Giving Matters

Professional advisors offer key year-end giving strategies.

To avoid charity fraud, you'll need to be careful before giving to a new charity. Learn how to vet a charity and see how Vanguard Charitable can help.

Nonprofits prefer recurring grants. Learn how sustained giving drives financial stability and deeper impact, especially with a donor-advised fund.

Doubling down on your charitable giving investment strategy during times of market volatility is tough, but it has its rewards. Here's why.

Philanthropy often goes hand in hand with wealth, but anyone can be a philanthropist by contributing time, talent, or treasure to their favorite causes.

There’s a misunderstanding that trust-based philanthropy lacks accountability. Here, we demystify this increasingly popular giving strategy.

Trust-based philanthropy is an increasingly popular charitable giving approach that’s committed to fostering collaboration between funders and nonprofits.

Is your New Year’s resolution to five more to charity and maximize tax-efficient giving? Learn how to craft your giving plan here.

Is charitable giving important to you? Teach the young people in your life about supporting nonprofits using these tips and strategies.

In this blog, Vik Dewan and Saba Khan, MD, share their thoughts on the growth of food insecurity and its broader implications on society.

The end of the year is the most popular time for charitable giving, but why? Learn about year-end giving and its importance for nonprofits.

When the country’s attention is so focused on major elections, how do nonprofits compete for that attention? Learn more about how elections may influence giving.

Autumn is a time for cozy blankets and gathering with loved ones. It’s also the perfect time to step back and review your charitable giving plan.

How much of your income should you give to charity? A better question may be, “How can you make the greatest impact with what you have on the causes you care about?” For more and more donors these days, looking at their entire portfolio and leveraging the advantages of a donor-advised fund is a key part of the answer.

As flexible giving accounts, donor-advised funds support your regular and responsive giving. Learn more about increasing your charitable giving flexibility.

In this blog, learn how Vik Dewan and a team of experts are working to increase donor impact on important charitable causes.

Planned to give more in 2023 but looking for the ideal giving tool to support your generosity? Learn about how a donor-advised fund can help.

Explore these resources and strategies to help you with your charitable giving decisions and conversations with advisors.

Over the past few years, unexpected developments, natural disasters, and international humanitarian crises have generated headlines and demanded our attention, compassion, and support. During such trying times, donors have responded resoundingly - many millennials, in particular, have driven this recent charge.

When we asked what request nonprofit organizations would make of our donors, nearly 6 in 10 had the same response: More unrestricted giving. Unrestricted giving—donations or grants that can be used for any purpose by the receiving charity—is considered the gold standard for charitable giving because it offers charities the ability to direct funds to their areas of greatest need.

This is the story of donor-advised funds. In a normal year, they are strong charitable engines that churn out donations and help power the philanthropic sector. But when the unthinkable happens, they are also equipped with a special extra gear. Not only do DAFs help respond to natural disasters, but evidence also shows that they can be a stabilizing force to the philanthropic world during economic downturns.

Welcome to the final part of our Q & A series featuring different organizations discussing how nonprofits are responding to crises, specifically COVID-19 recovery and addressing inequality, and how you can act now and in the future.

Welcome to part two of a three-part Q & A series featuring different organizations discussing how nonprofits are responding to crises, specifically COVID-19 recovery and addressing inequality, and how you can act now and in the future.

Welcome to part one of a three-part Q & A series featuring different organizations discussing how nonprofits are responding to crises, specifically COVID-19 recovery and addressing inequality, and how you can act now and in the future.

On Episode 5 of the Value in Giving podcast, Casey Marsh, Chief Development Officer of Feeding America, joined Vanguard Charitable President Jane Greenfield to discuss the invaluable role Feeding America is playing to help alleviate hunger during the COVID-19 pandemic. Seven months later, we spoke with Casey to hear some updates from Feeding America.

In this interview, we talk with UNICEF president and CEO Michael Nyenhuis about the challenges children face in a pandemic. Since talking with Michael in our Value of Giving podcast, episode 2, he updates us on UNICEF’s ongoing pandemic support and the unique struggles of children globally.

The performance of investment options offered by donor-advised fund providers helps to determine your clients' giving capacity. When you can count on high-quality investments, you can focus your attention on adding value in other areas on behalf of your clients. See these lightning round Q&As in our latest edition of advisor-to-advisor.

Are you wondering if a donor-advised fund (DAF) is right for you? You’re not alone. More and more charitably minded people–and their professional advisors–are talking about strategic philanthropy and how DAFs can help. This blog is to help you decide if a DAF is right for you.

With charitable funds primed and ready, Vanguard Charitable donors like Tom and Kathy Cole are uniquely positioned to offer crucial support during the COVID-19 crisis. Our donors have already granted more than $75 million in response to the pandemic, and many report complementing their giving with volunteer efforts.

Vanguard Charitable talks with #GivingTuesdayNow. A global day of giving and unity on May 5, 2020, as an emergency response to the unprecedented need caused by COVID-19. At a time when we are all experiencing the coronavirus pandemic, generosity gives everyone the power to make a positive change in the lives of others.

The world is experiencing a time of great uncertainty. As an advisor, you play an important role in guiding your clients on how to handle this time of great need. Your clients are looking to you for help making the right strategic choices when considering how to manage their wealth in these turbulent times.

Many donors may not think to consider the full range of their nontraditional assets as a source of charitable giving. Contributions of complex assets, such as private equity, hedge fund interests, LLC and limited partnership interests, closely-held stock, real estate, and more, can boost your giving impact and tax benefits.

Vanguard Charitable attended the 54th Annual Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning in Orlando, Florida, to talk about charitable planning, building a philanthropic legacy, and donor-advised funds (DAFs).

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017 enacted the first overhaul of the tax code since 1986. If you’re still getting used to the new law, you are not alone. With year-end tax deadlines approaching, it’s a good time to review a few significant provisions in the TCJA, and see how they might impact your charitable giving.

Saving to give means investing charitable assets so that you can give more over time. The following scenario shows the benefits of taking a long-term outlook and carefully choosing what you give to charity.

Saving to give means investing charitable assets so that you can give more over time. The following scenario shows the benefits of taking a long-term outlook and carefully choosing what you give to charity.

Saving to give means investing charitable assets so that you can give more over time.

More than 70% of HNW clients indicate that discussing charitable giving with their advisors is important to them. Talking to your clients about their philanthropy is an excellent way to get to know them better and deepen your relationship.

Most of us want to give back, but we may be unsure where to start. How can we do the most good? How should we allocate our time and our funds? To what causes should we direct our resources? Everyone’s path to meaningful giving is different. It’s important to find and follow yours. 

In part one of our charitable strategies series, you learned how to make the greatest impact with your charitable giving by using cost saving tools.

Experts in philanthropy have long discussed a problem in the way most people give: When the economy is doing well, we tend to give more.

We recognize the important role professional advisors play in their clients’ financial lives, and our goal is to provide resources to support you and to help you build those client relationships.

In our charitable strategies series, read about the leading tactics for giving and granting, how other donors approach charitable giving, ways to optimize your giving for tax efficiency, and how you can increase the charitable benefit to nonprofits.

A reality of charitable giving today is that effective granting requires effective cost management.

Our donors are doing incredible work across the country and the globe. From time to time, we're fortunate to speak in depth with donors about what drives them. I'm happy to present an interview with Vanguard Charitable donor William D. Danko, Ph.D., co-author of The Millionaire Next Door and Richer Than A Millionaire ~A Pathway to True Prosperity.

Anecdotally, we know that our donors have a strong desire to include their children and grandchildren in their philanthropy, in the hope that they inspire future generations. But to be effective, it may be just as important to "walk the walk" rather than just "talk the talk."

I have been at Vanguard Charitable for over ten years, and in my current role leading our Operations team I am fortunate to have a front-row seat to our donors' giving experiences. With the "giving season" in full swing, I see and hear on a day-to-day basis the joy and fulfillment our donors get from their charitable work.

At any time of year, our donors are ready to give to causes they care about, springing into action whenever support is needed. For example, when the devastating number of natural disasters occurred last fall, our donors responded immediately, inspiring Vanguard Charitable team members to do whatever it took to ensure our donors’ charitable dollars were utilized to the fullest potential.

Each generation approaches philanthropy differently. With millennials in particular receiving a lot of attention recently, as ascending generations often do, this final blog in a three-part series will look at what we can expect in the way of charitable giving.

This blog is the second in the three-part series. The first blog discussed the advantages of using a donor-advised fund and the save-to-give mindset to maximize your ‘philanthropy retirement.’

Vanguard Charitable is celebrating our 20th year of operation. With 20 years’ worth of market data to consider, we decided to create a three-part blog series highlighting some of that data.

Learn why Vanguard Charitable's $500 donor-advised fund minimum grant supports greater impact and how it compares to other DAF sponsors.

Learn why funding infrastructure and unrestricted giving are critical to long-term impact.