The Importance of Generosity for Business Owners
As a business owner, you want to make a difference in the world. You may even be searching for ways to fulfill a higher calling. Are you seeking how you might give back or invest eternally in a way that’s aligned with your values and beliefs? As a values based small business owner you have an opportunity to make a difference for many people in your community, and potentially around the planet.
If you have been blessed with a profitable business, high-performing investments, real estate, or a sizable amount of money, you are able to make an impact for the causes you are passionate about. As a business owner or high net worth individual, you can leverage your business or influence to achieve or further the cause God has put into your heart. Our financial professionals specialize in corporate and individual giving. With our help, giving or intentional generosity is incorporated into your financial plan.
Align Your Resources with Your Values
It’s important to align your resources, including your business, with your values. When investing and giving, you want to use your means to add meaning to your life and the lives of others. Typically, business owners who feel led to be generous to their communities end up receiving much more than what they give away.
Giving and intentional generosity are important aspects of serious financial planning, and it takes a financial professionals to set this up in the most advantageous way for you. We will help you maximize your ability to donate to your favorite causes while minimizing your tax obligations. When you give back, we want you to be intentional about it. When most of your giving happens through your financial plan, you will normally find you can give more than you thought.
The Process of Giving Back
Business owners and wealthy individuals are scrutinized more closely with how they use their resources. Therefore, it’s important to think about the causes you want to support. It also matters how you support them. Instead of simply writing a check, you may want to create a family foundation, donor-advised fund, or specific generosity plan. This can build a legacy, reduce your taxable income, or potentially engage and train family, which can ultimately free up your assets (time, talent, treasure) for the things you value most.
A donor-advised fund allows you to give flexibly and often, but you don’t have to participate in the direct management of the fund. If you have more sizable assets, you can use a family foundation to gift a specific percentage of your assets to a custom cause (or set of causes) each year. There are many other vehicles available such as charitable lead trusts, charitable remainder trusts, and non-profits as well. Different options can provide various tax benefits, features, and ways to engage family, any of which typically allow you to maximize impact for causes that are meaningful to you.
Donor-advised funds are registered 501(c)3 organizations that are funded with cash, securities that have appreciated in value and/or other assets. All of the contributions are put into an account in the donor's name, which is held by a DAF sponsor and eventually donated to a charity of the donor’s choosing. Donors are able to take a current tax deduction for contributions made to the fund; this is an important feature because it allows a donor to take a tax deduction for all contributions at the time they are made, even though the money may not be dispersed to a charity until much later. This incentivizes donors who need a tax deduction to make a donation now and then decide where the money will go at a later time when it’s convenient.
Read more: Donor-Advised Funds: The Benefits and Drawbacks | Investopedia https://www.investopedia.com/articles/managing-wealth/080216/donoradvised-funds-benefits-and-drawbacks.asp#ixzz5IEo4fmax
