Top 5 Reasons to Start Your Foundation Before Year-End

1. Tax Deductions

When you start and fund a private foundation before the end of the tax year, you are eligible for a qualified charitable deduction of up to 30% of your adjusted gross income. This is especially attractive in years when you have excess income or realized capital gains.

2. Advanced Charitable Toolkit

Commit to your philanthropic goals with a private foundation and unlock a sophisticated suite of giving tools. In addition to making grants to public charities, foundations enable you to award scholarships and prizes, conduct direct charitable activities, make hardship and emergency gifts directly to individuals, support mission-related investments, make low
or no interest loans to charities, align the assets in your endowment with your philanthropic mission, and much more. And although you don’t have to meet the 5% minimum distribution requirement until the following year, your foundation can help the traditional charities that reach out over the holidays.

3. Start Your Legacy Now

Private foundations are designed to last in perpetuity, making them the gold standard for creating a lasting legacy. When you link your name with your good deeds, it expresses your values and provides a blueprint for future generations to carry your vision forward. Also, the Delaware database, a preferred state of incorporation, has limited names…you can lock in your family foundation name now and ensure your legacy.

4. Engage Your Family

With the upcoming holidays, there’s more opportunities this time of year to talk to immediate and extended family about philanthropy and supporting your cause. Private philanthropy can be an exciting and fulfilling way to work together to establish your mission, agree on priorities, evaluate causes and work with charities. It can create unparalleled memories that cement your family values and create multigenerational dialogue and collaboration.

5. Ongoing Control & Flexibility

With a private foundation, you always control the assets in your endowment, while having the ability to allocate across a wide variety of asset classes, including public equity and debt securities, private equity and credit, hedge funds, real estate and tangible property, collectibles, cryptocurrencies and more.