Employee FAQ

What is Charityvest?

Charityvest is a modern giving platform that makes giving simple and zero-fee. It starts by giving you your own charitable giving account, aka, a donor-advised fund.

How does a Charityvest fund work?

Users link their bank to the fund and make tax-deductible contributions with a tap. At any time, users can send money to any of the 1.4 million U.S. charities. There's only one tax receipt no matter how many organizations are supported. Grants to charities can be automatically submitted to your company for matching.

Why should I use Charityvest?

• Charityvest is the easiest way to give to charity, especially in partnership with your employer. Give to any charity with one account, on one tax receipt, all with a couple of taps. Get your corporate match by just checking a box on our “grant to charity” screen.

• It enables you to increase your impact. Support charities when you’re ready, not when you need tax deductions. This enables you to be more strategic, giving larger gifts to initiatives you’re more excited about, which leads to more impact and more satisfaction. Also, with Charityvest, 100% of your contributed funds go to the charity to be put to work.

• It enables you to easily take advantage of advanced tax strategies with charity. You can avoid capital gains tax with stocks, take income tax deductions, or even utilize the “bunching” strategy.

What are the key tax advantages of using Charityvest?

• Every contribution into your giving account is tax-deductible. There’s nothing else you need to do in order for it to be eligible for an income tax deduction on your taxes. You’ll need to consult your own tax counsel for applicability.

• Stock gifts are easy and mega-tax-advantaged. Contributions of appreciated securities that you have held for more than one year provide the greatest tax benefits. These contributions avoid the capital gains tax and should allow you to claim an itemized charitable deduction for the fair market value of the asset on your income taxes - up to 30% of your adjusted gross income (AGI).

• The bunching strategy. Your Charityvest fund also allows you to employ a strategy called bunching, whereby you can contribute significant assets to your fund to exceed the standard deduction during a particular year and hold the assets in your fund until you are ready to grant them to charities in subsequent years. It enables you to have higher income tax deductions across a multi-year period without interrupting your support of the charities you love.

How is this different from a traditional workplace match?

• It’s all automated. It’s simple for you and easy for your program administrator to manage your company’s match in one single location. Charityvest is a fee-free platform in that 100% of your donation is received by the charity.

• You get a tax-deductible giving account to make all of your giving simple. Give cash or stock instantly, all on one tax receipt. Support charities when you’re ready.

When is the money I give through Charityvest tax-deductible?

The moment you contribute dollars into your Charityvest giving account, they are tax-deductible. The contribution to your Charityvest account is the tax event (it is a donation to Charityvest, Inc. 501(c)(3)), regardless of when or where you send your subsequent donations to nonprofits.

What data and information does my employer see?

When you request a match, your employer will be able to see that you requested that particular match: the organization name, your name, and the amount requested. They are the only other party to whom your matching activity is visible.

For all giving for which you do not request a match, your giving is completely private, including to your employer. They cannot see how much you give personally or the organizations you support.

What information on me gets passed along to charities?

With regard to charities, you have full control of what information on you gets passed along to them. You can even make yourself anonymous. Because your tax letter is provided by Charityvest rather than the charities in receipt of your grants, you can choose how much information is passed along to those charities, even down to your name. Tired of snail mail but okay with email from your favorite nonprofits? Choose to provide them only with your email address and not your mailing address. This is the default option in Charityvest.

Is Charityvest secure?

We employ bank-level security practices to ensure that 100% of the money you set aside for charity makes it to the causes you support. We collect the bare minimum of data needed, store it securely, and constantly evolve our security measures. We take security seriously. Learn more about our security practices.

I don’t really care about the giving account — can I give directly to charities through Charityvest?

Absolutely! As long as you’ve added a payment method to your account, you can make grants directly to charities without a Charityvest giving account balance. Just click grant on a charity and select “one-time contribution” during the grant screen flow. It will pull the funds from your payment source and immediately grant the money to the charity, bypassing the Charityvest giving account. All your giving is still on one tax receipt at the end of the year.

What happens if I leave my employer for any reason?

Just like a 401k, the giving account belongs to the employee. You will be removed from the giving program of the employer (no more matching, if applicable), but access to all the money you’ve contributed into your giving fund will continue to be yours.