What are they?
A donor-advised fund is a popular, flexible, and easy way for your clients to support the organizations, causes, and groups and issues they care about, now and in the future. As a donor, they make gifts to their fund at any time—taking a tax deduction for the year in which a gift is made—and then recommend that grants be made from the fund at any time to groups they identify. A donor-advised fund may be created by an individual, family, group, business, or organization.

Highlights:

• Donor-advised funds may be named to recognize the donor(s), a family member, friend, or organization. Or, your client can select a name for the fund that will ensure their anonymity.
  
  
• MCF can accept donations of almost any asset, including stock and real property.
  
  
• Your client can choose their own investment strategy from among the investment pools offered by MCF.
  
  
• They can recommend grants online in just a few minutes.
  
  
• MCF staff is available to help your clients learn more about groups that meet their needs.
  
  
• Through donor-advised funds, they can engage family members in learning more about their community and groups addressing community issues.
  
  
• The fund may be established as an endowment (ensuring that grants are made in perpetuity) or as an expendable fund (which enables your clients to make grants of any size at any time).

For more information about how MCF can partner with you to serve your clients, send us an e-mail or call Aviva Shiff Boedecker, director of gift planning, at 415.464.2516. You may also want to request a copy of You Have a Partner: An Introduction to the Marin Community Foundation for Professional Advisors. This guide provides an overview of the many ways we work with advisors to help them meet their clients' charitable needs.