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What is a Donor Advised Fund or a DAF?
A donor-advised fund, or DAF, is an investment account that is used for charitable giving. Donor-advised funds are considered the fastest-growing charitable giving vehicle in the United States. DAFs can be relatively inexpensive to create and maintain, while also offering donors some ability to manage their tax situation through giving.
It is composed of donations made by individuals and administered by a third party financial institution. A DAF offers an immediate tax relief and allows you to support your favorite charities immediately or over time.
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What is the best way to make a DAF contribution to LLS?
You can go to https://www.lls.org/qift-donor-advised-funds and click the blue "Donate with DAFpay" button which will allow you to find your financial institution and to give online. This is the fastest and easiest way to give from hundreds of DAF providers, including Fidelity, Schwab, and Vanguard.
If you would like to contribute to a specific individual or team fundraising for LLS, please visit their fundraising page and click the blue "Donate with DAFpay" button which will allow you to find your financial institution and to give online.
Additionally, you can contact your fund manager or financial institution to recommend a gift to LLS. Then reach out to customersuppom:vlls.org to let us know of your gift so we can thank you for your generosity. This method typically requires a month or more before LLS receives the DAF payment from the DAF provider to credit a campaign, event, participant, team, etc. Your fund manager will need to know the following:
- LLS Tax ID Number: 13-5644916
- LLS National Mailing Address:
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Mail Center
1201 15th Street N.W., Suite 410, Washington, D.C. 20005
Thank you for appreciating the importance of our work and the critical role that philanthropy plays in making it possible.
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How does it work?
A donor make an irrevocable gift to a donor-advised fund and receives a tax deduction for the year the gift is made. Once the contribution is made, the DAF institution has legal control over the funds and the donor can make grant recommendations to the charity of their choice.
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Are there are any rules to owning a Donor Advised Fund or making contributions through one?
The IRS has specific guidelines around the kinds of organizations that are eligible to receive grants as well as the purposes these grants can serve. For example, grants can only be made to qualified charities and cannot be made to a person, or the donor cannot receive more than an incidental benefit, so it cannot be used for the admission price for an event or a gala.
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Is there a tax deduction for Donor Advised Funds?
Yes, the donor-advised fund donor receives tax documentation from the financial institution of the DAF. However, when a DAF grant is made to a non-profit, the donor will not receive a tax deduction letter from the non-profit because they have already received the tax benefit when they made the contribution to their DAF.
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What are the benefits of a Donor Advised Fund?
- Simple to establish
- Flexible funding options
- Easily Accessible
- Tax advantage
- Typically requires no minimum distribution
- Investment options
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Can I support an individual fundraiser or team fundraiser through my Donor Advised Fund?
The IRS has specific guidelines around the kinds of organizations that are eligible to receive grants as well as the purposes these grants can serve. For example, grants can only be made to qualified charities and cannot be made to a person, or the donor cannot receive more than an incidental benefit, so it cannot be used for the admission price for an event or a gala.
To support an individual fundraiser or fundraising team, use the blue "DAFpay" button on their fundraising page to initiate your DAF. The participant/team will receive credit within 4 business days.
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Is DAFpay a secure platform?
Donor security is of upmost importance to LLS which is why we partner with Chariot who does not use or sell sensitive data. This link provides more information about their best in class security standards and how they operate: https://www.givechariot.com/dafpay-security-standards
You can also review their full trust center including all of their 3rd party audits here:
https://trust.givechariot.com
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Does DAFpay charge a processing fee?
LLS won't be charged a processing fee for your DAF gift. Processing is fully included within our subscription with Chariot up to $5 million annually. This subscription saves LLS money making it cheaper to process DAF donations than donations made via credit card.
- Once we exceed $5 million in our 12-month contract period, LLS will be charged a 2.9% processing fee for every DAF donation made after that $5 million. This processing fee is standard and very similar to credit card fees. This fee is not passed to the donor.
