What’s hot when it comes to gifts for the graduate? You guessed it. Once again, the ever-popular, flexible, and tax-effective donor-advised fund carries the day. More and more parents and grandparents across the country are giving a graduating child or grandchild a donor-advised fund, pre-established and pre-funded, in the name of the graduate.
Donor-advised funds as gifts to the next generation are on the rise at innovative community foundations. We’re inviting our donors to consider ‘gift funds’ as a way to engage their own family members in philanthropic values. We help the donor create the fund, including online access, so that the donor can literally ‘put a bow’ on the fund establishing document and roll it up like a diploma. The donor adds a card with our website and login credentials and presents it to the child or grandchild as a gift. Both giver and receiver love the experience.
What’s more, the donor-advised fund is a gift that keeps giving. Many families consider regular communication to be a key part of the online philanthropy experience. This way, the family’s values stay intact across generations. Keeping in touch online is key. Families are becoming increasingly reliant on the donor-advised fund dialogue to share stories about the joy of giving based on personal experience. Some families even share a list of favorite charities that have meant the most to the family over the years. Telling stories and sharing experiences is itself a gift because what families want more than anything is positive communication among family members, especially as children grow up, graduate, and move away.
Family communication is always a plus, and communication across the generations is even richer when it’s focused on a topic like philanthropy. Intergenerational dialogue is a major advantage of selecting a donor-advised fund to anchor a family’s emotional connections. Hats off to donor-advised funds!