Easier than you might think: Moving a donor-advised fund to YouthBridge Community Foundation of Greater St. Louis
As you advise clients on charitable giving, you’re likely aware of the growing popularity of the donor-advised fund as a flexible, tax-efficient tool for philanthropy. Many families appreciate how donor-advised funds can streamline giving, foster family engagement, and serve as a launchpad for deeper community impact.
Recently, we’ve engaged with many professional advisors—attorneys, accountants, and financial planners—who work with clients utilizing community foundations in a variety of ways, ranging from contributing to important initiatives, supporting the community’s foundation’s operating endowment, making qualified charitable distributions from IRAs, or participating in foundation-hosted events that address critical local priorities.
Interestingly, we have discovered that some advisors were not aware that their clients had established donor-advised funds through national financial institutions. Although these clients are familiar with YouthBridge, they simply did not know that YouthBridge could help them in multiple ways, including establishing a donor-advised fund to support favorite charities.
It’s easier–and more beneficial–than you might think for your client to move a donor-advised fund to YouthBridge! Here’s what you need to know:
Tax and administrative advantages are the same
YouthBridge Community Foundation offers donor-advised funds with the same tax and administrative advantages as national providers, including:
- Online access for clients to view fund balances, contributions, and grant history
- Simple grantmaking process to qualified charities
- Consolidated tax reporting, often with a single year-end letter for all contributions and grants
- Comprehensive back-office support for administration, tax receipts, recordkeeping, and compliance with 501(c)(3) requirements
- Favorable tax deductibility for contributions, including gifts of cash, securities, and other assets
Added value at YouthBridge Community Foundation
Unlike many national donor-advised fund sponsors, YouthBridge offers a suite of high-touch, locally-informed services that can enhance your clients’ philanthropic strategies, such as:
- Personalized service from staff experienced in structuring complex gifts (e.g., appreciated stock, real estate, closely-held business interests, estate gifts)
- Local expertise on community needs, nonprofit effectiveness, and high-impact grantmaking
- Opportunities for collaboration with other donors and access to educational forums featuring local and national experts
- Deep engagement in specific issue areas, including educational opportunities and hands-on involvement for clients and their families
- Impact measurement support to help clients track and communicate the outcomes of their giving
- Family and corporate philanthropy services to foster long-term, multi-generational charitable engagement
- Administrative fees that are reinvested in the community, supporting local operations and amplifying YouthBridge’s mission
- Direct access to local experts who can research and recommend causes aligned with your clients’ goals
- Staff with deep community roots who maintain close relationships with nonprofit leaders and stay attuned to emerging needs
What next?
The steps to transfer a donor-advised fund are surprisingly simple:
- Work with YouthBridge team to establish a donor-advised fund. Our straightforward, easy-to-complete paperwork makes it seamless and fast. Your client can mirror the terms of the existing donor-advised fund, or adjust successor advisors and legacy provisions based on their charitable intentions. Our team will walk through the process with you and your client.
- Work with your client to request a grant from the national donor-advised fund provider. Depending on the provider, this can sometimes be completed all online. Designate YouthBridge Community Foundation (and reference the new donor-advised fund if possible) as the grant recipient.
- Your client may be able to grant the entire balance in one transaction. If not, most of the balance can be transferred to fund the new donor-advised fund, and you can work with your client to transfer the rest later.
- Before closing the donor-advised fund at the national provider, your client should download grant history and contribution information for future reference and tax documentation. Note that transfers between donor-advised funds are tax-neutral; these transactions and not taxable events.
We look forward to working with you and your clients to make the most of their charitable giving, especially by establishing a donor-advised fund at YouthBridge to serve as the cornerstone of the client’s charitable giving plan. With a donor-advised fund as a baseline, your client can begin to tap into all of the many ways YouthBridge serves as a home for charitable giving, from strategic grant making to legacy giving and everything in between.