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.

• Charity information. Confirm the recipient charity's address is correct. You will see if the charity will receive the grant via PayPal digital grant (daily) or paper check (weekly).

• Purpose. The default designation for all grants is "Wherever needed most." You can change this by clicking Edit next to Purpose, and selecting from the dropdown menu. Learn more about our grant purpose options here.

• 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.

9. Specific campaign, fund, or project: Program within a charity. You must certify the grant is entirely for charitable purposes.

10. Other purpose: Any other purpose, such as a memorial gift, which you can describe in the personal note section. You must certify the grant is entirely for charitable purposes.

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.

To do so, follow the instructions to Recommend a Grant, and select Specific campaign, fund, or project as the grant Purpose.

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.

To do so, follow the instructions to Recommend a Grant, and select Other purpose as the grant Purpose. Include details about your memorial gift in the notes.

How grants are funded

When you recommend a one-time or recurring grant to a 501c3 charity or Community Fund from your Charityvest account, we will default to deducting from your existing balance to cover the grant amount.

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:

• For one-time grants, we will invite you to make a one-time contribution with a linked account.

• For recurring grants, we will attempt to use your primary funding account, which can be a bank or credit card, to automatically fund your recurring grant schedule. You can change your primary funding account in the Connected Accounts profile section.

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.

You can track the status of your grant via our grant status tracker.

Charities will receive your grant via PayPal digital grants or USPS First Class mail within a few business days of our approval.

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

Charityvest's compliance and grant review process is informed by a variety of sources: IRS databases, public records, news reports, and information provided by donors, charities, and others. Charityvest may reserve the right to not approve grants if an organization may be engaged in illegal or non-charitable activity (such as terrorism, money laundering, crimes, or fraud). In particular, Charityvest monitors and encourages donors to review Charity Navigator's Advisory System.

The IRS is responsible for determining which organizations are qualified charities in the US. When an organization loses its IRS-recognized public charity status, Charityvest ceases grant-making to that organization immediately. In addition, other state and federal agencies may review the activities of a charitable organization, which may also inform Charityvests grant approval decisions.

Charityvest's cause is generosity—greater giving from everyone. Beyond generosity, we aim to be cause-neutral on grant-making, desiring to permit grants to any compliant charity with a sanctioned charitable purpose, across interests, geography, demographics, political views, religious convictions, and philosophical grounds. We want donors to be the authors of their impact story and encourage donors to bring their values to their giving.

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.

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.

Please share this link to our enrollment form with your place of worship so that they can submit the required information to be added to our database.

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

1. Searching by EIN is the most reliable way to locate your charity. Most organizations include their EIN via their website, or you may be able to find at Charity Navigator.

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?

A: Yes - visit the Grant to Charity section to learn how to specify the purpose of a grant.

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 Philanthropic Services tab on the left-hand menu bar.

• 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.

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.

• If the charity does not have a tax-deductible U.S. donation process, Charityvest has partnered with TrustBridge Global to facilitate international grantmaking for a fee.

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

1. Recommend your international charity to the TrustBridge Global network. Submit the recommendation form to add your chosen charity to TrustBridge. If the charity is not one of the 800+ organizations already vetted by TrustBridge, there will be a $150 assessment to initiate due diligence for charity certification, which may be paid from your DAF.

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.

3. Make a grant from your giving account to TrustBridge Global. Upon confirming charity eligibility, you will need to recommend a grant to TrustBridge International Generosity Foundation (EIN 84-3754469) and include the charity name in the grant “Purpose” field. Once received, TrustBridge will deliver the funds to the charity, less an assessment of $300 or 1% of the grant amount, whichever is greater.

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 Philanthropic Services tab on the left-hand menu bar.

• 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.