Evergreen Smart Giving Suite Talking Points

Evergreen Smart Giving Suite Talking Points Template

Smart Giving Suite Talking Points

• Gifts of non-cash assets are powerful ways to support our mission in real-time without dipping into cash reserves.
• Giving from a non-cash asset is a smart choice because it provides immediate support to our organization and often comes with financial benefits for you.
• Our partnership with FreeWill provides a simple, online platform for you to recommend a grant from a Donor-Advised Fund (DAF), donate appreciated stocks or cryptocurrency, or, if you’re 70.5 or older, create a Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) from your IRA.
• Visit FreeWill.com/SmartGiving/{{URL}} to explore all of the ways you can support our organization through your non-cash assets.

Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) Talking Points

• If you are 70.5 or older with a traditional IRA, you’re eligible to participate in one of the most tax-savvy ways to support our organization: donating directly from your IRA. This is also called a qualified charitable distribution, or QCD, or an IRA charitable rollover:
  
  • QCDs can only be taken out of an IRA. 401(k)s do not qualify and are subject to regular taxes.
  • Gifts are always tax-free, regardless of whether or not the person itemizes on their return. This is one of the only ways to make a donation without dipping into your taxable income.
  • Beginning in 2025, you can give up to $108,000 per year out of your IRA tax-free.
• Just like donating via cash or check, giving from your IRA is an immediate and impactful way to support our organization — but unlike a cash gift, it helps you save on your taxes in the process.
• Gifts from an IRA need to be processed by our organization before December 31st, so completing your gift before the end of the calendar year ensures it counts for the current tax year. 
• Donating through your IRA doesn’t have to be complicated or stressful, and our online platform makes it painless and fast. You will be guided through the donation process in under 10 minutes, no sensitive information required. Your paperwork will even be auto-completed online.
• Visit FreeWill.com/QCD/{{URL}} to give or learn more about IRA giving today.

Required Minimum Distributions

• Each year, if you’re eligible for required minimum distributions (or RMDs), you are normally required to remove a minimum amount from your IRA. 
• If you are subject to Required Minimum Distributions from your IRA, your gift can be an impactful way to meet your RMD, without counting toward your taxable income for the year. 
• In general, IRA holders 73 and older must take an RMD.
• Many people remove more than this minimum amount from their IRA, and in the past, generous donors have turned their RMD directly into an IRA donation, taking it as a philanthropic opportunity to donate to our organization.

Frequently Asked Questions - QCDs

Can you clarify how exactly a QCD would reduce my tax burden?

Normally, if you withdraw funds from your Traditional IRA, they count toward your annual income. This will increase your overall tax burden, and in some cases it may even move you into a higher tax bracket.

However, IRA gifts are generally an exception to this rule—funds go directly from your IRA to your chosen charitable organization without needing to be withdrawn, thereby helping you avoid higher income taxes. That’s why when you donate from your IRA instead of withdrawing funds, you reduce your tax burden!

What is a Required Minimum Distribution and do I need to take one?

Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) are the amount of money IRA account holders have to remove from their IRA each year. If you do not take these funds out of your account, you will be taxed heavily on the amount remaining in your account. If you do take the funds out of your account, they will be subject to regular state and federal income taxes. If you are 73 or older, you must take an RMD.

When am I eligible to make a QCD?

You must be 70.5 or older to make a Qualified Charitable Distribution.

Is it still beneficial to make a QCD before I need to take my RMD?

Yes! By making a QCD before you need to take an RMD, you can potentially lower your RMD in the future. Plus, these gifts are always tax-free, even if you don’t need to take the RMD. 

Stock Talking Points

• By donating stock directly rather than selling it and donating the cash proceeds, there’s no capital gains tax to pay. 
  
  • Generally speaking, capital gains tax is a tax on the profit you make from selling your stock. The federal capital gains tax rate can be as high as 20% on stock held for more than one year, and some states have their own method of taxing capital gains as well. 

• If you donate stock you’ve held for more than one year and itemize deductions, you can generally deduct the full fair market value of the stock.

• Timing matters! Gifts must be made on or before December 31st to count for the current tax year. For example, to make an eligible gift for your 2023 taxes, your stock donation must be completed on or before December 31, 2023 — and if you plan to manually mail in your forms, you should plan to do so by early December. 
• Giving earlier in the year helps you get ahead on tax savings. Most donations to nonprofits occur in the last three months of the year so by giving before the year-end rush you can make an immediate difference for our mission when it’s needed most, and get ahead on your tax savings.
• Stock donations are uniquely impactful for {{ORG}}, and allow you to make an even bigger impact for the causes that matter most. The gains that you've made in the stock market are generally not taxed when you give them directly to a nonprofit. Practically speaking, you’re able to give more without dipping into your everyday funds, and we’re able to put the full value of the stock to work for our mission!

Talking Points on FreeWill’s Stock donation product

• We have invested in an easy-to-use, secure online tool that makes donating stock simple for our supporters. You can find it at FreeWill.com/Stocks/{{URL}}
• Using this tool can help you:
  
  • Make a deep and lasting impact on our mission without dipping into your everyday cash flow.
  • Initiate a stock transfer in about 10 minutes.
  • Notify our organization of your gift automatically, including how you want your gift to be used so we can put your gift to work as you intend.
  • Keep track of your gifts to our organization.
• Using this tool can help our organization:
  
  • Match the correct donors to their stock gifts (this is incredibly helpful because stock gifts made by donors independently often do not have donor information attached).
  • Give you the appropriate tax receipt documents for next year’s tax filing purposes.
  • Thank you properly for your generous contribution!
• It makes each step of the process simple. Here’s what to expect: 
  
  • Provide details about the asset you wish to give and which brokerage it’s coming from.
  • Personalize the gift with a message.
  • Depending on your brokerage you will have the option to either download, print, and mail the forms, or submit them to your brokerage electronically.
    
    • Brokerages that currently accept e-signatures: 
      
      • Ameriprise
      • Charles Schwab
      • Interactive Broker
      • ETrade
      • Vanguard
      • Wells Fargo
  • We’ll reach out with confirmation and thanks when we receive the gift!
• FreeWill takes privacy seriously. This platform is trusted, secure, and doesn’t ask for confidential information such as account numbers or social security numbers. If this information is required to initiate or finalize a transfer, you will input it onto the form independent of the FreeWill platform.
• Using this tool also means you don’t need to worry about notifying our organization or tracking down our identifying and/or brokerage information — all you do is fill out the forms, and our nonprofit EIN (employer identification number) and brokerage information will populate automatically. When we receive your gift, we will [INSERT STANDARD STOCK GIFT PROCESS HERE, INCLUDING WHEN YOU WILL LIQUIDATE STOCK AND THEY CAN EXPECT GIFT CONFIRMATION].
• Please feel free to share this tool with your financial advisor as you consider donating. If you choose to make a gift, you can share this tool with them and they can assist you in making the gift. It can save you both time and it will help ensure that you receive the tax receipts you need.

Frequently Asked Questions - Stocks

Stock market + portfolio

What if the market fluctuates? Can I still donate stocks? 

We recommend seeking professional advice to ensure that you can give the most tax-savvy gift based on the assets you hold and your personal circumstances. Stock giving can be a smart choice, even when a market is down or declining. If you hold appreciated assets, you can donate them without changing your portfolio — and you are also exempt from the “wash sale” rule (which prevents someone from selling stock at a loss, then buying identical stock within 30 days). 

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I’m convinced that donating stock is a great way to give, but I don’t want to lose my holdings.

After donating stock, you are permitted to buy the same stock again within the day (a simple way to essentially redirect the cash you saved by donating stock!). This allows you to make a powerful, tax-savvy gift while maintaining your preferred portfolio.

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Can donating stock help me balance/rebalance my stock portfolio?

Yes! If you have appreciated stock you feel confident that you’re ready to part with, donating it directly to a nonprofit is a simple and compassionate way to balance (or clean up) your portfolio without any additional cost to you.

{{ORG}} + stock donations

Does {{ORG}} want stock, or do they prefer a cash gift?

Our priority is that each of our donors chooses the gift type that’s right for them. However, stock donations can be uniquely impactful for our organization since neither the donor nor our nonprofit has to pay capital gains tax. Practically speaking, that means our donors can give more and we can put the full value of the stock to work for our mission.

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What will {{ORG}} do with the stock?

Most nonprofits liquidate stock donations immediately upon receiving them, in order to (i) minimize any stock market risk associated with holding onto the stock; and (ii) immediately put the funds to work in fulfilling their charitable mission. [INSERT ANY OTHER INFORMATION ABOUT HOW YOUR ORGANIZATION HANDLES STOCK GIFTS]

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Can all nonprofits receive stock gifts?

As long as a nonprofit has a brokerage account, they can receive in-kind gifts of stock!

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Donor-Advised Funds (DAFs) Talking Points

• Did you know that over $72B is currently in Donor-Advised Funds (DAFs) across the United States? If you’re one of the hundreds of Americans who have invested in a DAF, now may be the perfect moment to recommend a grant to {{ORG}}.
• With $72B held in Donor-Advised Funds nationwide, the potential for change is enormous. When you recommend a grant from your DAF today, you enable our organization to tap into these resources and immediately advance our mission.
• If you have a Donor-Advised Fund (DAF), now is the perfect time to make an impact with our organization. More and more donors are using DAFs to help us achieve our mission without dipping into their cash reserves. 
• Giving through your DAF is a simple way to use the funds and assets you’ve already set aside to immediately advance {{IMPACT/MISSION}}. 
• During 2021 and 2022, grants from Donor-Advised Funds (DAFs) to charities increased by more than 60%, accounting for 15% of all charitable giving from Americans. 
• Donor-Advised Funds (DAFs) are now one of the fastest-growing vehicles for charitable giving in the United States. DAFs present a significant opportunity for you to maximize the impact of your giving and support the causes you're passionate about in a tax-efficient way.

Talking Points on the FreeWill DAF product

• Traditionally, when you recommend a grant from your DAF, your custodian will transfer the funds on your behalf. This process often makes it difficult or impossible for our organization to know who is making the gift and where it is coming from. 

FreeWill’s DAF tool allows you to complete this process in a simplified platform where you can designate your gift, notify your custodian, and provide your information to ensure our organization can properly thank you for your generosity! It’s simple, secure, and most donors complete their gift in as little as 10 minutes, entirely online. 

• When you make a DAF gift in support of our organization, it’s possible the sponsoring organization will not share your information with our organization. FreeWill’s tool makes it easy for you to recommend your gift through your sponsoring organization and provide your personal information so that we can thank you and ensure your gift gets to where it’s intended. 

• DAF giving is particularly beneficial when you are looking to reserve your cash for purposes other than charitable giving. With many donors concerned about a recession, our organization has invested in a new tool that makes recommending a grant from your DAF easier than ever. Can I share more information with you? 
• With more and more donors using DAFs as a tax-savvy way to support the causes they love, our organization invested in this simple tool that allows you to recommend a grant and provide the necessary information to make sure we can properly thank you for your support. 
• How does this product work? 
  
  • You select the sponsoring organization for your Donor-Advised Fund
  • You recommend the amount you wish to give to our organization
  • You provide your name and contact information so we can thank you for your generosity!
• DAF giving is a tax-savvy way to mobilize your funds for a positive impact on our organization. That’s why we invested in this simple giving platform to make it as easy as possible for you to recommend a donation today to advance our mission.

Frequently Asked Questions - DAFs

Can you clarify the tax benefits associated with Donor-Advised Funds (DAFs)?

Yes! When you invest in a Donor-Advised Fund (DAF), you receive an immediate tax benefit for your contribution. This allows you to reduce your tax burden while designating a portion of your assets for future charitable giving. 

In 2018, the standard minimum deduction increased and many donors found it more tax advantageous to give a greater amount. DAFs allow you to give a large sum in one year and spread out your gifts over several years. 

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What can I give to a DAF?

You can donate cash, non-cash assets like crypto and appreciated stock, and material assets like real estate and other personal property. 

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What are the benefits of donating from my Donor-Advised Fund (DAF)?

Currently, there are over $72B held in DAFs nationwide. When you contribute to a DAF, these funds are irrevocable, meaning they cannot be used for anything other than charitable giving in the future. Many donors see DAFs as a tax-savvy investment for the causes, communities, and charities they love and wish to support. 

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DAF giving allows you to tap into the enormous resources held in DAFs nationwide and mobilize your funds for positive change in the world. Plus, everything held in your DAF has already been spent, which means you can reserve your real-time cash for your own immediate needs while still contributing to our organization and advancing our mission today.

Cryptocurrencies Talking Points

• Cryptocurrency is digital currency existing on the blockchain (a way to store transactional data that is decentralized and distributed). Crypto is virtual currency, which is considered to be property by the IRS.
• Crypto is increasingly being used as a way to buy goods and services, as well as investment vehicles for long and short-term gains, similar to property or stocks.
• 16% of the U.S. population owns cryptocurrency — about 41 million adults, and cryptocurrency donations surpassed $500M in 2021. The average gift on FreeWill sites is $7,000.
• When donors give crypto directly to charity instead of selling it and giving cash, they don’t have to pay capital gains taxes. They also may receive a federal tax deduction against their income tax for the full value of the gift. Many donors choose to pass on these savings to the nonprofit they’re giving to, which allows for larger gifts for {{ORG}}.
• Crypto is a great way for our organization to cultivate millennial and Gen Z donors who tend to live in major urban centers and are more likely to give.
• Crypto is a powerful way to fuel our organization's mission and provide more ways for donors to show their support. It’s also mutually beneficial for donors because of the potential tax savings! 

Talking Points on FreeWill’s Crypto product

• While accepting and processing crypto donations can seem daunting, FreeWill’s tool will manage the processing and details of the gift.
• The donor will donate crypto in support of our organization through FreeWill’s secure tool. Gifts are received by FreeWill Impact Fund, a 501(c)(3) organization which liquidates the crypto asset into cash using its cryptocurrency exchange account.
• The FreeWill tool will never sell donor information, and all information is stored securely on Amazon Web Services (AWS).
• When a crypto gift is made in support of our organization, FreeWill Impact Fund liquidates the crypto asset into cash using its cryptocurrency exchange account. Any exchange or processing fees incurred to liquidate the asset are paid out of the gross proceeds. FreeWill Impact Fund provides the donor with a tax receipt, which serves as evidence of the donation, and which is needed for the donor to claim a tax deduction for their charitable gift. FreeWill Impact Fund then distributes the net proceeds of the liquidated cryptocurrency to the charity that the donor wishes to support, subject to its grantmaking policies. FreeWill completely handles the processing and the risk, so donor information is fully protected!
• Once processed, the donations will be distributed on a biweekly basis to our organization
• FreeWill’s tool does not charge a transaction fee, so a donor’s gift will 100% go towards our mission. It is also the most comprehensive product for crypto generosity and accepts a variety of cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and even NFT drop proceeds.
• FreeWill has raised over $1M in crypto gifts for nonprofits since 2021!

Frequently Asked Questions - Crypto

Is receiving crypto safe for {{ORG}}? 

Yes, giving crypto is entirely secure and processed by FreeWill. We provide a similar service to a DAF, with the crucial difference being funds are paid every two weeks (vs. years for DAFs). The FreeWill Impact Fund first accepts and then liquidates the crypto before distributing the USD via ACH to your bank account. Your donor will immediately receive a tax acknowledgment letter from FreeWill Impact Fund if requested!

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Does {{ORG}} need to set up a crypto wallet? 

The nonprofit does not need to set up a wallet or have in-depth knowledge of accepting or trading cryptocurrency to accept donations. Our organization does not have to accept crypto at all — donated cryptocurrency is received by a wallet maintained by FreeWill Impact Fund, which then liquidates it on a public cryptocurrency exchange, and passes the net proceeds on to our organization in USD, making gift acceptance and understanding much more straightforward.

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What happens if the value of the crypto donation fluctuates before it is liquidated? 

Securities markets are inherently volatile, and the value of a donated crypto asset may change significantly between the moment of donation and its subsequent sale. The value of the gift corresponds to the exchange rate when it is liquidated. FreeWill automatically liquidates all cryptocurrencies within 10 mins. Although price fluctuations may negatively impact nonprofit beneficiaries, they may benefit in the event a donated crypto asset appreciates between the time of donation & liquidation.

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Why does the donation go through the FreeWill Impact Fund? 

FreeWill Impact Fund is a tax-exempt organization pursuant to Section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code. Impact and FreeWill have entered into a licensing and processing agreement, pursuant to which Impact uses FreeWill's software platform to facilitate its receipt and liquidation of donated crypto assets, and to generate gift receipts for donors, in exchange for certain licensing fees that it pays back to FreeWill.

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Important Disclaimer: 

FreeWill offers online self-help solutions for common estate planning needs and related educational content. Estate planning may implicate both state and federal laws, and estate planning needs will differ based on personal circumstance and applicable law. FreeWill is not a law firm and its services are not substitutes for an attorney’s advice. The information here is provided for educational purposes only and is not intended to provide, and should not be construed as providing legal or tax advice. This information is general in nature and is not intended to serve as the primary or sole basis for investment or tax-planning decisions.

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