bear an official USPS postmark date prior to the end of the tax year.
ACH or wire: electronic funds transfers must be received by Charityvest before the end of the tax year.
Stocks, ETFs, and other public securities: assets must be received by Charityvest before the end of the tax year. Processing time varies based on your broker's own processes, and can be substantial. We recommend donating stock as early as possible to avoid missing the deadline.
Cryptocurrency: transactions must be fully confirmed on the blockchain before the end of the tax year. Each asset has a minimum number of required confirmations to be considered fully confirmed. You can find information of the required number of network confirmations by asset here.
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