We just donated almost $7,000 to charity! What about you?

[Tass]

Due to some income uncertainty this year, we accumulated a lot of cash earmarked for charitable donations. The income has stabilized recently, so we got around to donating the cash!

$3.3k went to GiveWell's All Grants Program
$2k went to Partners In Health's Maternal Center of Excellence in Sierra Leone
$800ish went to cancer charities (PanCAN and LLS) in memory of a relative
...and a few hundred dollars here and there went to the International Dyslexia Association (also in memory) and some charities where we have recurring donations, including the Against Malaria Foundation and the Fistula Foundation.

Is bragging about your charitable donations sorta weird? Yes, but it does genuinely influence others to donate or donate more, plus this is an anonymous forum. So pile on!

[GilesMM]

I normally wait until December to figure out how much to give to charity and how much to move to the DAF since it depends on market behavior and income during the year.  I can usually hear my tax lady in my head saying in April "it sure is a good thing you made that DAF transfer last year, it's saving your bacon on fed taxes".


Not sure the amount is relevant, but as a fraction of 2023 estimated income from all sources, I moved about 30% to the DAF and gifted about 15%.  We strongly favor local charities that we know well and personally.  Some also use the donations for work internationally in poor areas.

[Dicey]

Close. I moved $6k from an inherited IRA into my DAF this week.

When my parents passed away, I inherited an IRA worth ~$33k. I moved some to a DAF and invested both parts in Fidelity's FZROX. It's done very well. In the six years since inception, I've given gifts totalling about $35k* from it and I still have $40k in the inherited IRA. It's like magic!

I can't wait until RMD's kick in and I have to can order even bigger checks.

*Working from memory here. I can look up exact amounts later if it matters.

[Tass]

Sharing amounts doesn't matter to me unless it matters to y'all. All I want is to share the goodwill and inspire more giving. :)

[Dicey]

Sharing amounts doesn't matter to me unless it matters to y'all. All I want is to share the goodwill and inspire more giving. :)

Hmmm, I read your subject line and went from there...

Having a DAF has definitely been more fun than expected.

[RetiredAt63]

What is a DAF?

When I was young and cash strapped most of my giving was by volunteering.   Now I still volunteer but can also do more cash giving.  I take advantage of Giving Tuesday for the matches.

[Tass]

Sharing amounts doesn't matter to me unless it matters to y'all. All I want is to share the goodwill and inspire more giving. :)

Hmmm, I read your subject line and went from there...

I think amounts can inspire people, but I'm not asking for receipts here or anything.

[iris lily]

$20,000 was the amount I gave out this year. But I am old, and am no longer in the accumulation phase.

This is the year I defined my giving plan for the next few years, defined from which funds the money will come. I discussed that on another thread.

[iris lily]

Dave Ramsey had his annual giving show recently.

One man told about how he and his family went out to dinner with a group of friends, and they all struck up a long conversation with their waitress. They learned she had recently bought tickets to Taylor Swift’s show and that put her behind in paying off her credit card. She shared that her balance was $7,6xx.xx.

He left her that much for a tip. He didn’t tell the other people in his party, didn’t even tell his wife, but he was grinning from ear to ear as he got into his car and his wife said to him “you paid off her credit card bill didn’t you“and she was happy about it.

Very cool.

[Fomerly known as something]

A DAF is a donor advised fund.  So I have a DAF with Fidelity.  I donated in higher earning years to subsidize in the future when I’m FIRE.  What’s been fun is that my money is still invested, so even with my “normal” giving my fund is basically at the same amount when I donated an 18k legacy high fee mutual fund from when I was just started out.

[GilesMM]

Dave Ramsey had his annual giving show recently.

One man told about how he and his family went out to dinner with a group of friends, and they all struck up a long conversation with their waitress. They learned she had recently bought tickets to Taylor Swift’s show and that put her behind in paying off her credit card. She shared that her balance was $7,6xx.xx.

He left her that much for a tip. He didn’t tell the other people in his party, didn’t even tell his wife, but he was grinning from ear to ear as he got into his car and his wife said to him “you paid off her credit card bill didn’t you“and she was happy about it.

Very cool.

Giving thousands of dollars to Taylor Swift is charitable I guess.

[iris lily]

Dave Ramsey had his annual giving show recently.

One man told about how he and his family went out to dinner with a group of friends, and they all struck up a long conversation with their waitress. They learned she had recently bought tickets to Taylor Swift’s show and that put her behind in paying off her credit card. She shared that her balance was $7,6xx.xx.

He left her that much for a tip. He didn’t tell the other people in his party, didn’t even tell his wife, but he was grinning from ear to ear as he got into his car and his wife said to him “you paid off her credit card bill didn’t you“and she was happy about it.

Very cool.

Giving thousands of dollars to Taylor Swift is charitable I guess.

I should clarify that the Taylor Swift tickets were several hundred dollars not $7,6xx.xx

 That was probably an unnecessary detail except that that’s what caused them to start talking about the waitresses debt, her concert experience.

[ender]

We give a lot to a large variety of sources.

Looks like this year will be somewhere between 14-15% of gross in charitable donations, maybe more depending on some year end giving again.