Grant to Charity
Making use of your contributions and growth, with purpose: funding causes you care about.
Making a grant to charity is as simple as finding the charity you wish to donate to and entering the information and amount you'd like to share.
To find a charity, click into the "Search Charities" search bar at the top, or click "Grant to Charity" from the Dashboard. You can search by name, or by EIN, the official U.S. tax ID of every U.S.-based charity.
Once you see the charity you are looking for, click Grant to add the details of your gift:
- Designation. The default designation for all grants is "Where needed most." You can change this by selecting Edit next to designation, and entering the specific need you'd like to fund.
- Information shared. You can send more or less of your personal contact information to the charity. You can even be completely anonymous, if you'd like.
- Personal note. You also have the ability to add a personal note to the grant. This won't have any administrative effect on the grant, but if you'd like to convey a personal message for why you're funding this grant (in honor of...) or just a note of encouragement ("keep up the good work!"), this is the place to do it.
- Amount. The amount you'd like to grant to the charity.
- Frequency. Whether you'd like to send this grant once or on a monthly basis. If your grant frequency is once, you'll be able to select how you want to fund your grant on the next screen.
Grant screen
We send grants to charities every 14 days, after we review each grant for compliance with IRS Code.
Charities will receive your grant via USPS First Class mail within a few business days of our approval.
This is a simplified take on the IRS Code, but the IRS requires that grants made through Charityvest comply with three major rules:
Donors, as well as their relatives and associates, aren’t allowed to receive any goods, services, impermissible private benefits, or any other benefit that is more than incidental, because of their grant. The value of benefits received from charities reduce the tax-deductible value of your gift.
Since Charityvest has already provided a full tax deduction for your grant, any benefit received might get us - and you - in trouble with the IRS. A benefit is considered more than incidental if, as a result of your grant, anyone receives a benefit that would have reduced or eliminated a charitable contribution deduction. The IRS can impose a 125% excise tax penalty on such grants.
If you will receive a benefit in conjunction with a charitable gift, you cannot “split” the donation to a charity and fund the nondeductible part with a personal gift and fully deductible part with a grant from Charityvest. Even though the gift from Charityvest is fully deductible, the grant still enables you to receive benefits that would not be available without the grant.
This can include situations like:
- obtaining goods or services at or below their fair market value
- admission to an event paid for in whole or in part by the grant
- receiving membership privileges paid for in whole or in part by the grant
Donors can’t make grants where they might have relationships to the individuals receiving the direct benefit of the grant. Examples of this might be:
- funding a scholarship where the donor has any role in selecting the recipient
- contributing to a specific missionary project of an individual related to the donor
- supporting any political campaign activities, contributions, or lobbying efforts
Donors can’t use Charityvest funds to fulfill legally binding pledges or fundraising commitments. Fortunately, many pledges or commitments are not legally binding. Your charity can confirm whether or not your commitment is binding. DAFs such as Charityvest are permitted to send your grant provided no reference to a pledge is made in the grant letter; therefore, we may modify your grant recommendation to remove this language if it exists prior to sending the grant.
Charityvest's compliance and grant review process is informed by a variety of sources: IRS databases, public records, news reports, and information provided by donors, charities, and others. Charityvest may reserve the right to not approve grants if an organization may be engaged in illegal or non-charitable activity (such as terrorism, money laundering, crimes, or fraud). In particular, Charityvest monitors and encourages donors to review Charity Navigator's Advisory System.
The IRS is responsible for determining which organizations are qualified charities in the US. When an organization loses its IRS-recognized public charity status, Charityvest ceases grant-making to that organization immediately. In addition, other state and federal agencies may review the activities of a charitable organization, which may also inform Charityvests grant approval decisions.
Charityvest's cause is generosity—greater giving from everyone. Beyond generosity, we aim to be cause-neutral on grant-making, desiring to permit grants to any compliant charity with a sanctioned charitable purpose, across interests, geography, demographics, political views, religious convictions, and philosophical grounds. We want donors to be the authors of their impact story and encourage donors to bring their values to their giving.
Favorites. Rather than continue to search for charities that you will fund more than once, be sure to favorite them by clicking the heart on the left-hand side of the organization in your search. From then on, the organization will appear in your favorites list on your "Charities" screen and when you click "Grant to Charity" from the dashboard.
An organization you favorite will continue to appear on your Charities screen until you unfavorite them.
Last modified 9mo ago