Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan › Forums › PGDC Discussion Forum › General Discussion
Tue
08
Dec
2009

Suggestions for Corporate Giving Vehicle

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A coporate client has asked for a giving vehicle that both the company and employees may utilize in a tax deductible manner. The company would like a panel of white collar and blue collar employees to decide on yearly grants. The company is not sure what the specific or broad purpose of the vehicle would be. My thought is to establish a DAF, which would cover most of the concerns the company has brought up, but I am wondering if there are better tools to utilize in this instance. Suggestions?
Wed
16
Dec
2009
59
points
#01 by Tony Macklin    

Corporate client options

Agreed that a donor-advised fund is an easy and effective solution for the company. I helped a number of companies use DAFs for their giving and the tool worked well except in managing lots of small matching gifts for employees. If the company has in-house staff that feel confident in researching nonprofits and managing the grants process, then DAFs sponsored by financial firms are most cost-effective route. If the company wants some advisory help on developing a purpose, grants process, looking at effective nonprofits etc., then community foundations can definitely be worth the higher fee. Some community foundations used to have an arrangement with Merrill Lynch that would allow you to keep the investment fee, but I don't know where that stands now...

Feel free to contact me if you want to discuss. Tony Macklin

Wed
16
Dec
2009
55
points
#02 by William Hewitt    

Corporate Gift Program

You're on the right track, but might be able to provide them with even greater flexibility and a more diverse and global capability by looking at the option of the company sponsoring/offering their own corporate branded donor advised fund program. This would be accessible by all employees (white collar, blue collar, management and board) for personal DAFs (funded by payroll deduction as well as appreciated stock or bonuses) but which would also have a corporate account to be acted upon by its own employee board. Local or regional nonprofit organizations can have a 'program' presence on the donor site ensuring community level grant flow and corporate recognition. We're in the process of launching just such a program for a large corporation currently (actually upgrading an existing program with no previous online access), and the benefits for both the employees, management and community are tremendous. Bill Hewitt, CMO Crown DonorFirst