PLANNED
GIVING
Making a planned gift is a wonderful way to show your support and appreciation for George Mason University and its mission while accommodating your own personal, financial, estate-planning, and philanthropic goals.
Making a planned gift is a wonderful way to show your support and appreciation for George Mason University and its mission while accommodating your own personal, financial, estate-planning, and philanthropic goals.
By Anne Reynolds
October 10, 2024, is a new holiday: the first annual Donor-Advised Fund (DAF) Day, an event to raise awareness of a giving vehicle that offers great benefits to donors and to the causes they care about.
A DAF is an account that streamlines giving, said Aquanetta Betts, director of planned giving at George Mason University. A donor creates a DAF and funds it through a transfer of cash or noncash assets to a sponsoring organization (a financial institution or community foundation). As with a charitable gift, the donor gives up control of those funds and receives a tax credit in the year they make the transfer. However, the donor retains advisory privileges; the sponsoring organization invests the funds and uses them to make grants to any number of nonprofits at the request of the donor.
“It works like a charitable savings account that offers immediate tax benefits,” said Betts. “You can transfer money or appreciated assets into the fund then recommend grants to your favorite charities, like the George Mason University Foundation, any time. You can use your DAF for immediate gifts to support current programs or name the George Mason University Foundation as the ultimate beneficiary to create a lasting legacy.”
Once a DAF is established, a donor can continue to add funds to the account, receiving a tax credit for each new transfer.
Scott Hine, BS ’85, president of the George Mason University Alumni Association, has found that a DAF is a powerful way to not only support the causes that matter to him but to instill a tradition of giving within his own family.
Hine’s father inspired this legacy. “My father died in 2000 and left his estate, through a trust, to me and my four siblings. Part of that trust was identified as $100,000 to be given out over ten years: $10,000 per year. Each of the five children got to direct the giving twice,” he said.
Hine and his wife Helen, BS ’85, MEd ’99, created their own DAF, the People Helping People Fund, and envision it as a way to allow their family’s future generations to continue their generosity.
“We’ve already spoken to our three adult children, and we want them to manage the fund,” he said. Though the Hines’ granddaughter is now too young to be listed as a successor advisor, it is his hope that she and any other future grandchildren will be included in the fund’s management as they reach the age of 18.
The Hine family has already made grants from the DAF, including a recent grant to the Amy Takayama Perez Book Scholarship, where they designated it for current use. “It could actually offer up two more book scholarships this year,” Hine said. “Even though you’ve given up the money to fund the DAF, you are still able to advise in your giving.”
As Hine reflects on the inspiration of his parents’ philanthropy, he imagines the People Helping People Fund maintaining that tradition for succeeding generations. “It sets a standard that it’s an expectation in our family that you’re going to give,” he said.
Interested in learning more about using a donor-advised fund to benefit George Mason University? Please contact us for more information.
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