A donor advised fund enables you to set up your own named charitable fund and have complete control over the donations you make. A donor advised fund is an alternative to direct giving or setting up a private charitable trust or foundation. It is an easy-to-establish, low cost, flexible structure for charitable giving. The steps are quite simple. In Ireland they are most typically provided by The Community Foundation for Ireland and The Ireland Funds. Where fund management (in the financial sense) is required, they have a third-party fund manager in place.
How To Set Up a Donor Advised Fund:
- You decide the fund name and who will be involved from your family or business.
- You choose whether to give anonymously or not.
- You choose the type of fund that best suits your goals. It could be a long-term endowed fund, a spend-down fund or a flow-through account.
- You decide what initial contribution to make and whether to give annually or spend down a lump sum. Donor advised funds are generally at a scale of €25,000 upwards.
- You decide what type / level of advice you would like to help plan your charitable giving.
- You ultimately decide what donations to make to which charities/communities.