Give to the Groups You Care About Most
A donor-advised fund is a popular, flexible, and easy way to support the causes and issues you are passionate about. As a donor, you make gifts to your fund at any time and then recommend grants from the fund at any time in the future to the groups you identify.
- You can support organizations in Marin County, elsewhere in the U.S., or around the world.
- Donor-advised funds may be named to recognize the donor or donors, a family member, friend, or organization. Or, you can select a name for the fund that will ensure your anonymity.
- You can recommend grants online at any time in just a few minutes.
- MCF staff is available to help you learn more about the organizations and issue you might want to support.
- Through donor-advised funds, you can engage family members in learning more about their community and groups addressing community issues.
- You will be eligible for a tax deduction for the year in which the gift is made to your fund.
- MCF takes care of all the paperwork and administrative details. You do not have to keep track of individual grants or submit reports to the IRS.
Detailed information about donor-advised funds.
New Fund Worksheet
Use the MCF New Fund Worksheet to start the process of opening a donor-advised online at any time.
Or, you can download a PDF of this worksheet to fill out and send in — or you can use it as a guide as you complete the worksheet online.
Fill out and submit the form online
New Fund Worksheet.
Endowments vs. Expendable Funds
It's up to you to choose how permanent your donor-advised fund is. Many people elect to create endowments, which are permanent funds established to ensure donor's philanthropic intentions extend in perpetuity. Endowments are gifts that keep growing and giving. Assets are invested in a way that allows them to grow, and only a portion of the fund is made available for grants based on a "spending rule" calculation that distributes 5% of an average twelve-quarter market value annually. Based on historic stock and bond market performance, this should allow the endowment fund to perpetually distribute grants in inflation-adjusted amounts.
Other donors prefer that all their charitable contributions are spent during their lifetimes. A fund created using this approach is an expendable fund. Grants from this kind of fund can be made in any size at any time.
Still others wish to see their assets distributed freely during their lifetime, while wanting successive generations of advisors to treat the remainder of their fund as a permanent endowment. Donors may set up a fund in this way and add to it later through a bequest or other estate distribution.
These and other options are available to you. Please confer with MCF staff to decide which possibility is best for your situation.
