This guide aims to provide you with everything you could ever want to know about Charityvest, our platform, our venture, and DAFs in general.

Part of our desire is to make DAFs simpler and more transparent. This guide is one step to do that.

Please reach out if you have any questions along your giving journey.

Overview of Charityvest

We endeavor to make smart philanthropy easier and enable everyone to give:

• ✨With more purpose. Carry out personal giving commitments, like giving a regular % of income.

• 💵With maximum tax advantages. Especially giving assets like stock and crypto.

• 🧾With easier admin. All your giving in one account, on one tax receipt.

• 💪With higher impact. Make better decisions about what you fund. Get a tax-deduction now, so you can send bigger checks to charities when there's an impact opportunity.

• 📈With growth. Invest money while it's in your Charityvest account to send more to charity over time.

• 👍Without big fees. No fees to send money to charity. Lowest investment fees in the industry.

We do this through technology-enabled personal giving accounts called, Donor-Advised Funds (DAFs). Our world-class DAFs are easier to use and offer lower fees than any that have existed before.

Why use a DAF for your charitable giving

DAFs are tax-deductible financial accounts for charitable giving. They allow you to more intentionally manage your giving like you manage other aspects of your financial life. Think of them as a checking account or HSA but for your giving.

You can donate cash or assets into a DAF, receive a full tax-deduction for your donations, grow the money while it's in the account (tax-free), and then, whenever you're ready, send it to any tax-deductible organization (nonprofit or place of worship).

Historically, DAFs have been limited in their reach, partly because of the personnel needed to administrate them. We built custom software to automate and improve DAF operations for the Charityvest brand. We want to put a DAF in everyone's financial toolkit to help them give freely.

What makes us different than other DAFs

1. 💻Simplicity through technology. DAFs backed by modern technology make it easy to give freely and easily to charity.

2. ⚡️World-class experience, accessible to anyone. DAFs are out of reach for most people—either because of fees and minimums or how complex they are in their design. Charityvest enables anyone to understand and use a donor-advised fund for free.

3. 🎯Orientation on impact. Our #1 aim is to unlock impact in the lives of donors. We believe that the more we can catalyze giving and increase your social impact, the more we will be rewarded with your trust as a platform.

4. 🤝A community experience. Existing DAFs are transactional and don't provide anything close to the generosity and sophistication you are aiming for with your giving. We continually support the needs of your giving.

Legal overview

The Charityvest platform is powered by Foundation Source Philanthropic Services, Inc., a philanthropy technology company focused on creating the future of giving technology.

We'd love for you to join us

We invite you to join the Charityvest community of givers.

How does a DAF work?

A donor-advised fund, or DAF, is a distinct charitable financial account offered by a public charity. In this case, you're the donor, and Charityvest, Inc. is the sponsoring charity.

Donors make contributions to their fund. These contributions are considered irrevocable, tax-deductible donations to the DAF sponsor, and are no longer owned by donors.

Once a contribution is made to a DAF, it must ultimately be used for charitable purposes, and cannot be refunded. Typically, that means making grants to other public charities, and investing along the way.

As the name suggests, donors are allowed to provide advice to the sponsoring charity regarding their fund, about where grants should be made, and how funds should be invested.

Why should I use a DAF?

DAFs are useful because they allow flexibility to choose when and where to give, independently from the tax implications of charitable contributions.

• Immediate tax deduction. Receive a swift tax deduction when you contribute.

• Flexibility to choose when and where to give. DAFs provide tax-free time to decide when, where, and how much to give.

• Simple, tax-smart giving. Capture valuable tax advantages of donating stock, crypto, equity, and more with a single gift.

• Tax-free growth. Invest your balance to grow and sustain your giving over your lifetime, tax-free.

• One tax receipt, unlimited charities. Enjoy a consolidated annual receipt for all giving, across 1.4 million qualified charities.

Why choose Charityvest for my DAF?

Everyone wants to be a more charitable person. But it's hard to take the first step to commit to giving.

We created Charityvest to unlock more charitable people: to help you give, and give more.

Our simple, modern DAF platform lets everyone enjoy tax-smart, purposeful giving through a world-class experience. And, we're different beyond our tech-first orientation:

• Delightful experience. From giving stock to making grants, we designed our platfrom to make all of your giving easy & fast.

• Modern investments. Our customizable, self-rebalancing portfolios are built with low-cost, single asset class index ETFs, providing great value without sacrificing fine-grained controls.

• Low fees. Our invested accounts have the lowest fees among DAFs, including a zero-fee uninvested DAF, so you can give the most to charity.

• Built with a purpose. Charityvest is motivated to help you give, and give more. Our giving goals and non-binding pledges help you make commitments to give, and measure you against your progress.

Where can I learn more about donor-advised funds?

If you'd like to dive deeper on DAFs to decide if they align with your generosity journey, you can reference these additional resources:

We created Charityvest to unlock more charitable people: to help you give, and give more.

Our simple, modern DAF platform lets everyone enjoy tax-smart, purposeful giving through a world-class experience. A few simple steps will get you started on your Charityvest giving journey:

You'll need to create an account to get started with Charityvest. When you're finished, you'll have your very own donor-advised fund at Charityvest.

Creating an account is simple, completely free, and requires just a few simple pieces of information.

Provide us with your first and last name, email address, and a password. We'll send an email to the address you provide us with a confirmation code. Please copy and paste the code from the email you receive so we can verify your email address.

Upon confirmation, you'll set up two-factor authentication (2FA) which is required if you plan on linking a funding source like a bank or credit card to your account. You can choose "Do this later" if you'd like to handle this when you link a funding source to your account.

For 2FA, you can choose to use text message verification, where we'll send a 6-digit code to your phone for new logins, or authenticator app / TOTP verification, where you can use applications like Authy, Google Authenticator, 1Password, or others to generate a one-time code.

Whichever method you select, you'll be asked to confirm the 6-digit code received or generated before you can enable two-factor authentication.

Once you've completed these steps, you will have successfully opened a donor-advised fund with Charityvest. You're now able to make tax-deductible contributions of cash and assets to your fund, invest your balance for charitable growth, view all your giving on a single annual tax receipt, and give to over 1.4 million charities from one place with zero transaction fees.

Welcome! You're ready to start giving with purpose.

You can also set a yearly giving goal to make a commitment to giving for the calendar year, and set up recurring contributions and grants to and from your Charityvest fund.

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.

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.

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:

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.

Setting up investing

When setting up your Charityvest fund, you can choose to invest your fund balance in a diversified, low-cost portfolio. Your funds will always be available to grant but may grow tax-free and expand your giving potential.

After selecting Set up investing, you'll be asked to choose between the Standard Portfolio and the Filtered Portfolio. Both portfolios offer exposure across the same asset classes. The Standard Portfolio tracks the underlying asset class indices directly, while the Filtered Portfolio attemps to achieve the same, while filtering against companies that participate in controversial industries, such as alcohol, gambling, and adult entertainment.

Next, you'll be asked about your portfolio duration. Specifically, we want to understand how long your charitable balance will remain invested. The longer it will remain invested, the more risk you are likely to be able to take without affecting your giving plans. We'll use this information to recommend a portfolio allocation based on your giving plans, which you'll select on the following screen.

If you decide to customize your portfolio, you'll be able to adjust the allocations of the individual ETFs that make up our portfolios, to a total of 100%. This step is entirely optional.

On the final page, you'll be asked to review your settings and start investing. Investing will then be active on your account and your balance will be invested during the next available trading window.

Investing FAQs

Are there any additional or hidden fees?

No. There are no hidden fees - just one simple fee assessed to your Charityvest balance every month. All trading is conducted commission-free and the portfolio ETFs offer some of the lowest expense ratios of any ETFs in the market.

How frequently are portfolios rebalanced?

Portfolios are rebalanced every time we conduct activity in your account - for instance, investing new contributions or selling positions to make a grant. If no activity occurred in the last 30 days, we'll rebalance once to keep your portfolio in line with your target allocation.

Can I change my allocation or deactivate investing?

Yes. You can change your portfolio, modify your allocation, or stop investing at any time. Your balance will convert back to cash and your account will no longer be assessed the monthly investing charge.

How do I use the money to support charities?

You don’t have to do anything special to use your balance to support charities you care about. Simply recommend a grant and we’ll automatically liquidate the correct amount of money from your invested balance to fund your gift.

Can I invest only a portion of my balance?

No. Using our invest feature will invest your full charitable balance. However, you can more heavily weight your portfolio’s exposure to ultra-short duration fixed income to more closely approximate holding a portion of your fund in cash.

What happens if the investments lose value?

Because your contributions are tax-deductible, gains and losses in your Charityvest balance do not affect tax deduction values. However, if the investments lose value, you will not be able to grant as much to charity as if you had not invested your balance.

You may wish to leverage your donor-advised fund balance to:

• Invest in / make loans to for-profit social ventures.

• Make recoverable grants or loans to charities loans.

Impact Foundation is a 501(c)(3) public charity that allows you to recommend custom investments in your Impact Accounts (a donor advised fund). Through January 2024, their donors/investors have deployed more than $525 Million for impact.

Request impact investing services

If you are interested in impact investing:

• Log in to your account Dashboard.

• Select the I’m interested button under the Impact investing section.

• Complete the form details to initiate an introduction to our impact investing partners. You will need to answer the following questions:

  • How much charitable capital do you plan to invest over the next 2 years?

  • Which of the following describe your interest in impact investing?

    • I would like to choose from pre-screened impact investments.

    • I have already identified an investment opportunity.

  • Do you have a preference of who you would prefer to work with?

    • Impact Foundation

    • Other - describe below

  • Additional information or questions.

• Click Message us to submit. We will share a summary of responses to for your reference.

• The Charityvest team will follow up directly with you to get started.

Partner fees and minimums

Impact Foundation assesses fees on invested assets on an annual basis, which are deducted from your Impact Foundation donor-advised fund balance. Their minimum opening balance is $25,000.

Additionally, they charge a one-time 3% origination fee on the total value of each new investment (with a minimum origination fee of $1,000).

Still have questions about this process? Contact us via Intercom chat or email at support@charityvest.org.

What charities are included in the Charityvest database?

There are over 1.5M charities already included the Charityvest database.

We keep our database up to date with the list of eligible charities published monthly by the IRS.

If your charity is recognized as a 501c3 organization by the IRS, there's a good chance we already have them in our database.

If so - you're all set! There's nothing a charity needs to do in order to receive payments from us.

I can't find my place of worship.

Not to worry - we can help you give to your eligible place of worship through Charityvest!

Unfortunately, places of worship are not automatically included in the IRS's list of eligible organizations, so we will need to enroll your place of worship if they are not in our database already.

We are typically able to enroll charities within 5 business days receiving the completed form.

My charity isn't coming up in the search results

2. If you're not able to locate the charity's EIN, search by the Organization's Name

   • If a charity has provided us with a more common name that they are known by, search results will match by that name

   • Otherwise, we match search results based on the charity's legal name on file with the IRS

We want to make it easy to find and give money to charity - please let us know if you have any feedback as we continue to improve our search experience!

Multiple charities appear in my search results - I'm not sure which is the right one

1. You can further narrow down your search by using the State filter dropdown

2. Use the address listed on the charity profile to verify the correct organization *Note that the address listed is the payment address we have on file for the organization (vs. a Headquarters location)

3. If available, visit the URL listed in the charity profile to ensure you have the correct organization

Additional FAQs:

Q: Can I give to a specific fundraiser?

If you are looking for structured guidance as you design your philanthropic plan, you can request to partner with Charityvest certified philanthropic advisors.

What is philanthropic advisory?

Philanthropic advisory helps you to maximize your charitable impact through expert guidance on strategic giving, such as identifying preferred causes, evaluating nonprofits, and planning donations. It ensures your grantmaking aligns with your values, resulting in more meaningful contributions to society that help you maintain the motivation for giving over time.

Benefits of philanthropic advisory

If you choose to partner with a philanthropic advisor, it will unlock several benefits:

• Philanthropic expertise & research. Each of our vetted philanthropic advisory partners has years of experience and access to research tools that inform their work, which can help accelerate your philanthropic education and inspire you to action.

• Charitable giving strategy: Any of our vetted philanthropic advisory teams can offer you guidance on how to shape your giving strategy, from setting a mission statement, to selecting values-aligned causes, to deploying charitable capital.

• Impact evaluation: Any of our vetted philanthropic advisory teams can help you measure the impact of your giving over time.

Giving accounts make it easy to work with philanthropic advisors

Your donor-advised fund makes it easy to work with a philanthropic advisor. You can use your giving account to:

1. Cover any philanthropic advisory fees via your account balance.

2. Implement your giving strategy with legacy planning and collaborative giving tools.

3. Make grants to recommended charities with grant scheduling and tracking tools.

Who is philanthropic advisory for?

Philanthropic advisory is generally a good fit for clients that plan to give a minimum of $10,000 per year. Each of our vetted philanthropic advisory partners has a distinct client focus:

Request philanthropic advisory services

If you are interested in partnering with a philanthropic advisor:

• Log in to your account Dashboard.

• Select the I’m interested button under the Philanthropic advisory section.

• Complete the form details to initiate an introduction to an aligned philanthropic advisory team. You will need to answer the following questions:

  • How much have you given over the last year?

  • How much are you planning to give over the next year?

  • What are your goals in working with a philanthropic advisor? (select all that apply)

    • Develop a vision and strategy for your giving.

    • Find high impact organizations that align with your goals.

    • Receive guidance on where to give after a liquidation event.

    • Other - please describe below.

  • Do you have a preference of who you would prefer to work with?

    • GiveTeam

    • Raise for Good

    • Calvin Edward & Company

    • Simple Charity

    • Not sure yet

    • Other - please describe below.

  • Additional information or questions.

• Click Message us to submit. We will share a summary of responses for your reference.

• The Charityvest team will follow up directly to help you get started.

Still have questions about this process? Contact us via Intercom chat or email at support@charityvest.org.

Once you create a grant request with Charityvest, it begins a journey to arrive to your charity of choice! 🎁

How to check the status of a grant

Here are the steps involved when you send a gift to a charity via Charityvest:

1. Requested: you have successfully filled out your grant recommendation form

2. Funded: you have sufficient funds in your Charityvest account to fund this grant. If you have a sufficient cash balance to fund your grant, this will be marked as completed instantly. If we need to sell securities (e.g., for Invested accounts) or clear a recent contribution in order to fund your grant, you'll see an expected clearing date below this line.

3. Sending to charity: the grant has been sent to your charity, either via PayPal grants via the account we have on file for that organization, or via check to the address listed on their Charityvest profile. The estimated delivery date is available once the grant has been sent.

4. Received by charity: the USPS reported that the check was out for delivery to the recipient charity. It can take approximately 10 business days for the check to arrive in the mail.

   4a. Awaiting acceptance: for PayPal digital grants, grants that are "awaiting acceptance" have been delivered to the PayPal account, but have not yet been "accepted" by the PayPal account administrator. If a grant expires before it is accepted, we will resend the grant (either by PayPal one more time, or by check)

5. Deposited: the check has been deposited by the charity. After it has been delivered, it is at the discretion of the charity to deposit the check. Based on our data, 95% of checks are deposited by recipient charities within 35 days of when they are sent.

Employee Matching Grant Status Tracker

If your employer is subscribed to Charityvest's Workplace Giving Program and you have submitted a request to have your grant matched by them through our platform, there is an extra step involved in your grant's journey.

Once your grant is marked as funded, it will be added to the queue for your employer's approval. It will remain pending as status Waiting for employer match until your employer approves it in a batch, which typically occurs by the 5th of the following month. Your grant will not be sent unless it is approved for a match, in which case, both the grant and the match will be mailed together in one check.

Still have questions about grant timing? Contact our support team via our Intercom chat or support@charityvest.org

How to set up Beneficiaries

To nominate beneficiaries to your Charityvest fund:

1. Log in to your Charityvest account, select your name in the top right-hand corner of the page to access your Profile, and click on the Beneficiaries tab.

3. Decide what percentage of your total fund value you would like to allocate to each beneficiary.

4. Save your preferences. You can view or update this information at any time.

Beneficiary types

Beneficiaries can be a mix of individuals who will receive a transfer of charitable assets to a Charityvest fund in their name and charities who will receive grants for the causes you specify.

To add an individual beneficiary, we ask for their first name, last name, email address, and your relationship. You are able to provide additional contact information, including address and phone number. You may also include a personal note to the individual. We won't notify this person that you added them as a beneficiary until it's time for them to assume advisory privileges.

To add a charity beneficiary, we ask that you search and select from the charities in our database. You also may include the specific need for the grant (if any) and a personal note.

Timeframe of disposition

At the time of your passing, the Charityvest team will review your beneficiary profile to coordinate a DAF transfer to your chosen individuals and/or grants to your pre-populated charities.

If your preference is to disburse your balance over a period of time, you can add special instructions to your beneficiary profile accordingly.

To add disbursement frequency instructions to an individual beneficiary:

• While editing the individual beneficiary profile, click the Add additional information (optional) dropdown.

• Under Personal Note, enter your desired timeframe and details as needed.

To add disbursement frequency instructions to a charity beneficiary:

• Once you have searched and selected a charity, under the Purpose section, select the Edit button.

• From the dropdown, select Other Purpose.

• Enter your desired timeframe and details as needed.

Any additional instructions related to your beneficiary designation will be honored by our team as part of enacting your legacy of generosity.

Still have questions about setting up your beneficiary profile? Contact our support team via our Intercom chat or support@charityvest.org

Naming your DAF in an estate bequest

Some donors choose to ensure further charitable intent in their estate planning documents, such as a last will or trust, by including a written bequest to the Charityvest.

Bequests are the most frequent type of planned gift made to charity. Your estate receives a charitable deduction for the full amount given, so your heirs pay no estate tax on the gift.

You can consider bequesting a percentage of your estate, specific assets in your estate, or the residual of your estate after liquidation. Here is some example language you might consider using, in consultation with a qualified estate planning advisor:

• Percentage: ”I give, devise and bequeath to Charityvest, Inc. (EIN 81-2771871), a nonprofit corporation of the State of Georgia, ____% of my estate to create or add to my Donor Advised Fund there established.”

• Specific Assets: ”I give, devise and bequeath to Charityvest, Inc. (EIN 81-2771871), a nonprofit corporation of the State of Georgia, [the sum of $____] (or) [_____ shares of ______ stock] (or) [my real property commonly known as __________________] (or) [another reasonable description sufficient for the executor], for the creation or addition to a Donor Advised Fund."

• Residual Estate: ”I give, devise and bequeath to Charityvest, Inc. (EIN 81-2771871), a nonprofit corporation of the State of Georgia, all of the residual of my estate and any residual real or personal property, upon execution by my executor, for the creation or addition to a Donor Advised Fund.”

A charitable giving goal is a specific amount you aim to give over a time period, usually a calendar year. Specifically, giving goals can be how much you plan to contribute into a charitable giving vehicle like a donor-advised fund and/or grant to charities.

Research shows setting commitments to charitable giving help you give >7% more than you otherwise might.

Each year, you can hold yourself accountable and inspire others by setting a giving goal for total contributions and grants made from your Charityvest account.

Giving goal considerations

Deciding how much to give is a personal, moral, and spiritual decision, so there's no formula. Here are a few key considerations below:

• The type of donor you are today and how a giving goal can help your next steps. Not every experience of giving is the same. Depending on where you are on your purposeful giving journey, you can use giving goals to align with your philanthropic and financial circumstances.

• Your desired giving legacy. You want to understand your long-term motivations for giving and what it is you're trying to achieve over your lifetime. An annual giving goal will be a stepping stone to your longer-term aim.

• Your desired tax strategy for giving. Your giving goals will also be influenced by your tax strategy for philanthropy.

• Whether you want to give now or give later in life. It's important to evaluate the financial and personal implications of choosing to give now, versus at a later stage in life.

Goal-setting methods

Though giving is an intensely personal and purposeful decision, many donors use defined methods to simplify the decision and the fulfillment of their giving goal. Here are a few we've seen purposeful donors use:

• Fixed amount: to pick a flat amount that sounds aspirational but attainable.

• Percentage of income: to pick a percentage of pre-tax income.

• Percentage of assets: for donors who have more assets than income, it can be much more powerful to set a giving goal around a percentage of your assets over a particular time period.

• Financial finish line: giving 100% of income and/or assets above some threshold.

How to set up your giving goal

It's easy to create and share your giving goal on Charityvest:

• Click the link to Set your giving goal, located on the right-hand side of your Dashboard.

• Enter your estimated pre-tax income and decide what percentage of your total income you wish to contribute and/or grant from your Charityvest account during the calendar year. Review our recommended goal and consider what feels best for your financial situation.

• Share your giving goals with others through a public link. The goals will be not be disclosed in dollars, rather in percentages.

Recommending a Grant

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.

When logged in to your account dashboard, click the Grant to charity button. Then, search for your charity of choice by name or EIN (the official U.S. tax ID of every U.S.-based charity).

Once you see the charity you are looking for, click the Grant button to add the details of your gift:

• Amount. Enter the amount you'd like to grant to the charity.

• Funding source. Confirm the source of funds for your grant. It will default to your existing Charityvest balance, though you can click to make a one-time contribution from a linked account.

• Frequency. Depending on whether you'd like to send this grant once or on a recurring basis, you can click Edit next to Frequency to choose from the dropdown menu options: Once, Once (on a future date), Bi-weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Annually.

• Share my information. You can send more or less of your personal contact information to the charity. You can even be completely anonymous, if you'd like. To configure your information shared settings, click Edit next to Share my information, and select the fields you would like to include for your charity.

Grant Purpose

The default designation for all grants is "Wherever needed most." However, you may prefer to direct your gift for a specific purpose, in which case, we recommend selecting a relevant Purpose label to help communicate your intent to the recipient charity, along with an optional personal note. Here is our selection of grant designation options:

1. Wherever needed most: Default purpose statement, which offers charities the flexibility to use grant funding as needed.

2. Pledge: Non-binding giving commitment. You must certify that the grant will not be used to fulfill any legally binding obligation to the charity.

3. Charity event: Charitable event you wish to support. You must certify that the grant does not cover any portion of the cost of attendance, sponsorship, or participation.

4. Run/walk/fundraiser sponsorship: Fundraiser you wish to support on behalf of a charity. You can include event information, and must certify that the grant will not be used to satisfy any legally binding fundraising goals for you or a relative.

5. Membership: Charitable membership you wish to fund. You must certify that none of the benefits from this membership would cause it to be less than 100% tax-deductible.

6. Scholarship: Scholarship you wish to fund. You must certify that you and your relatives will not have decisive control in selecting scholarship recipients.

7. Missionary or child/family sponsorship: Missionary or child/family you wish to sponsor. You must certify that you are not supporting yourself or a relative through your grant, and that the charity will maintain full discretion over the use of funds.

8. Religious offering: Gift dedicated to your religious institution as part of your belief system.

How to designate a grant to a specific program within a charity

If you wish for your grant to be directed to a program within a charity, you will want to include it in the Purpose section of your grant request.

How to designate a grant in honor of someone

If you wish for your grant to be acknowledged in memory or honor of someone, you will want to include information in the notes field within the Purpose section of your grant request.

How grants are funded

If your account is invested, we automatically liquidate the invested assets as needed and rebalance your portfolio to target.

If your account balance is insufficient to cover the grant amount:

How grants are sent

We send grants to charities daily via PayPal and weekly via check, after we review each grant for compliance with IRS Code.

Disallowed grants

This is a simplified take on the IRS Code, but the IRS requires that grants made through Charityvest comply with three major rules:

No Direct Private Benefits

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

No Control over the Grant Recipient

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

No Binding Pledges or Commitments

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.

Values Informing Grant Approval

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.

Finding and Favoriting Charities

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.

Tax-smart donors know that donating long-term appreciated securities can result in larger deductions on their income taxes, and more money going to charities. Donors are generally able to deduct the full fair market value of the donated asset, avoid capital gains taxes, and use the full liquidated value for charitable giving.

Stocks & ETFs

Donating stocks and ETFs to your Charityvest fund is simple:

• Make a transfer from your broker: Use your brokerage's process to initiate your contribution, or share the information with your financial advisor. You choose which shares and tax lots to send. We never have access to your brokerage account.

• We receive and sell automatically: As soon as we receive the shares from your broker, we'll sell the shares and assign the value to your Charityvest account within one business day, providing you with a detailed tax receipt. We intend to automate this process in the future to get the funds in your account even sooner.

Stock and ETF donations trade commission-free.

Mutual Funds

We accept donations of mutual funds through a dedicated mutual fund clearing account. Mutual funds are easily identified by ticker symbols that are 5 letters long, and which always end in X (e.g., VTSAX, VFIAX).

If your donation includes mutual funds, please direct your gift to the below account:

Account Title / Owner: Charityvest, Inc. Account Number: DWP001718 Brokerage: Pershing LLC (DTC #0443)

Tax-deductible value

Charityvest provides you with an estimate of the tax-deductible value of your stock and ETF donations at the time your gift is posted to your account.

For stocks and ETFs, we use the IRS recommended method and use the simple average price of the publicly-traded security on the day we received it. Specifically, we take the day's low price and the day's high price, and we average them.

Ultimately, it is your responsibility as the taxpayer to accurately represent and claim a tax deduction on your income taxes; all information provided by Charityvest is for convenience only. Please seek advice from tax counsel.

How to fill out a brokerage securities donation form

For ease of reference, Charityvest has provided the securities donation forms of some well-known brokerages. Best efforts are made to ensure these forms are up-to-date, however, it is ultimately the donor's responsibility to ensure the correct form is completed.

When completing the form with your delivering broker, please include:

• For stock & ETF contributions (excluding mutual funds):

  • Receiving Firm: Alpaca Securities LLC

  • Receiving Firm Address: 12 E 49th Street, Floor 11, New York, NY 10017

  • Registration: Charityvest, Inc.

  • Contact Name/Email: support@charityvest.org

  • Contact Phone (for brokerage use only): (404) 538-6170

• For contributions containing any mutual funds:

  • Receiving Firm: Pershing LLC

  • Receiving Firm Address: One Pershing Plaza Jersey City, NJ, 07399

  • Registration: Charityvest, Inc.

  • Contact Name/Email: support@charityvest.org

  • Contact Phone (for brokerage use only): (404) 538-6170

Use the contents on the right side of this page or click the links below to find specific instructions for your broker:

Any broker/advisor

If you're not looking for brokerage-specific directions, or you can't find your brokerage on this list, you can still donate stocks and ETFs to Charityvest using our standard process:

• Reach out to customer service at your advisor/brokerage and tell them you would like to make a charitable transfer of stock. Instruct your brokerage or advisor which shares to send to Charityvest, and provide your unique Charityvest account information as the receiving account. You may be required to complete a form, or confirm your transfer, to finalize the activity at your broker. You choose which shares and tax lots to send. We never have access to your brokerage account.

• We receive and sell automatically: As soon as we receive the shares from your broker, we'll sell the shares and assign the value to your Charityvest account within one business day, providing you with a detailed tax receipt. We intend to automate this process in the future to get the funds in your account even sooner.

Fidelity

• Complete this Fidelity-specific form.

Schwab

• Complete this Charles Schwab-specific form. You may need to print it to sign it.

Chase / J.P. Morgan

• Complete this Chase / J.P. Morgan-specific form.

• • Choose “I have a question about one of my accounts” > "Our Account" > "Other Inquiry”.

  • Attach the completed form and choose “Send Message”.

E*TRADE

Merrill Edge

Vanguard

Morgan Stanley StockPlan

• • Click the “Sell or Transfer” link on the Dashboard

  • Select Transaction Type -> Gift or Transfer Shares to a Third Party -> Charity Donation

  • Add or edit Charityvest's account information.

  • Verify that the share transfer information is correct, and then click “Submit Transaction.”

UBS OneSource

• • Choose Transactions -> Transact Shares.

  • Choose the shares you wish to transfer to Charityvest.

  • Enter Charityvest's account information.

  • Transfer the shares.

Interactive Brokers

• Complete this Interactive Brokers-specific form.

Ally Invest

• Complete this Ally Invest-specific form.

  • Leave "trade date" and "settlement date" fields blank.

• • Note: Ally Invest may charge a $25 fee per position.

Still have questions or wish to see your brokerage listed? Contact us: support@charityvest.org

We have partnered with best-in-class philanthropic service providers to enhance the capabilities of your donor-advised fund to support your giving at every stage of your philanthropic journey.

You have access to the following philanthropic service partners through your Charityvest account:

Request philanthropic services

To access our suite of philanthropic services:

• Log in to your account Dashboard.

• Select the I’m interested button next to your service category of choice.

• Complete the form details to initiate an introduction to our partner.

• Click to submit your inquiry. It will automatically trigger an introduction email to our partner along with a summary of responses for your reference.

• Our partner will follow up directly with you to help you get started.

Still have questions about this process? Contact us via Intercom chat or email at support@charityvest.org.

Share the gift of generosity with virtual Charityvest gift cards. 🎁

• Seed charitable giving accounts for kids, employees, or others you influence. Influence lives with generosity by enabling others to give away your donated money on your behalf.

• Send employees, friends, and colleagues a simple appreciation gift. Share a gift card to let someone know you appreciate and support them on holidays, birthdays, milestones, and anniversaries.

• Appreciate clients, and prospects without violating gift acceptance policies. There’s no monetary value with directing money to a charity within Charityvest, so it doesn't violate gift acceptance policies at any dollar amount.

How to send a Charityvest gift card

2. Complete the Charityvest gift card submission form with the email addresses of the recipients, optional personal message, and amount you'd like to send per recipient.

3. Send your gifts. 💌 After you review and confirm the details, we’ll share your personal note and gift instructions in an email to your recipients.

Unclaimed Charityvest gift cards

We'll remind users to accept the gift if they haven't done so after seven days.

If your gift is not accepted within 10 days, we will return the funds to your account. You can share them again with the same recipient or use them in a different way.

If you'd have any questions about sending Charityvest gift cards, please reach out via chat or at support@charityvest.org.

ACH, Check, and Wire

We're happy to accept cash via other modalities, such as ACH credits, wire transfers, and paper checks. We may deduct a $20 processing fee to identify, validate, and assign your gift to the correct DAF.

Sending an ACH or wire transfer

Sending a paper check

Please include the email address associated with your Charityvest account in the memo of the check. We will process the check and credit the amount to your Charityvest fund within 10 business days, once received.

Checks should be sent to:

Company Matching Giving

If your company offers a charitable matching program, you are likely eligible to have your Charityvest giving matched by your employer.

Generally, companies either match your donation to Charityvest, or your grant from Charityvest once it is approved and sent - but not both.

If your company matches contributions to Charityvest, you will submit the paperwork required by your company to the matching program administrator or platform. If approved, your company / company's platform will send Charityvest the matching amount, generally within four to eight weeks. When we receive the matching amount, we will post it to your Charityvest account.

Note that some employers, such as Google and Amazon, require us to inform donors that their match may not be used for religious support purposes. If this applies to you, we will inform you when we assign the match to your account. If your employer matches grants out of your Charityvest account, you'll need to determine what information they need to substantiate your gift. Your employer will then send that match directly to the charity to whom you made a gift - Charityvest is not involved in that match.

Direct Deposit

Overview

Charityvest offers two account types: Basic Accounts, which are held in cash, and Invested Accounts, where donors can choose from low-cost ETF portfolios to grow their balance.

Both account types share all same basic fees, minimums, and policies. Invested Accounts are subject to an additional admin fee, assessed monthly on the Charityvest account balance.

Comparison of Charityvest Accounts vs. Other DAFs

Charityvest Fees & Minimums

Our goal at Charityvest is to catalyze more intentional giving. We believe minimal, simple fees and expenses help donors focus on what matters: doing more good.

We're proud to offer the only completely free, zero-fee donor-advised fund account:

Charityvest Invested Account Fees

Our investing feature fee structure aligns with DAF industry standards. We assess these fees once per month, directly to your Charityvest balance:

Here's an example of invested account fees at various balance levels.

There is no minimum amount required to begin investing. A $100 minimum annual fee applies, regardless of balance. Any additional fee required to meeet the $100 minimum annual fee is applied at the end of each fiscal year, and is prorated for accounts established during the fiscal year.

How We Compare

We believe our model compares favorably to other donor-advised fund sponsors from superior features and experience:

• All of our investment options are efficient by default. Our Core portfolio runs approximately 0.05%, and our ESG option is approximately 0.15%. You don't have to go searching for the lowest expense ratio funds.

• Our lower-cost investment options give you more control. We provide access to various single asset class index ETFs for 0.05% all-in expense ratio, so you can construct the portfolio that is appropriate for your charitable goals. Compare this to Fidelity Charitable, whose single asset class pools range from 0.35% to 1.04% expense ratios.

• Being socially-conscious doesn't require big tradeoffs. Our ESG portfolio provides access to the same asset classes as our Core portfolio, and costs only 0.06% more (0.11% total). At Schwab Charitable, the Socially-Responsible Fund will run you 0.67%, and is available only in an approximate 60 / 40 mutual fund.

• Our minimums work for everyone. Our minimum activity of any type is just $15. While Vanguard Charitable's investment options are superb, low expense ratio, and thoughtfully constructed, they have high minimums that may not be compatible with flexible giving. Vanguard Charitable's minimum opening contribution is $25,000.

Donating non-cash assets offers significant tax advantages, as well as the opportunity to deepen your commitment to your charitable legacy. Complex asset contributions include:

• Private / Pre-IPO Stock

• LLC and Limited Partnership interests

• Private Equity, Hedge Fund, and Venture Capital Fund interests

• Real Estate

• Life Insurance

• Retirement assets

• Royalties

How it works

1. As early as practical, request an introduction. Request an introduction to Charitable Solutions via your Charityvest account. Please fill in any available details regarding the possible donation.

2. Receive consultation on gift process, timing, and fees. Charitable Solutions will cover the process and potential transaction with you, including a timeline and gift processing fees. There is no cost or obligation to receive this consultation.

3. Charitable Solutions receives and liquidates the donation, transferring proceeds to your account. Once the asset is sold, the proceeds will be posted to your giving account, net of processing fees, and will be available for granting. Charitable Solutions will provide gift acknowledgment to substantiate the donation for tax purposes.

Request to contribute complex assets

If you are interested in making a contribution of a complex asset on behalf of a client:

• Log in to your account Dashboard.

• Click the Contribute to fund button.

• Select the Donate privately held or complex assets button.

• On the Donate complex assets screen, review the step-by-step process overview. Click the Get started button. You can also click to view the 1-pager for more information about Charitable Solutions.

• Complete the form details to initiate an introduction to the Charitable Solutions team. You will need to provide the following information:

  • Description of asset.

  • Estimated fair market value of asset, if known.

  • Estimated liquidity timing, if known.

  • Additional information or questions.

• Based on your entry for Estimated fair market value of asset, we will automatically estimate the fee range in accordance with the Charitable Solutions fee structure.

• Click Message Charitable Solutions to submit. We will share your inquiry with the Charitable Solutions team along with a summary of responses to you for reference.

• Charitable Solutions will follow up directly with you to help you get started.

Partner fees

Charitable Solutions assesses an industry-standard fee for service of 1-3% on complex asset donations, with a minimum fee of $10,000. There is no cost or obligation to receive the initial consultation.

Timing

We recommend that you complete the contribution request form for complex assets as early as possible, once you have determined that you are reasonably likely to initiate this contribution.

Still have questions about this process? Contact us via Intercom chat or email at support@charityvest.org.

Bank Account

It's simple and free to donate cash to your Charityvest fund from a linked bank account. To link a bank account, click Contribute on your dashboard, and your contribution will be immediately reflected in your fund balance. Contributions made before 5:00 p.m. Eastern will clear into your Charityvest balance on the following business day, making them available for grants and investing.

We limit customers to $25,000 in linked bank account contributions per week. This limit resets every Sunday. If you would like to extend your limit to $100,000 per week, you can provide basic personal information in-app to verify your account. For contributions greater than $100,000 per week, please contact our support team by Intercom chat or via email: support@charityvest.org

Debit / Credit Cards

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!).

Successful contributions made via credit and debit card post instantly to your Charityvest balance, and are immediately available for grants.

Processing fees

We partner with Stripe to accept a wide variety of credit and debit card brands, both U.S. and international. Stripe offers Charityvest reduced fees on our credit and debit card processing:

• 2.2% and $0.37 on all U.S. cards, except American Express

• 3.5% and $0.07 on U.S. American Express cards

• 3.2% and $0.37 on international cards, except American Express

• 4.5% and $0.07 on international American Express cards

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. When making a contribution to your Charityvest account using a card, you'll be asked to enter the amount you'd like to contribute to your fund. This is the amount that will be available for giving after the transaction.

Based on the card type you choose, Charityvest will calculate the fee to be charged by Stripe, and determine a total amount that will be charged to your card. This amount will be greater than the amount available for giving.

The full value of the amount charged to your card (i.e., amount available for giving, plus processing fee) is considered a tax-deductible gift to Charityvest. We keep track of this for your taxes.

Our fastest-growing non-cash category, cryptocurrency donations, offer many of the benefits of long-term publicly traded stock giving, but with the speed and certainty of the blockchain.

To donate an accepted crypto asset via Charityvest:

• From your Dashboard, select Contribute to Fund.

• Select Donate Cryptocurrency.

• Search and select the crypto asset you would like to contribute. Your unique Charityvest wallet address will be generated and displayed. You can save this address for future use.

  • Note: You must use destination / memo tags for EOS, XLM and ATOM as displayed

• We will automatically liquidate the position and post the transaction to your Charityvest account.

Tax-deductible value of cryptocurrency gifts

For cryptocurrency, we furnish the mid-market price of the asset on the exchange received at the time the exchange considers the transaction successfully confirmed on the blockchain.

Ultimately, it is your responsibility as the taxpayer to accurately represent and claim a tax deduction on your income taxes; all information provided by Charityvest is for convenience only. Please seek advice from tax counsel.

Scheduled Monthly Contributions

If you're considering making a monthly commitment to set money aside for charitable giving, a recurring contribution can help you achieve your giving goals. This is an ideal way to commit to a certain level of charitable giving, without needing to decide which charities you will support ahead of time.

You can set up a recurring monthly contribution from a bank account or credit card to automatically contribute a certain amount to your fund every month.

To set up a recurring monthly contribution, select one of the monthly frequency options on the Contribute screen. Currently, you can choose to have your contributions processed on the 1st or 15th of the month.

Scheduled Monthly Grants

You can also set up recurring monthly grants to charities you want to support on an ongoing basis.

To set up a recurring monthly grant, select one of the monthly frequency options on the Grant screen. Currently, you can choose to have your contributions processed on the 1st or 15th of the month.

Managing Recurring Transactions

You can view all recurring transactions on the Recurring Transactions section of the Activity dashboard. Clicking "Edit" next to the transaction will allow you to make modifications.

How Recurring Grants are Funded

Unlike one-time grants, recurring grants always use your Charityvest balance as a funding source. If your Charityvest account has an adequate balance to fund your recurring grants, it will automatically deduct funds from your account and send your scheduled grants.

If you want to support a charity that operates outside of the U.S., there are several ways that Charityvest can help:

• If the charity has a U.S.-based entity or fiscal sponsor, you can recommend a grant from Charityvest to that organization and designate your gift for the international branch.

TrustBridge Global is a foundation with collaborative relationships around the world, enabling them to professionally manage and deploy charitable giving internationally. With TrustBridge Global, you can feel confident knowing that your gift will be delivered safely and efficiently.

How it works

2. TrustBridge Global performs due diligence to make your client's charity eligible. TrustBridge will work with your chosen charity to complete a streamlined application, ensuring that the organization is properly vetted and able to receive your gift while preserving tax deductibility.

Request to make an international grant

If you are interested in making an international grant via TrustBridge:

• Log in to your account Dashboard.

• Select the I’m interested button under the International grantmaking section.

• Review the step-by-step process overview. Click the Get started button. You can also click to view the 1-pager for more information about TrustBridge Global.

• Complete the form details to initiate an introduction to the TrustBridge Global team. You will need to answer the following questions:

  • What is the name of the international charity?

  • Where is this charity located?

  • What is the best way to contact somebody at this charity?

  • How much do you plan to give to this organization in the next 12-18 months?

  • Additional information or questions.

• Based on your entry for How much do you plan to give to this organization in the next 12-18 months? we will automatically estimate the fee in accordance with the TrustBridge fee structure.

• Click Submit to TrustBridge to submit. We will share your inquiry with the TrustBridge team along with a summary of responses for your reference.

• TrustBridge Global will follow up directly with you to help you get started.

Partner fees

Depending on the charity, partnering with TrustBridge Global to initiate an international grant may include the following fees:

• $150 for an annual charity certification (if needed).

• 1% fee per grant assessment (minimum fee amount: $300).

• $25 per grant for wire transfer to charity.

Still have questions about this process? Contact us via Intercom chat or email at support@charityvest.org.

In this section, we dive deeper into the steps you need to take to contribute:

Why transfer your DAF

Many donors create a Charityvest fund to try out our experience and ultimately decide to move some or all of their existing donor-advised fund assets to us. Reasons we've heard include:

• A better tech-enabled self-service experience

• Live chat support

We would be honored to accept a transfer of some or all of your existing donor-advised fund assets from another donor-advised fund sponsor.

How to transfer your DAF

3. We will let you know when it arrives. As soon as we receive your grant, we will notify you via email and deposit the funds into your account.

Tax considerations for DAF transfers

DAF transfers are not new charitable contributions, and are therefore not considered tax-deductible. When we process your DAF transfer, we will automatically mark it as not tax-deductible and it will not appear on your year-end tax statement.

If you'd like us to walk you through the process, please reach out via chat or at support@charityvest.org and we'll be happy to help.

Tax advantages of using Charityvest

From a tax and financial planning perspective, there's a lot to like about Charityvest:

• Unified tax receipt One tax receipt every January, showing every charitable contribution

• Immediate income tax deduction Contributions are immediately tax-deductible

• No capital gains taxes on asset gifts Larger income tax deduction + more money for charitable giving

• Tax-free appreciation No taxes on investment growth in your Charityvest balance

• No estate taxes Your Charityvest DAF is not considered part of your estate

Unified tax receipt

We send you a single tax receipt each January summarizing your prior year's giving. If you donate stock or cryptocurrency, we also provide you with a pre-filled IRS Form 8283 to substantiate those gifts. To retrieve your annual tax statement:

• Log in to your Charityvest account Dashboard.

• Click on your name in the top right-hand corner.

• Click Statements in the drop-down menu. You will be redirected to the account tab that includes links to all your available tax statements. Click to view your statement in a new window, where you can download to your computer.

Here is an example of what your tax statement PDF will look like:

Immediate income tax deduction

When you make a contribution to your donor-advised fund at Charityvest, you are making an irrevocable charitable gift to Charityvest, Inc., which provides you with the privilege to advise how your gift is used. Because of the irrevocable legal nature of your gift, Charityvest provides you with a receipt showing that you made a charitable contribution (only the person making the donation is eligible for a tax deduction).

To prevent accidental double-dipping, only contributions are tax-deductible. You aren't eligible for additional deductions when you make a grant to a charity, or if you transfer funds from an existing donor-advised fund or private foundation to Charityvest: you already received a charitable contribution receipt when you made the initial gift.

U.S. taxpayers generally qualify for deductions on their contributions to Charityvest, subject to limits:

• for cash gifts, up to 60% of Adjusted Gross Income per year

• for long-term appreciated assets, up to 30% of Adjusted Gross Income per year

• for other non-cash assets, the AGI limits can vary

Any excess above these limits can be rolled over for up to five years. The ability to benefit from a charitable contribution depends, in part, on whether the donor itemizes tax deductions or claims the standard deduction.

No capital gains taxes + tax-free balance growth + no estate taxes

When you gift long-term appreciated assets such as stock and cryptocurrency to Charityvest, you receive an acknowledgment of the full fair market value of your gift. And because Charityvest is tax-exempt, we incur no capital gains tax on the sale of the asset, retaining the full value for charitable purposes.

And, if you choose to invest your Charityvest balance, all market growth and dividends occur tax-free inside of your Charityvest account.

Finally, because your account is owned and maintained by Charityvest, Inc., it is not considered a part of your estate and is therefore not subject to estate taxes.

How we acknowledge your stock, ETF, and crypto donations

In general, a charitable contribution’s value is based on the type of asset donated and the date of contribution, which ordinarily is the date when the asset is transferred to Charityvest and unconditionally removed from the donor’s control. Gift value for the donor’s tax purposes is determined on the date of the gift, and is not related to the value the charity receives upon selling the property.

For publicly traded securities, the value we report is the average of the high and low quotation on the date the gift is received by Charityvest. This value may not be accurate for your tax situation (e.g., if the shares were not long-term basis).

For cryptocurrency, the value we report is the mid-market price reported by Coinbase at the time Coinbase recognizes the transaction on the blockchain, based on their internal policies for minimum confirmations per asset. While we anticipate that the IRS is likely to clarify rules around cryptocurrency donations soon, donors are still required to obtain such an appraisal related to gifts of cryptocurrency in excess of $5,000.

We provide three acknowledgment items for gifts of stock, plus a fourth for cryptocurrency:

• E-mail acknowledgment. When we receive your gift and post it to your Charityvest account, you will receive an email containing the details of your gift.

• Unified annual statement. The details of your gift will be included on your annual statement, sent each January.

• Form 8283. Form 8283 is an IRS tax form used to substantiate non-cash charitable contributions, like stock and cryptocurrency. Individuals, partnerships, and corporations use IRS Form 8283 to report information to the IRS about noncash charitable contributions when the amount of their contribution for all noncash gifts is more than $500. For donors whose previous year noncash charitable contributions exceed $500, we provide a blank IRS Form 8283 as a courtesy to our donors, along with the necessary information to complete the Form, excluding cost basis information, which is not furnished to us at the time of transfer. Cost basis information can be obtained by logging into your brokerage account and reviewing positions and holdings activity.

• Form 8282. For cryptocurrency donors only. Form 8282 (Donee Information Return) provides details regarding the disposition (i.e., sale) of your cryptocurrency asset following your gift. We furnish Form 8282 to both the donor, and to IRS.

What is a Community Fund?

A community fund is a collective giving tool to enable any set of donors to pool charitable capital for greater impact via a custom-branded webpage.

• Expert grantmakers. Leverage your expertise and amplify your impact with a fund to invite clients and DAF users to back your grantmaking leadership.

• Donor collaboratives. Pool money with other strategic donors to make amplify impact under a different brand or collaborate on grantmaking decision-making.

• Influencers. Mobilize your audience for good with a custom-branded public giving fund.

• Workplaces. Bring your values to life and inspire your team to give together in a fund for a particular cause.

• Groups of friends. Invite friends to come together around giving without the admin hassle or awkwardness. Can be as private or public as you like.

• Memorials & weddings. Honor and celebrate loved ones at key milestones with a charitable fund others can contribute to and you can grant out to specific charities.

Experience the power of collective giving with full financial transparency.

Product Features

Community Funds will include a host of features, including:

• Branded webpage: A private or public, shareable webpage to collect donations and make grants to charity.

  • Overview: homepage where you can add information about your fund, link to resources, answer questions, display fund managers, highlight fund statistics, and invite others to participate.

  • Charities: breakdown of all charities you have granted to from your fund.

  • Supporters: list of all donors who choose to disclose their information, with customizable giving levels.

  • Activity: comprehensive and transparent ledger of all donations made to and grants made from the fund.

• Guest checkout: option for donors to make their donations via their Charityvest account or as a guest.

• Electronic grant disbursement: Grants to charity will be disbursed via PayPal every two weeks if the charity is enrolled, otherwise via check.

Here is a brief product demo for reference:

Why should I start a Community Fund?

A Community Fund is a fantastic way to mobilize your community with a tax-deductible fund to seamlessly pool charitable capital and make grants to public charities.

We believe Community Funds benefit all stakeholders:

• Donors: With a platform of strategic giving funds, donors can give more, purposefully.

• Charities: With community leaders directing funds to their missions, charities can focus more of their time on their important work, and less on fundraising.

• Communities: With a tangible way to translate their values to impact, communities will thrive.

Charityvest Community Funds were designed to be a simple and seamless way for community leaders to pool charitable capital via a custom-branded webpage.

Getting Started

Our team will work with you 1:1 to create your first fund! Here are the steps to bring your fund to life:

Here's an in-depth product walkthrough:

Once your fund is set up, you can share it as broadly as you'd like, to collect donations and issue grants to charities.

Fund managers are administrators of Community Funds. If you create a fund, you are automatically assigned the role of fund manager. You can invite additional fund managers if preferred.

Role of fund managers

The role of a fund manager is to lead administrative activities on a Community Fund, by editing the fund content, determining the appropriate fund settings, downloading reports, and making grants to charities in alignment with the fund's guiding principles.

We believe fund managers will ensure their funds are set up for success with:

1. Fearless Leadership: You’ve been invited to lead this fund because your collaborators believe in the power of your voice to build a community of support around this mission. Sharing your story can help build trust.

3. Defining Goals: We recommend that you define your fund’s financial/impact goals and regularly communicate what success looks like to your supporters.

4. Grantmaking Process: Trust is built on transparent funding decisions. As a fund manager, you will have the flexibility to make grantmaking decisions, but by explaining your process, you will increase your credibility with your supporters.

Fund manager access

Fund managers can take the following actions:

• Edit their Community Fund settings and design.

• Invite/remove other fund managers.

• Issue Grants from their Community Fund.

• Export the list of Community Fund supporters and transaction history.

Inviting additional fund managers

If you intend to share the role of fund administration with others, you can invite them to participate as a fund manager from the Community Fund overview page.

From the fund manager module, you can add any email address, and the new fund manager will receive an email invite. They do not need a Charityvest account to be invited, but will be prompted to create one once they accept the invitation.

We believe financial advisors are a trusted stakeholder in their clients' philanthropic journey.

As you form your Community Fund, consider how the fund will give money to charities.

We find that transparency around your grantmaking process is a helpful way to share your operating principles with potential supporters, and establish the fund as a trustworthy giving vehicle.

Our grantmaking process

The following questions and responses are examples intended to guide your thinking on how your Community Fund will distribute grants to charities, based on our experience with a variety of fund managers.

These are just examples - feel free to modify the questions and responses included on your fund page to fit your story.

Who primarily makes grant decisions?

Example responses:

• The fund manager(s) directly

• The hosting charity (for giving syndicates)

• A committee of decision makers

• A democratic group of supporters (e.g., via voting system)

How are grant decisions evaluated?

Example responses:

• This fund has pre-selected charities that we support: Charity Name 1, Charity Name 2, etc.

• Charities may apply for grants from our community fund. We evaluate grant requests according to the following criteria: alignment to mission, effectiveness, etc.

• Charities are nominated for consideration by fund supporters, and evaluated based on the following criteria: alignment to mission, effectiveness, etc.

How frequently are grants made?

Example responses:

• Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly

• After fund reaches $X in available balance

• At the discretion of the fund manager

How is the size of the grant determined?

Example responses:

• In accordance with the size of charity need

• In fixed increments (e.g., always grants of $X)

• Proportionally, based on our level of support (e.g., we give X% of our quarterly grant value to the charity with the most votes from supporters, X% to the charity with the second most votes, and so forth)

Will grants be designated for specific purposes?

Example responses:

• No, grants are able to used wherever needed by the charity

• Some grants will be restricted to specific purposes, projects, or campaigns

• Yes, most of our grants to organizations may only be used for specific purposes

Our goal at Charityvest is to catalyze purposeful giving. We believe minimal, simple fees make it possible for Community Funds to build trust and thrive.

There are two main options for fees on Community Funds: allow optional gifts to Charityvest, or a quarterly 1% fee on grant transactions.

Allow optional gifts to Charityvest

This is our tip-based pricing model, where all donors will be asked to make an additional contribution to Charityvest during the checkout process.

We recommend this option for fund managers that prioritize minimal overhead, as the default donation amount is 0%. It is entirely up to the donor if they wish to support our work.

Quarterly 1% fee on grants

This is our percentage-based pricing model, where, on a quarterly basis, we will assess a fee of 1% of the total value of grants made to charity, which will be deducted from your fund balance.

We recommend this option for fund managers who prefer to communicate a consistent fee structure to their supporters, and wish to avoid the "ask" at the end of the donation process for donors.

These fee structures are subject to change, though we will communicate any changes with transparency and integrity.

How many supporters / donors can a fund accommodate?

There is no limit to the number of supporters, the more the merrier!

Do supporters get a tax receipt?

When supporters make contributions, they do get their own tax receipt at the time of donation. If they have a Charityvest account, their donation will be recorded in their account history. If they are making a guest donation, their tax receipt will be automatically emailed to them.

How do I preview what the Community Fund page looks like?

To get a preview of the fund, we recommend you open an "incognito" window and copy over the shareable link. This will be the view for anyone that you share the link with who is not logged in to a Charityvest account.

Can I change my display name as a fund manager?

In our earliest version, your displayed name as a fund manager will be the name on your Charityvest account. In the future, we plan to make it possible to add a custom bio to your fund manager profile.

Can the Community Fund invest its funds before they are granted?

Though we offer investing on our donor-advised fund product, we currently do not offer investing for Community Fund balances. We may add this capability in future versions.

Can I make a recurring donation to a Community Fund?

Yes, both Charityvest users and guest donors can make recurring donations!

Can I share my Community Fund on social media?

Yes, there are social sharing buttons available if your fund is public. To share on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn, you will need to grant Charityvest access to your social accounts when prompted. Alternatively, you can copy the link to the fund and share it directly.

Still have questions about Community Funds? Contact us at funds@charityvest.org

Our referral program

We believe in the power of community as a catalyst to generosity.

For each friend you invite to activate Investing with Charityvest, you will both receive 3 months of complimentary Investing.

As soon as your friend creates a Charityvest account, activates investing, and completes a contribution to their Charityvest fund, you'll both receive 90 days of zero-fee access to investments.

Eligibility

Any existing Charityvest account holder is welcome to use our referral program.

You may refer as many friends as you want. The benefit begins on the day your friend completes the qualifying activities.

You'll only receive free investing for yourself for a maximum of 12 months (i.e., 4 successful referrals).

How to invite friends

2. Send it to as many friends as you'd like 👯

Then, your friend(s) must:

2. Make a contribution to their Charityvest fund.

3. Activate investing on their own account.

When setting up your Community Fund, you will need to agree to the following terms:

Limitations

Though Community Funds are inherently flexible, here are some cases where a fund is not the best fit:

• Single-charity fundraisers: Community Funds were built on the basis of giving to multiple organizations, and our infrastructure is designed to support this. We hope to offer more solutions in the future, but we currently do not recommend Community Funds for this purpose.

For more information, please read Charityvest, Inc. Community Fund Policies & Guidelines.

Community Funds are yours to explore! We invite you to add images and information to your fund to set the tone and clarify your mission to your supporters. These details can be edited at any time.

Fund Name

Your fund name should be distinct and direct, especially if you intend to share it publicly. It has an 80 character limit. Examples of possible fund names include:

• [Your Workplace] Employee Fund

• [Your Family Name] Family Giving Fund

• The [City, Country, Region] Opportunity Fund

Purpose

Your fund's purpose is a tagline description of your fund. This is a great way clarify any defining characteristics that your supporters should bear in mind when donating. There is a 160 character limit.

Keywords

You have the option to add keywords to your fund, which will be useful if you wish to reach donors in the Charityvest community that are looking to discover new community funds to support.

Logo

You have the option to add a logo to your fund. There is a 250 KB size limit, with a maximum pixel ratio of 400x200.

About

The About section of your fund has two components: Images and Rich Text Description.

Images: Add several images (and corresponding captions) that reflect the vision of your fund. You must choose one featured image to be displayed as the thumbnail of your shareable link.

All images must have an aspect ratio of 16:9, with a 3000 KB size limit.

Rich Text Description: Add descriptor text to tell the story behind the fund, and it's grantmaking philosophy. There is a 2500 character limit.

Resources

You can opt to add links to external sources of information related to your fund, including websites, documents, videos, and more.

Our Grantmaking Process

In this section, you care share more about how the fund will distribute money to charities.

We find that transparency around your grantmaking process is a helpful way to share your operating principles with potential supporters, and establish the fund as a trustworthy giving vehicle.

FAQs

You can add frequently asked questions, and pre-populated answers as needed. Here are some examples of fund FAQs you could include:

• What causes do you support?

• Why should I trust this fund?

• Will I get a tax receipt for this donation?

With these components of your fund defined, you are setting your Community Fund up for success!

Once you've decided where you wish to grant to, you simply need to:

1. Select "Issue Grant" from the overview page of your fund.

2. Search for the recipient charity by name or EIN.

3. Enter the grant amount, purpose, information shared.

To promote a Community Fund, copy the link or share via social media!

Charityvest user donations

Guest donations

Guest donations are possible via credit card or debit card. There are three main ways a guest can make a donation on Charityvest:

• One-time card contribution: Guest donors can enter their credit card information and submit their gift instantly. A tax receipt will be emailed at the time of donation.

• Other methods of giving: If you wish to donate to a Community Fund and do not currently have an account, it takes seconds to get set up and contribute via:

See specific guidance on alternative methods of Community Fund giving as a guest below:

DAF Transfer

You can donate to a Community Fund via DAF transfer by requesting a grant through your current DAF provider with the following details:

• Charity Legal Name: Charityvest, Inc.

• Charity EIN: 81-2771871

• Memo:

  • Your email address (where you wish to receive your gift confirmation).

  • The name of the Community Fund you intend to donate to.

Once we receive your DAF transfer, we will assign your gift proceeds to the appropriate Community Fund.

Important Note: DAF transfers are non-deductible gifts since you receive tax acknowledgement at the time of your initial contribution.

ACH or Wire Transfer

You can donate to a Community Fund via ACH or wire transfer by creating a free Charityvest account and completing the following steps:

1. Set up a Charityvest account if you do not already have one.

3. One the balance has settled, you can make an instant transfer from your Charityvest balance to your Community Fund.

Check

You can donate to a Community Fund via check by creating a free Charityvest account and completing the following steps:

1. Set up a Charityvest account if you do not already have one.

3. One the balance has settled, you can make an instant transfer from your Charityvest balance to your Community Fund.

Checks should be sent to:

Charityvest, Inc.
c/o Foundation Source
55 Walls Drive, Suite 302
Fairfield, CT 06824

Stock or Cryptocurrency

You can donate to a Community Fund via stock or crypto by creating a free Charityvest account and completing the following steps:

1. Set up a Charityvest account if you do not already have one.

3. One the balance has settled, you can make an instant transfer from your Charityvest balance to your Community Fund.

Company Match

You can donate to a Community Fund via company match by creating a free Charityvest account and completing the following steps:

1. Set up a Charityvest account if you do not already have one.

3. One the balance has settled, you can make an instant transfer from your Charityvest balance to your Community Fund.

Before your Community Fund is created, you will need to set your preferences around privacy, fees, etc. These settings can be updated at any time.

Privacy

There are currently two main options for privacy on Community Funds.

• Unlisted: An unlisted webpage that can be selectively shared with a link. We recommend unlisted funds for closed communities.

• Public: A searchable, public webpage that any Charityvest account holder will be able to see and contribute to. We recommend public funds for fund managers looking for external support.

Fees

• Allow optional gifts to Charityvest: a tip-based model, where donors will be asked to make an additional contribution to Charityvest during the checkout process. The default donation amount is 0%.

• Quarterly 1% fee on grants: on a quarterly basis, we will assess a fee of 1% of the grants value, which will be deducted from your fund balance.

Accept contributions

You can switch on/off the ability for people to donate to your fund.

Require supporters to remain anonymous

If, for any reason, you need all supporters of your fund to remain anonymous, you can opt to exclude any identifiable information about supporters from all donations.

Fund statistics

You can switch on/off the fund statistics displayed on the overview page, which include total all-time contributions, total granted, and total number of supporters.

Giving levels

On the Supporters tab, if you have public supporters, you can sort them by contribution amount, or by manually created categories. You may wish to do so if you have distinct tiers of recognition.

We send your organization funds granted from Charityvest automatically. There's nothing you need to do.

We disburse payments to charities daily via PayPal and weekly via check, including associated donor information (unless donors have chosen to remain anonymous).

Checks will have consolidated donor information at the bottom of the check.

We support 1.4 million IRS-compliant charities, so we likely have your organization if you are in good standing with the IRS.

Digital Grants

Whenever possible, Charityvest delivers grants via Grant Payments with PayPal. Grant Payments is new way for grantmakers to send grants digitally to charities, launched by PayPal in 2022.

Grant Payments with PayPal offers quick, secure digital delivery of grants directly to eligible charities. Charities still receive 100% of the grant amount from donors, without additional fees.

Review the official PayPal Charity Onboarding Guide below.

Grant Checks

For charities that are not enrolled in PayPal Grant Payments or have opted out, we send a paper check to the preferred payment address for the organization. For most organizations, that is the official address from the IRS database. Some organizations have updated their address with us.

We send disbursements to charities once per week.

Each check contains data on individual donor transactions, personal information, and any designations donors specified with their grants.

We provide the maximum amount of donor data to you, subject to donor preferences. Donors choose how much data to release to you. The default option is full name and email address.

The only event in which we don't send donor data is when the donor chooses to remain anonymous.

Your Organization Can Benefit from Sending Donors to Charityvest

Charities can benefit from encouraging their donors to use Charityvest in various ways.

• Giving assets. We make donating appreciated assets (like stock and crypto) easy for donors, and it requires no work or cost from charities. You just receive cash in two weeks or less after donors grant the value of their asset donation out of Charityvest to you.

• Avoiding fees. We charge no transaction fees on giving. For large gifts and recurring gifts, this can add up.

• Reducing admin work of receipting. We receipt donors on your behalf. You don't have to! You can focus on just saying "thank you."

• Receiving data. We send you reliable donor data subject to donor preferences.

Why Charityvest Wants to Give Your Donors World-Class Treatment

We hope your donors will enjoy their Charityvest experience and choose to continue to use a donor-advised fund for their giving beyond their transaction with you.

We believe the intentional generosity fostered by DAFs, through pledges, recurring commitments, and asset donations will enable donors to give you more money over time.

We'd love to be your partners in growing your donations from your existing donors.

We Make Stock and Crypto Easy for Charities

We can be especially useful to charities to facilitate donations of stock and crypto.

If your organization is a 501c3 public charity, there's nothing you need to do to enable a donor to give stock or crypto to your organization through Charityvest. Your organization is already in our database of over 1.4 million charities. You merely need to refer a donor to Charityvest to donate the asset into their Charityvest account. Once they have completed the donation to their Charityvest account, they can grant it to your organization. You'll receive a check in the mail in two to three weeks.

No Need to open a Crypto Wallet or Brokerage Account

Because we transact the asset with your donor, there's no need for you to create the complicated infrastructure needed to facilitate the donation, like a brokerage for stock or a wallet for crypto.

Charityvest receives the asset from your donor, we liquidate it, and we put the cash value in a donor-advised fund for your donor. They can then grant the cash to your organization and you will receive a check in the mail.

No Need to Receipt

We provide donors and their advisors the necessary information for their taxes, even for asset donations. You are not required to do so. You can focus more of your energy on thanking donors rather than figuring out the administrative tasks.

No Big Fees

Today, we don't charge donors or charities to facilitate donations of stock or crypto. We want to serve both. Many services out there charge a significant premium for facilitating asset donations, and we don't think that's right. We may in the future ask for an optional/recommended tip for our services if we've created value, but we won't charge fees.

Check out our overview pages for charities for more details and how to integrate us into your fundraising operations.

I represent a nonprofit. How can I register to receive donations through Charityvest?

Great news: it's very likely that your organization is already available for giving on Charityvest! Our database mirrors publicly-available IRS data, so we can allow our donors to grant to over 1.4 million organizations instantly.

You do not need to register to receive gifts through Charityvest, and we don't currently support nonprofit admin accounts. As we receive donations for your organization, we will batch and send them via USPS First Class Mail to your IRS-registered address, every 14 days.

Along with our check, you will receive a list of all donations, including relevant information about each donor.

We charge no fees for our service. Your organization will receive 100% of the donations granted through Charityvest.

I represent a nonprofit, and my address is incorrect on Charityvest. How can I update my address?

Your new address will be automatically reflected on Charityvest after the IRS updates their publicly-available files, which happens around the first week of each month.

You can also contact us via support chat and request an address change. We'll verify the address you provide and update your organization's address in your database.

Is a Corporate DAF Right for Me?

A corporate donor-advised fund (DAF) enables a company to set aside money into a tax-deductible fund, invest the money while it remains in the fund, and then easily recommend grants to any tax-exempt organization at any time.

Organizations of all sizes can benefit from a corporate donor-advised fund, whether you're giving $200 or $200 million per year.

A corporate foundation also yields your company the opportunity to say you have a "foundation" and enables you to signal to your stakeholders that you are making investments toward community impact. Most Americans value seeing companies give back, and are more likely to work for them and do business with them if they do so.

A corporate donor-advised fund can facilitate various charitable initiatives like:

• Making grants to charities

• Facilitating donations of company equity

• Funding employee giving programs (e.g. matching)

• Receiving money from fundraisers among company stakeholders

• Enabling donations from customer sales transactions and promotions for charity

There are a number of benefits:

• Increased employee retention. Quality corporate social responsibility initiatives are known to meaningfully influence employee connection and retention to the company.

• Reduced tax liability. DAFs can help reduce tax liability in peak years and help streamline corporate giving strategies for the long run. The corporation receives an immediate tax deduction for the full amount of the donation.

• Enhanced marketing and promotional opportunities. Grantmaking is an effective lever for brand building.

• Simplified corporate social responsibility. Corporate DAFs require very little management, no administrative costs other than standard asset fees, and no compliance risk to the company.

• Magnified community impact. An opportunity to build greater relationships with community stakeholders.

Setting up Your Corporate DAF

1. Create your Charityvest account. Go to charityvest.org/signup and select 'I'm an admin of an organization.'

2. Craft your giving plan (reach out to us if we can help answer questions). Create your budget/plan for giving or making a significant asset gift like corporate equity. Our network of experts is available to help answer any complex planning or asset questions.

3. Fund your account. Make a contribution of cash or assets, or set up a recurring contribution to fund the account.

4. Grow the balance. Pick from our investment options to invest and grow your charitable money, tax-free for whatever period the money remains in the fund.

5. Recommend grants to charities. Select charities to support from your fund whenever you're ready to do so. Payments to charities are issued twice per month.

Fulfilling a Corporate Pledge

We encourage all donors, including companies, to be intentional about giving through making pledges.

A corporate DAF is a great step toward fulfilling pledges of profit, equity, and product.

Overview

Companies can easily enable their employees to give their company equity to charity through Charityvest.

Charityvest provides each employee with their own donor-advised fund (DAF), then employees can easily donate their company equity into their DAF, enjoying the advanced tax benefits of giving appreciated assets versus cash.

Charityvest makes it simple. There's no faxing forms or talking to lawyers. We automate as much as we can and guide employees through any parts we can't.

We can roll up the metrics to your social impact or executive leadership to show the effects across the company.

Why You Should Enable Employees to Give Equity

• 💰 It's extremely tax-advantaged. Donating assets versus cash is a double-whammy. By donating appreciated assets, you avoid paying any capital gains tax on the assets' gains, and you also get to take an income tax deduction on the market value of the asset at the time of donation.

• 🙁 It can prevent employees from experiencing major tax bills they may have trouble paying. For example, restricted stock units (RSUs) require employees to pay ordinary income tax in the year the stock is actually issued. This can oftentimes put employees in a financially precarious position or cause them to forfeit their stock issuance. Donating RSUs can provide a delightful economic alternative to prevent any tax from occurring.

• 🚀 It can super-charge your company giving program impact. Equity giving amounts are normally large, and multi-year in the donors' minds, especially from company founders and executives. This can really boost a company's community giving numbers and inspire everyone.

How it Works

1. A company admin creates a company Charityvest for Workplaces program and invites employees to join Charityvest (this can occur via email or passive link, like on your company intranet).

2. Employees create a Charityvest account.

3. Employees initiate equity donations.

   1. If your company is publicly traded and the equity is held in a brokerage, the employee can initiate a stock contribution easily within the Charityvest app. We take care of the details with the donor and their broker.

   2. If the company uses a platform like Shareworks or is private, a donor will notify the Charityvest team through our support channel or support@charityvest.org that they would like to donate equity. We will guide them step-by-step through the actions they need to take and make them as simple as possible.

   3. Once the equity is donated to Charityvest, our team will liquidate the position as soon as practical and will credit the liquidated amount to the employee's Charityvest DAF.

4. Employees can invest their balance in Charityvest, and grow the balance tax-free.

5. Employees can send grants to any charity, at any time.

Companies That Are a Good Fit for Employee Equity Giving

• Publicly-traded companies with any kind of stock purchase plan or stock compensation programs.

• Private companies expecting a significant liquidity event (e.g., IPO) in the next 0-12 months where employees have equity awards.

• Private companies wanting to enable founders and executives to donate a significant amount of their equity.

Program Options

• Refer employees to Charityvest for them to donate equity (free for public companies // private companies only pay for legal setup costs). You can refer employees to create their free DAF with Charityvest and we'll help them donate their company equity. Please give us a heads up that you're going to refer employees to us. We'd love to help you make it a great experience.

Can Charityvest be integrated with an Existing Giving Platform?

Most likely. We'd love to explore how equity giving might complement what you're already doing.

How do I add users?

How do I change my company’s match percentage?

How do I change my company’s annual match cap per employee?

How do I cancel a matching gift that an employee has requested?

How do I cancel a donation that the company has submitted?

How can I send a charity gift to an employee or group of employees?

How can employees contribute to the corporate fund?

How can I add or replenish matching funds to our corporate account?

How can I research a charity before approving a matching gift?

While searching the database of registered charities, any user will see an EIN number associated with that organization. When you click on an EIN number, you will be directed to Charity Navigator, the leading source for information about any nonprofit organization.

Can I exclude certain causes or cause categories?

At this time, there is not an automated way to exclude an organization or categories. You can set up a matching policy in your program administrative settings which will display to employees each time they request a match. You can specify organizations—or categories of organizations—under your matching policy to which you will or will not match. We also recommend including matching parameters in your invitation message and on your custom Charityvest landing page to detail which categories qualify for your program. If any employee donations fall outside of your parameters, you have a chance at the end of each month to cancel any matching gift.

How can I cancel a grant?

Can I create a different match cap for executives?

Yes, you’ll need to create a separate program for those executives. We also can recommend some strategies to use charitable stipends as an additional method to give an extra charitable perk to certain employees.

Can I have more than one administrator?

Not at this time. We aim to have this capability in the coming months.

Can international employees participate in the program?

Yes. International employees can contribute to the corporate fund for fundraisers and events.

How do I verify that a donation has been received by the charity?

The Charityvest venture makes money in three ways:

1. Admin fees. The main way Charityvest creates revenue is by charging an administrative fee for assets in its investment accounts, like other donor-advised funds. The difference is, we offer a modern experience, while being more affordable, thanks to technology.

2. Workplace giving programs. We operate workplace giving programs for companies and charge a software-as-service fee to them for this service.

3. Community Funds. Our Community Funds collaborative giving tool is a paid offering, either via an optional tip prompt for donors to Community Funds, or a quarterly fee based on total grant value.

Some donors have asked if we can really create an attractive business with our model and fee levels. The key to our business lies in our technology, which creates significant efficiencies relative to other DAFs. We don't have the considerable costs that other DAFs do. Thus, we can be more competitive on fees.

Charityvest offers two investment portfolio options: Standard and Filtered.

Here are the assets which make up our current two-portfolio lineup, with expense ratios as of Feb 15, 2024 in parenthesis:

For each of these portfolios, we offer four asset allocation choices: Conservative, Balanced, Growth, and Custom which is fully donor-advised.

As of January 1, 2024, our blended expense ratios per portfolio were approximately:

As of January 1, 2024, the average rolling performance of the Standard portfolio, rebalanced monthly, using a 10-year lookback period from Jan 2014 to Dec 2023 was:

$VUSB has been replaced with $ULST for purposes of the above backtest.

Dividend activity accrues to your account value, but is not recorded as individual dividend transactions in your activity.

Managed asset allocations may see target allocations shift from time to time, at the discretion of the Charityvest, Inc. Investment Committee. Because all assets in donor-advised funds are legally owned and controlled by Charityvest, Inc., investment portfolio construction and available securities are subject to the ongoing review and approval of the Charityvest, Inc. Board of Trustees.

Our story

After a stint in philanthropic consulting, we saw an opportunity:

1. We believe giving is good for humanity.

4. No one who was creating a DAF experience we felt was serving donors and charities well. And technology was the gap.

We believe everyone should have access to premier tools and resources to engage in intentional giving, so we built Charityvest leveraging modern financial technology.

Mission

Our mission is to catalyze generosity.

We do this by creating modern technology to enable people to engage more in philanthropy—to give, to give more, and to give better.

Today we focus on giving through DAFs, but in the future that could mean any technology for better, simpler philanthropy.

Our vision is to empower every household with the tools to be generous—that we would engage every household in the U.S. with an appropriate giving tool for them.

Values

We make decisions employing the following values in our work, endeavoring to live them out as an institution:

• Generous – We have a giving orientation towards the world—we want to create and share value with people in every area of our operation, with partners large and small, financial and non-financial.

• Responsible – Our motivations come from a deep conviction about what’s needed in the world, what’s possible, and what we can do about it. We work not because of mere attractive opportunity, but because of a felt responsibility to act.

• Excellent – We commit ourselves to furnish solutions that are noticeably higher quality than the rest of the industry.

• Egalitarian – We invite everyone to participate in giving generously.

• Easy – Our solutions reduce hassle, giving donors and recipients an experience that’s simple and streamlined.

Make employees the authors of your impact story through a modern charitable matching program. Charityvest is the simplest way to offer your employees engaging charitable giving benefits.

Charityvest for Workplaces offers your employees their own donor-advised fund, like a personal foundation. It helps them simplify their financial giving.

Charityvest also engages employees with giving stipends and/or automatic charitable matching, providing you with reporting and analytics on the activity.

Executive summary:

• Give every employee a charitable giving fund programmatically.

• Charitable matching that runs on autopilot as employees give.

• Put charitable stipends in employee funds for various occasions (e.g., birthdays, performance awards, thank you gifts, etc.).

• Monthly metrics/reporting for your internal culture-building and external brand-building.

Included features:

How a Matching Program with Charityvest Works

1. Create your admin account and create your program. Customize your per-employee match, matching rate, and eligibility rules.

2. Invite employees to join or set up auto-join features for approved corporate email addresses. Launch your program effortlessly with a single click.

3. Employees give. Employees link their bank/credit card, give tax-deductibly into their giving fund, and then out to any of the 1.4 million U.S. charities. Each with a tap. They can set up monthly recurring transactions as well. Employee donations are automatically matched from the corporate giving fund.

4. Company funds the matches. You'll create a corporate fund and pre-load some money in there (the company receives a tax deduction for all). When an employee sends a qualifying donation to charity, we'll automatically send a matching grant from your fund. You have the ability to deny any match with a tap.

5. Track activity and manage the program. You have an easy admin portal to monitor giving activity, manage your matching program, and add/remove employees in the program. We send monthly reports via email on giving KPI activity that aggregates impact across all employees, even giving beyond matching.

How much does it cost? What are the terms?

• We offer a 15% discount for annual pre-paid billing. We can true up at year-end for any differences based on changes in employee count.

• No transaction fees, 100% of donations go to charities.

• No implementation fees.

• No contracts. Cancel anytime.

• Also, consider your matching budget. Companies typically range from $100 per employee per year to $1000 per employee per year and can expect participation rates from 15-60% at any matching size. We see many companies start out smaller and increase their per-employee matching amount over time.

How is Charityvest different than other workplace giving software?

• Giving funds. We give employees an "HSA for Charity" aka a donor-advised fund—it's a valuable financial tool beyond the matching alone. Many employees will choose to do all of their giving through their fund, even outside of the matching program. Other competitors focus only on the matching.

• Lower cost. Other competitors charge 3-10% on every dollar donated. We charge 0%. We believe giving should be free. We also have no implementation fee. We are typically 50-80% lower cost (in total) than competitors.

• Social giving. We enable users to send gifts of charitable dollars to friends (while still maintaining the tax deduction). Companies can also do this as rewards or recognition. You can send charitable money into the funds of employees for them to give away in their name.

• Launch in minutes. Our ten-minute onboarding flow sets up your corporate fund, creates your matching program, sets up billing, and invites employees.

FAQ

Can I control what organizations are matched? Yes.

Do you support volunteering? No, not at this time.

Do you support international grantmaking? No, not at this time. Why should I choose Charityvest? The admin simplicity and low cost of facilitating matching through us, and giving every employee their own personal giving account for their own impact.

Featured Customer List

• Movement Mortgage

• Masterclass

• CallRail

• LTSE

• IMVU

• Mediavine

• Tabula Rasa Healthcare

• Jonathan Rose Companies

• LiveVox

Resources

Quick overview 2-pager:

Slide deck for decision-makers:

Budgeting for matching:

Case studies:

The Charityvest venture is powered by an innovative social enterprise partnership.

Foundation Source Philanthropic Services Inc. ("Foundation Source") is a philanthropy technology company, creating innovative new giving products.

Foundation Source partners with Charityvest, Inc. (“Charityvest”), a 501(c)(3) public charity and DAF-sponsoring organization, to power its donor-advised funds. Charityvest is an independent public charity, governed by its own independent charitable board. The two organizations share rights for the brand "Charityvest.”

This innovative for-profit / nonprofit partnership enables modern technology to be seamlessly integrated with an efficient tax-deductible giving vehicle, empowering greater giving.

Foundation Source, as a technology and services vendor, has no claim to any funds held by Charityvest.

A DAF sponsoring organization’s directors and officers have both statutory and common law duties to safeguard and assure that the assets continue to be used for charitable purposes.

Charityvest is an independent, 501(c)(3) public charity with a donor advised fund program. It is managed by its own independent Board of Directors with fiduciary duties with respect to its charitable assets. These duties include a legal responsibility to ensure that all DAF assets are used only for charitable purposes and that the DAF program is otherwise operated in compliance with applicable tax law.

Like many other donor-advised fund sponsoring organizations, Charityvest has contracted with a third-party service provider (Foundation Source) to provide comprehensive software and administrative services to its DAF platform for a fee. As a third-party service provider, Foundation Source has no claim, in either contract or law, to Charityvest’s DAF assets.

Also, Charityvest’s Board of Directors retains fiduciary oversight in connection with any arrangements with Foundation Source and/or other service providers. This oversight includes ongoing monitoring of Foundation Source’s performance and exercising the requisite standard of care to determine whether such arrangement continues to be in the best interests of Charityvest. These duties also include ensuring that Foundation Source (or any other third party service provider of the charity) has no claim by contract or otherwise to the charitable assets of Charityvest and that any fees paid to Foundation Source in consideration of these services do not exceed fair market value.

Getting started with Charityvest is simple.

We will follow these simple steps to launch your workplace giving program:

🆕 Step 1. Create your company giving account. Input your company legal name and set up your admin login credentials.

📋 Step 2. Establish your program parameters. Set your matching budget, your matching rate, and your optional matching policy statement.

✅ Step 3. Activate your subscription. Use a corporate credit card to sign up for monthly billing of the subscription. Cancel at any time.

💵 Step 4. Add your giving funding source. Link your company’s bank account. We’ll make an automatic monthly withdrawal to fulfill all matching requests. If you use manual verification, we’ll make two small deposits to verify the account.

🚀 Step 5. Launch your program to the team! Invite employees to the program. All you need is a personal note describing the program and email addresses. We’ll follow up automatically over time with any employees who don’t accept the invitation at launch.

Resources for Launching A Program With Charityvest

Read our guide on how to launch a successful workplace giving program below.

View our standard customer agreement below.

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?

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.

Giving is hard. We seek to simplify high-impact, generous philanthropy and make it accessible to everyone.

Our Purposeful Giving Model is a series of actionable, repeatable steps to help donors grow in their generosity and achieve greater impact in their giving.

The lynchpin is a personal, purposeful commitment of resources to a donor-advised fund, along with a commitment to deploy those resources to charities most effectively aligned to personal values of good.

We believe being purposeful about giving can unlock generosity, impact, and a richer life story for any donor.

Charityvest's donor-advised funds make it easy to fulfill your commitment to giving via recurring gifts from income, or donating cash or stock from your personal holdings.

Our Recommended Giving Model: Purposeful Giving

We think purposeful giving looks like this:

1. 📋 Pledge boldly. Make a personal pledge of income or assets to charity. It doesn't matter if it's big or small. It's important to simply set a target goal or budget for your giving.

2. 💸 Commit $ to a DAF wisely. Fulfill your pledge via a donor-advised fund when it makes the most tax / financial sense. Irrevocably commit assets or cash to charity by donating into the DAF.

3. 📝 Define the good you want to create. Discover and define the impact you want to achieve in the world with your giving. It's most effective to write it down.

4. 💰 Support charities effectively. Look for charities, leaders, and projects you believe are most aligned with your conviction of good.

5. 🤝 Find community. Find other donors and leaders you believe in and want to work alongside. Partner with them deeply.

6. 🔄 Iterate. Keep going through this process over time, updating your commitments and relationships.