It's not too late to donate in 2019 _ and you can give away all sorts of eclectic assets, including patents, insurance policies, cryptocurrency, boats and buildings.
We checked with Vanguard Charitable Foundation to find out what sorts of "illiquid," or hard-to-sell assets they've accepted on behalf of donors.
For the first time ever, the Vanguard foundation in 2018 disbursed $1 billion worth of grants made by donors and is on track to surpass that in 2019, according to president Jane Greenfield.
"We've received lots of unique and interesting assets over the years, although the financial assets tend to be the most common," she said in an interview.
Vanguard Charitable is a nonprofit that administers donor-advised funds _ a tax-effective vehicle to grant assets to charity. Founded by Vanguard in 1997 as an independent 501(c)(3) organization, Vanguard Charitable has granted nearly $10 billion to charity.
One donor gave away a patent for a wax-covering used on apples and cherries to keep them fresh and prevent bruising.
"It's a very specific assets, but a nice example. A typical process starts with the donor conversation and finding a purchaser for the asset. We try to minimize transaction costs and keep our holding period as short as possible," said chief financial officer Mark Froehlich. "If we accept something on the front end, we know there's an ability to sell. We don't want to accept an asset that can't be sold, because we're making grants. The money has to be liquid."
Greenfield said Vanguard Charitable accepts mostly securities such as stocks, bonds, partnership holdings in hedge funds and private equity funds.
"We tend to see insurance policies quite a bit. Donors have insurance they no longer need. They donate it to us, and we can exchange it for cash surrender value. That's popular," she said.
Vanguard Charitable accepts the assets into a donor-advised fund. Donors don't pay capital gains taxes on the gift, and that translates into a larger dollar-value donation.
"Without paying taxes, the donation amplifies the gift. More money goes out the door to nonprofits," said Froehlich.
It's easy to open a donor-advised fund, whether through Vanguard, Fidelity, the National Philanthropic Trust in Jenkintown, or a smaller outfit such as Triskeles Foundation.
Vanguard's minimum to open a donor-advised fund is $25,000, while other outfits allow you to do that for as little as $3,000. Your Vanguard donor-advised fund must make at least $500 in grants every year.
Vanguard's administrative fees start at 0.60% annually for funds of up to $500,000 in assets, plus an investment fee starting at 0.10% annually.
At, National Philanthropic Trust, grants from donor advised funds accounts to qualified charities totaled $23.42 billion in 2018, an 18.9% increase compared to $19.70 billion in 2017.
Contributions to these funds totaled $37.12 billion in 2018, up about 20% from the previous year.
There are other ways to donate besides donor-advised funds.
While charitable giving overall is on the decline, one place it's on the rise is through the workplace _ possibly due to the push for more "corporate purpose," or because technology enables real time giving.
According to data from Benevity, the top ten charities supported by corporations and their employees are:
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Planned Parenthood
National State Cancer Societies
Red Cross
Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
Doctors Without Borders
ACLU
National State Heart and Stroke Foundations
PTA California Congress of Parents and Teachers
Boys and Girls Club Umbrella.
The biggest news stories of the year _ immigration, women's rights, climate change, gun safety and income inequality _ prompted the largest spikes in giving.
