Donor-Advised Funds
What is a Donor Advised Fund (“DAF”)?
A donor advised fund (DAF) is a tax-efficient, personal charitable investment account that simplifies your giving. Having a DAF at the Minnesota Jewish Community Foundation (MNJCF) makes your giving easy–we do the work for you by taking care of the accounting, investment, and legal services, so you can focus on giving.
Our DAF works like an investment account dedicated to your giving. MN JCF’s charitable giving funds give you the opportunity to recommend grants to IRS-qualified charities-Jewish or secular, local or global-on your own timeline, not driven by the tax year, as frequently as you wish.
A MN JCF DAF comes with convenient grant making and centralized record keeping online, as well as access to donor education and philanthropic advising to maximize your impact. MN JCF is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt public charity-so when you contribute to MN JCF, you are entitled to receive the maximum charitable tax deduction allowed by law.
You can also restrict giving from the DAF to specific organizations or causes close to your heart.
With greater tax deductibility and without the legal and accounting costs of a private foundation (DAF v. private foundation chart), DAFs have become the fastest-growing charitable giving vehicle.
Watch our 3-minute video to see how a MN JCF donor-advised fund can streamline your giving.
To open a DAF with MN JCF, please contact us at foundation@mnjcf.org. Foundation staff will work with you to draft the paperwork. If desired, we can also partner with your professional advisor to ensure a holistic approach to your giving.
Ten benefits that come with a MN JCF DAF, at no extra cost:
Simplify your giving through a DAF. Make online grant recommendations and see your giving history and statements in one place, our online granting website (DonorCentral).
Personal service by people who know you. You receive the highest level of personal and timely customer service by people who know you; you know your advisor and your advisor knows you, what you value, and your philanthropic goals.
Reduce your tax liability. When you contribute cash, appreciated stock, or other assets to a donor-advised fund at a public charity, you are generally eligible to take an immediate tax deduction.
Access to our suite of philanthropic services. When you have a fund at our MN JCF, we provide an entire suite of philanthropic services to support your giving, including family philanthropy, match-making you with community needs and organizations, based on your unique charitable interests.
Turn assets into donations. We accept a variety of assets, such as appreciated stock, cash, real estate, and can turn complex assets into money you donate to causes close to your heart
Unique Investments. Leverage our pooled investments to access investment products you may not be able to access if you have a retail brokerage or advisory account.
Share and teach your family values to the next generations. Pass along family values around giving by appointing children or grandchildren to make grants on the donors’ behalves during their lifetimes, or as successor advisors, enabling the donor’s future generations to carry on the tradition of tzedakah and continuing family’s giving legacy.
The Double-Triple-Quadruple Mitzvah. 100% of your DAF activities are charitable (Mitzvah #1). The administrative fee is like a donation that goes to another Jewish non-profit; it supports a local Jewish organization and stays within the community, allowing you to maximize every dollar in your DAF (Mitzvah #2). Whenever grants are sent from your fund at MN JCF, they have the word “Jewish” in them, which lets the non-Jewish recipients know that the Jewish community cares about them (Mitzvah #3). If you choose the Jewish Advocacy Investment Pool investment option for your fund, you are literally investing in your Jewish values (Mitzvah #4).
Philanthropic Advising. We provide philanthropic advising to help you strategize where and how you want to give throughout your lifetime.
Partners with your professional advisors. As your philanthropic advisor, we can join your team of other professional advisors to craft an efficient and effective approach to your charitable giving.
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The Giant Tzedakah Box
When our children were young, they would collect coins on Shabbat and add them to their tzedakah box. Each year on their birthday, they would count all their coins and choose one non-profit meaningful to them to donate their funds. They were proud and felt like they contributed to something bigger in their community.
Our family donor-advised fund is like a giant tzedakah box. Once a year, we have a special family Shabbat dinner to discuss organizations, Jewish and secular, that are meaningful to us as individuals and collectively as a family, and we decide how much we want to donate to each cause. It has been a unique way to discuss social issues and financial values together. We have deep conversations about our personal beliefs, and find commonalities and discuss differences. Not only is it an insightful way to get to know our children as they become adults, but a treasured thread that ties our children to us and to their grandparents, from whom we learned the values of community pride and responsibility.
We could have chosen to open a donor-advised fund at a brokerage firm or another community foundation, but we chose the Minnesota Jewish Community Foundation. Our family is deeply rooted in Jewish values and we want our giving to reflect that. Just as we chose to invest in our children’s education within the Jewish community, we chose to invest our long-term philanthropic giving within the Jewish community, too.
Jen, Jeff, and Max, Simon & Devra Lewin
It is not what one says, but rather what one does, that makes all the difference in the world.
— Pirkei Avot 1:17