7 Helpful Tips For Charitable Donations

The holiday season is the most popular time for making charitable donations, however, any time of year can be a great time for giving. Supporting charities and causes you believe in, such as Giving Center, can give you good feelings about spending your money or gifting assets, while also reaping other rewards in the form of tax deductions for donations. Here is some advice to help you make the most of your charitable donations, no matter how small or large your gifts.

1. Make a giving plan

The same way you budget for things such as travel, home improvements or car repairs, you can include charitable giving in your budget. You can even open a high-rate savings account dedicated specifically to your donation fund and set up automatic transfers to set aside a little money each month.

2. Make sure the charity is legitimate

Prior to parting with your money, confirm that the organization is a registered 501(c)3 ; to accomplish this you can use the tax-exempt organization search tool on the IRS website. For example ComutersWithCauses.org, CharityBoats.org, CollectiblesWithCauses.org, and others like them, are all dedicated charity donation programs spearheaded by Giving center, a 501(c)3 organization for witch donations qualify for obtaining a tax benefit.
You can look up the charity on a rating site like Guidestar.org or CharityNavigator.org, both of which provide detailed financial information about how nonprofits. You can find how much of the charity’s budget goes toward programs vs. how much goes to the CEO. Based on this information, you can evaluate whether and how much of a charitable donation you would like to give. Also, it is best to donate directly to the charity rather than through a phone solicitor. This is because telephone charity scams are popular — and sadly effective — among fraudsters.

3. Make your money work harder

There are so many great organizations and causes out there, it can be hard to pick only one to support. Yet, because of various handling and processing costs often associated with receiving donations, your money can usually go further by restricting your charitable donations to just one or two charities. Rather than giving $50 to 10 charities, you could make a substantial impact by giving $500 to one charity.
Some programs you can donate to are:

4. Take advantage of matching programs

Do you know if your employer has a charitable donation matching benefit? For example, Alliant offers employees up to $200 per year in charitable donation matching to recognized 501(c)3 organizations. That means if you donate $200 to your favorite charity, the Alliant Credit Union Foundation will match your donation, and now you have doubled your impact. Additionally, watch out for organizations offering to match donations to charities during promotional periods. Local NPR stations often do these types of promotions during pledge drives.

5. Stack your charitable donations

Because of recent tax law changes with higher standard deductions, lots of taxpayers will not be able to claim a tax deduction for donations. To make the most of your charitable contribution and still get the tax deduction benefit, you can save up your donation budget for two years instead of giving money every year. For instance, if your annual giving budget is $1,000, you could give $3,000 every three years instead. This way, the larger amount could allow you to take the itemized deduction to get the tax benefit for supporting your favorite charities that year.

6. Make a charitable distribution from an IRA

An option for retirees age 70½ or older to think about is transferring money from an IRA to charity instead of taking the required minimum distribution. This allows you to reduce your taxable income by the total amount donated, and you would not need to itemize your deductions to get the tax benefit.

7. Donate more than money

Donating your time can be the most valuable resource you can give to a charity. Get in touch with local organizations and see what they need help with. Whether it’s volunteering to help at a one-time event or becoming a regular volunteer staff member, you’ll get the chance to make a difference for an organization you care about and see the impact you’re making first-hand.
There are also donation programs that take your beat-up car, clothes, jewelry, or electronics. Charity organizations can sell them and give the money or gift them to those in need.

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