Many investors have a financial advisor (FA) to improve their investment management, tax optimization, and more. Learn how to use Cocatalyst if you have a financial advisor. If you are a financial advisor, this post will have information on using our service to streamline your backoffice.
Read MoreWe are pleased to announce Stock Pledge Donations on the Cocatalyst platform in beta. Donors can now transfer ownership of their appreciated stock to Cocatalyst for an immediate tax write off, while engaging with their nonprofit to decide when to sell the stock and make the transfer of funds to the organization. The donor earmarks the stock for a specific charity at time of donation.
Read MoreIn these uncertain times, charitable organizations need donations more than ever. We’ve put together a list of virtual fundraising ideas that can help charities during the pandemic and beyond. Check out these ways to connect with your donor base, reach new audiences, and increase your donations from your existing donors just by asking them to change the way they donate.
Read MoreDonating stock is the most tax-efficient way of donating to a charitable organization, and these donations can make a huge difference. We are spotlighting the Boys and Girls Club of America, a national non-profit dedicated to helping youth and teens reach their full potential. Whether you want to donate to the national organization or find a local Boys and Girls Club that is doing positive work in your area, donating stock is the best way to become part of their mission. You can use Cocatalyst to make your stock donation in just minutes.
Read MoreHolding stock and donating it to charity is more tax efficient and more flexible than using a donor-advised funds. Donor-advised funds are limited to what the sponsor allows, and cannot be combined with other strategies such as tax loss harvesting. These funds were made popular by large brokerage firms, and they can help you donate your shares across a longer period of time. However, for most investors, the control available in purchasing and then donating stock holdings makes for better investments and larger charitable deductions than using a donor-advised fund.
Read MoreRead through some of the tips and tricks we’ve seen charities use to receive more in donations and stock gifts. We’ll show you examples of how to post on social media, email campaigns, year-end reminders, and webinars to educate your donors on tax-effective donations.
Read MoreCombining stock donations with tax loss harvesting is an excellent way to reduce or even eliminate your capital gains tax. For long-term investors with appreciating portfolios, this is a high priority. Optimize your charitable donations to keep a balanced portfolio.
Read MoreIf you are bullish on the market, you may want to maintain the allocation in your portfolio. This doesn’t have to stop you from donating some of your appreciated shares to offset your capital gains. In this article, we’ll discuss making a stock donation and making an open market purchase. On the same day you donate your shares, you can use the cash you would otherwise have donated to buy the same stock in your brokerage account.
Read MoreCocatalyst is integrated with the top US brokers, asset custodians, and wealth management firms. When you complete our donation form, we push the requests directly to the broker’s back office through a Cocatalyst proprietary integration.
The full list of compatible brokers is…
Read MoreCocatalyst makes your stock donation process wonderfully simple. For a full review of the benefits of donating stock, read our article “How to Donate Stock to Charities.” This guide will walk you step by step through the donation system, and help you prepare your materials to make your donation as simple as possible. If at any point you have difficulty completing the form, contact us at general@cocatalyst.org, or through the chat function on our home page.
Read MoreForm 8283 is the Noncash Charitable Contributions form for the 1040 tax return. If you’re using a tax service, like Turbotax or CreditKarma, they’ll ask you the appropriate information to populate this form. Either way, you’ll need to have the information at the ready.
When you’re tracking deductions for this form, make sure you have:
The name and the address of the organization you donated to.
Description of the donated property (the number of shares and the name of the company).
Date of contribution.
If you could make the impact of your donation even greater – why wouldn’t you? The reality is that donating stock to your church is almost always better than donating cash. Some people might feel overwhelmed at the prospect of donating stock – but don’t worry. This article will take you through the benefits of donating stock, tax considerations to watch out for, and how Cocatalyst can streamline the entire process for you.
Read MoreWhile you might be used to getting cash and physical item donations, have you considered why your donors might want to donate stocks instead? There are a few different benefits that might resonate with your donors and result in more donations or donations of a larger size.
Donors who donate stocks instead of cash from stocks can get the entire market value deduction for the price of the shares. That isn't possible when selling stocks and then donating the money since a large portion of it is going into taxes. Since nobody wants to lose money, donating the stocks is a better option for someone who was already going to give to your nonprofit organization.
You can reduce tax on your future capital gain when you donate an appreciating stock: You might have a stock portfolio that you love and might prefer to hold on to for as long as possible. It’s even better when such stocks appreciate because you get significant gains when you eventually sell it off. You can donate some of your appreciated shares and then acquire new ones at an updated price, to help improve your cost base. This will reduce your future capitadonation tax exposure if the stock continues to grow in value.
Read MoreOur team stands behind protesters everywhere that are fighting for fair treatment of black individuals across the United States. We are optimistic and hopeful that our country can heal and be a better free world than the millennia of our past, even if progress is not a straight line.
We’re announcing today that if you give through Cocatalyst to any of the 115 charities that are endorsed by the editors at the New Yorker, the Cocatalyst team will waive our fees in the form of a matching donation. The gift from the Cocatalyst team will be for the processing fees we normally charge on donations to sustain our operations.
Read MoreJack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter and Square, beat everyone this season by giving over $1 billion to charities, or about 22% of his wealth. That’s a large sum that will help fund COVID-19 relief and other causes. Did you know that $380 million of his donation will come from the government? That’s almost 40% subsidized by the IRS. Using tax maneuvering from his financial advisors, his charitable gift was able to top $1 billion, even though his out of pocket expenses will be much less. This is all because he’s using stock donations.
Read MoreHow you give, is just as important as where you give. In fact, 92.8% of donations could have been better tax optimized if the donors had given from their brokerage accounts. The majority of Americans do have stock market holdings, yet only $21 billion out of the $292 billion donated by individuals in 2018 was with stock. That’s tens of billions of taxed dollars, that could be sitting back in the hands of good-intentioned philanthropists. Let’s walk through the math and make sure that you use stock giving in your future donations.
Read MoreStock donations is the process of giving appreciated company stock, ETF, or other security to a charity. This process is extremely popular amongst the financially savvy and wealth advisors. We pulled every charity 990 filing the last 2 completed tax years and found in 2018, there were $21.07 billion dollars of stock donations completed in the United States. This is a record number, jumping 62% from the previous year. Stock giving is far more popular than the close counterpart, cryptocurrency giving, that has actually gone down year over year.
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