Business leaders are some of the greatest philanthropists, helping charitable organizations meet their fundraising goals and fulfill their designed missions.
On the other hand, without philanthropy as part of a company’s culture, business leaders are missing out on an opportunity to help foster a broader sense of community (both internally and externally), as well as support its brand reputation and bottom line.
Frankly stated, the business and nonprofit communities need each other.
Holiday drives. One-time donations to causes that employees support on their own time. Fundraising event participation. Corporate charitable giving can begin to feel like disjointed, random acts of kindness, which leads business leaders to explore ways to organize and formalize their philanthropic efforts and charitable giving under one structure that benefits all.
There are two directions to go. One, create a private foundation. Two, establish a corporate donor-advised fund. Compared to private foundations, corporate donor-advised funds offer companies better hard and soft benefits.
The Hard Benefits of Establishing a Corporate Donor-Advised Fund
A corporate donor-advised fund can serve as your company’s corporate foundation and provides tax advantages. Even though that may not necessarily be the sole reason why you give, the tax benefits are measurable to your company’s bottom line.
Corporate donor-advised funds can offer maximum tax benefits via the following:
- Higher AGI tax deduction limitations
- Receive fair market value deduction for gifts of real estate and closely held stock
- Avoid annual excise tax payments
- Avoid excise taxes on the sale of highly appreciated gifts
Not only can Greater Horizons help you establish a corporate foundation that maximizes the tax and budget aspects of your company’s philanthropy, we:
- Can organize your corporate giving under one structure
- Do not require minimums for contributions to funds or grants to charities
Compared to corporate private foundations, corporate donor-advised funds are less expensive to set up and run. Given that that is the case, there is no need to hire additional staff to oversee the fund or add additional work duties to current employees. Greater Horizons:
- Keeps fees low, starting at just $21 a month
- Has a dedicated team who can perform all the administrative duties associated with managing your corporate foundation
LEARN MORE: How to Establish a Corporate Giving Program
The Soft Benefits of Establishing a Corporate Donor-Advised Fund
Beyond the hard benefits, like tax implications, a corporate donor-advised fund increases your company’s visibility in the community and encourages others to view your company in a positive light. However, that’s not necessarily why you give. Giving back to the community is how differences are made in the world. On the surface, that sounds like a lofty ambition.
Greater Horizons helps companies do it every day through:
- Access to our philanthropic advisors for research and expertise on giving and nonprofit sectors
- Assistance with strategic planning, understanding giving trends in corporate giving and advice on how to engage employees
- Ease of setting up your corporate donor-advised fund in a matter of days (the first step is filling out a corporate donor-advised fund agreement)
- Making sure all activities follow IRS rules
- Access to online tools that organize your giving, track employees’ giving and volunteering, receive matching gift requests, manage competitive grants
Seek Greater Horizons’ Expertise in Corporate Donor-Advised Funds
Greater Horizons provides the most comprehensive offering of products, services and expertise in the marketplace today, making establishing your charitable giving program easy and your charitable dollars work smarter. We offer an array of cost-effective services and a team to help you build upon and manage your good work.
Every day, Greater Horizons works with hundreds of businesses across the country to establish corporate donor-advised funds to further their corporate philanthropy, helping them and their employees make a positive impact throughout the world via:
Strategic Planning Assistance: To align your giving to your company’s philanthropic mission and goals.
Matching Gift Programs: To build a program that matches time and monetary contributions.
Disaster Relief: To quickly respond as a company by collecting and distributing donations.
Custom Giving Programs: To tailor a program specifically to your goals, needs and resources.
Additional services available are:
- Scholarship Funds
- Competitive Grantmaking
- Assistance Identifying Company-Wide Volunteer Opportunities
- Volunteer Tracking
For additional information about corporate charitable giving, download our guide: 5 Ways to Increase Your Company’s Charitable Giving.
Need help setting up your corporate donor-advised fund? We would love to help! Please contact us to learn more.