Donor Advised Funds can be a bit confusing when trying to support your charity with a grant. Being experts in the field we’re confident the following common examples will be helpful to you:
Religious institution membership: You may recommend grants for synagogue dues and other religious institution memberships.
Museum and public broadcasting memberships: You may not receive more than incidental benefits (e.g., coffee mug) if you wish to recommend a grant from your fund.
Charity auctions: Purchases at charity auctions may not be paid with a grant from your fund.
Supporting a charitable event and not attending: If you decline tickets and all benefits associated with the event, you may recommend a grant from your fund. Please write “declined tickets and benefits” if you reference an event on the recommendation.
Supporting a charitable event and attending: In most cases, a ticket to an event consists of a non-deductible portion and a deductible portion. If that is the case, you may not use your donor advised fund for any portion of the ticket. The full ticket price (deductible and non-deductible portions) must be paid by you personally. If you wish to make a charitable donation in addition to your ticket purchase, you may recommend a grant from your donor advised fund for the charitable donation.
Journal ad for a charitable event: You may recommend grants for personal acknowledgments only (not for business advertising). However, you may not accept tickets to a charitable event that are offered with the purchase of a journal ad.