Frequently Asked Questions

To open an account, visit www.giftfund.org. Select the tab, ‘Set up a Donor Advised Fund.’

• ‘Establish a DAF online’ is an online application.
• ‘Establish a DAF-PDF form’ is a document that can be downloaded, populated, and returned to americangiftfund@cnb.com for processing.

Yes, visit www.giftfund.org and select ‘Set up a Donor Advised Fund / Establish a DAF Online.’

Accounts should be funded within 60 days. If you need additional time to fund the account, please email americangiftfund@cnb.com.

A DAF may be named as the beneficiary of an IRA and receive assets from an IRA at the death of the IRA owner. A DAF is not permitted to receive assets from an IRA as part of a Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) during the lifetime of the IRA owner.

Currently, QCDs (Qualified Charitable Distribution) cannot be made to donor-advised fund sponsors, private foundations nor supporting organizations, though these are categorized as charities. Donors should check with their tax advisor before making a gift to ensure the organization is qualified to accept QCDs.

Log on to www.giftfund.org and select the ‘My Documents’ tab. Contribution Letters start with CL. (Example: CL_2022_04_22)

Current IRS regulations dictate how contributions of various assets are determined for tax deductibility purposes. More information can be found within IRS Publication 561 (www.irs.gov/publications/p561).

For example: Fair Market Value for publicly traded securities within an active market is determined by multiplying the number of shares contributed by the average of the high and low prices for the day on which the shares are received by American Gift Fund. This is the figure that is used for tax-deduction purposes.

American Gift Fund follows IRS substantiation and disclosure requirements on issued contribution letters per IRS Publication 1771.

Any individual that is 18 years or older. Children under the age of 18 may be named as SDA during the DAF establishment process, but my not actually be appointed into such role until they reach the age of 18. DAFs may have up to two SDAs appointed; however, current Donor Advisors may change SDAs at any time as requested. Reminder, a Donor Advisor cannot appoint their Financial Advisor managing the DAF to also be their SDA.

Log on to the ‘Donor-Advised Grant Portal’ at www.giftfund.org and select ‘My Donor Advised Fund’, select ‘Update My Succession Plan’.

Normally the accountant/CPA will need a copy of the contribution letter, also known as a substantiation letter, a copy of which is located on the portal within the ‘My Documents’ tab. Donor Advisors, Financial Advisors and Client Associates can easily download and forward a copy to your tax advisor.

Log in to the ‘Donor-Advised Grant Portal’ at www.giftfund.org, select ‘Make a Grant’ and continue through the steps. A Quick Reference Guide (QRG) is available on www.giftfund.org under ‘How It Works / Quick Reference Guide.’

Yes, the minimum grant recommendation amount is $250.00.

The American Gift Fund is a cause-neutral organization and can generally issue grants to organizations that are eligible to receive charitable contributions as a public charity described in Internal Revenue Code sec. 509(a), a private operating foundation described in IRC. 4942(j), or one classified with the same deductibility limitations as defined by the Internal Revenue Code.

To verify if a charity qualifies, click the below link to the IRS Website and search for the organization by Organization Name or Employer Identification Number (EIN).

Tax Exempt Organization Search | Internal Revenue Service (irs.gov)

Click on the Organization Name to open the Publication 78 Data. If the ‘Deductibility Code’ equals PC, POF, SO, SONFI or SOUNK, then the organization is a 501(c)3 qualified organization and should qualify for a grant from an American Gift Fund account.

Yes, in addition to choosing the recipient charity, donor advisors may also recommend a specific purpose to allocate the donated funds. While there are some purposes that are not permissible, common allowable purposes that can be selected during the grant recommendation process include but are not limited to: general (unrestricted), in memory of, in honor of, and specific program or department.

Yes, a grant recommendation is a terrific way to honor or memorialize someone. When submitting your grant recommendation, select ‘In Memory of’ or ‘In Honor of’ from the drop-down menu in the ‘Purpose of Grant’ field. Once you make a selection, you will be able to add a special note with the information of the individual you are honoring or memorializing.

Yes, under certain conditions you can support these types of fundraising efforts. Please note when submitting your grant recommendation, you will need to select ‘Other’ for the grant purpose and type ‘race’ or, ‘run’, or ‘walk’ in the pop-up box and enter the participant’s name and other relevant information such as race name and number (i.e., Bike to the Bay-Participant – Jane Doe #123456).

To help expedite processing, you may further specify within the ‘Special Instructions’ section that "the grant is not connected to a legally enforceable pledge or financial obligation and that you will not be receiving directly or indirectly, a more than incidental benefit."

As this would not be considered a charitable purpose, Donor Advised Funds may not be used to specifically satisfy or pay invoices. IRS Section 4967 imposes an excise tax on the advice that a person described in § 4967(d) provides regarding a distribution from a DAF that results in such person, or any other person described in § 4967(d) receiving, directly or indirectly, a more than incidental benefit.

You may recommend a grant for general support/recognition for the event; however, grants intended to pay any portion of the cost of attendance to a charitable event(s) cannot be made from a Donor Advised Fund (DAF). This includes bifurcated or “split” gifts* where a donor pays for the non-tax-deductible portion of the admission fee out of pocket, and then recommends the tax-deductible portion from their Giving Account.

The full admission fee the charity requires in connection with attendance to the event, including the tax deductible and non-tax-deductible portions, must be paid out of pocket and separate from any DAF grants. If a donor has paid the full admission fee to attend and also intends to recommend a grant beyond the expense of admission and they will not be receiving goods, services or any other directly or indirect more than incidental benefits, donors may recommend a grant in the following manner:

Log in to the ‘Donor-Advised Grant Portal’ at www.giftfund.org, select ‘Make a Grant’. Within the ‘Purpose of Grant’ select ‘Other’. A pop-up box will appear where you can populate the name of the gala or event. Then, within the ‘Comments or instructions for this grant’ section enter the following: “This is an unrestricted donation to the organization where no benefits are being received in return.”

If you are not attending the event, please indicate this by stating in the comments section, “This is an unrestricted donation to the organization where no benefits are being received in return as I [your name(s)] will not be in attendance of this event.”

*For more information regarding bifurcated payments for tickets or event attendance from donor-advised funds, see IRS Notice 2017-73.

Current IRS regulations do not allow grants for lobbying, political contributions, or political campaign activities from Donor Advised Funds.

Current IRS regulations do not allow Donor Advised Funds to satisfy legally binding pledges.

*For more information regarding pledges/commitments from donor-advised funds, see IRS Notice 2017-73.

Current IRS regulations do not allow Donor Advised Funds to satisfy tuition payments of a specific individual(s) chosen by the donor(s) or related third party. This includes, but is not limited to, grants for school tuition and other required fees, such as enrollment fees and deposits, fundraising obligations where the school considers the payment a non-deductible tuition payment.

You may recommend a grant for the purpose of supporting a scholarship program established at and administered by a qualified public charity, so long as, the recipient of the scholarship is not related to the recommending donor and does not satisfy a financial obligation of the recommending donor(s) or related third parties.

*See IRS Notice 2017-73 for additional information.

You may recommend a grant for this purpose as long as the organization confirms that its membership fee is 100% tax-deductible and that membership benefits do not incur more than an incidental benefit.

*See IRS Notice 2017-73 for additional information.

Current IRS regulations do not permit grants to be disbursed to individuals as they would cause more than an incidental benefit and may result in excise tax.

Yes, we identify all the donor advisors in the grant letter to the receiving charity unless anonymity is requested in the grant recommendation. Anonymity may be selected for each grant recommendation and is requested by selecting the field ‘Please check here if you do not wish your identity to be disclosed to the charity’ during the grant recommendation process. By choosing to not disclose your identity to the receiving charity, none of the donor advisors will be identified in the grant letter.

DAF account balances do not need to be distributed within a specified timeline.

The American Gift Fund does not charge a fee per grant recommendation.

You are welcome to submit recommendations at your convenience throughout the year. Individual recommendations must meet the minimum of $250.00 and your account balance must stay above the minimum of $500.00.

Yes, if you plan to give to a charity regularly, when you submit your first grant recommendation to the charity you can select the frequency of the grant. You can also choose how many times you would like the grant disbursed or choose to have it disbursed continuously. You can stop recurring grants recommendations at any time by contacting the AGF team. The charity must maintain eligibility to receive grant donations on all disbursements.

Visit the grant portal at giftfund.org and go to the Grant History tab. Click the ‘Make a Change’ button to change the frequency of the grant (monthly, quarterly, annually), the amount of the grant, or to cancel the grant. Any other changes may be made by contacting the AGF Team at 800-441-7698, option 2 or agfteam@giftfund.org.

Accounts opened in December will be able to submit grant recommendations beginning January 15th of the following year.

Log on to the ‘Donor-Advised Grant Portal’ at www.giftfund.org and select the ‘Grant History’ tab. You will see a status for each grant submitted.

Log on to the ‘Donor-Advised Grant Portal’ at www.giftfund.org and select the ‘My Documents’ tab. You may view and download a copy of your grant letter(s) at any time. The most recent grant letters sent to organizations will be found at the top of this page.

Once the check is mailed, a copy of the grant letter will be available on the ‘My Documents’ tab for you to easily download. You are welcome to download and forward a copy to a third party.

Contributions made to the American Gift Fund may qualify for an immediate tax deduction. However, submitting grant recommendation(s) do not qualify for any additional tax deduction benefits.