Your Guide to Giving: The Donor Advised Fund

The most popular fund that is established at the Victoria Foundation is a donor advised fund which provides the donor with flexible, personal involvement in their philanthropy and social investment in the community.

Your gift establishes the fund with the capital of the donation invested in permanence. You retain the right to advise us on how the annual distribution from the fund is spent. These annual grants are made to registered Canadian charities or other qualified donees (as defined in the Income Tax Act) of your choice.

You might decide to establish this type of fund at the Victoria Foundation for a variety of reasons.

• To make one gift and, through the annual grants, support more than one cause anywhere in Canada
• To start a fund at a lower entry point compared to establishing a private foundation
• To take advantage of the charitable tax receipt at the end of the calendar year and recommend grants in the following year
• To eliminate capital gains tax when donating publicly listed securities
• To create a lasting legacy of giving in your name or that of your family and involve the next generation in philanthropy
• To have access to information about wide-ranging issues being addressed by charities in our community
• To have the freedom to support the causes that are closest to you now and the flexibility to support others year after year
• To focus on your granting choices, while we manage the details
• To enjoy low, all-inclusive fund-management fees

From an estate planning perspective, you may establish a donor advised fund during your lifetime, then add to the fund at death through a charitable gift such as a gift in a Will, a gift of life insurance, and direct designations of RRSP or RRIF plans or tax-free savings accounts. The fund agreement would provide for the annual grant to benefit specifically named charities or caused-based areas (for example, arts & culture, homelessness, or food security).

The Will or other estate gift provides for a charitable gift to the Victoria Foundation to be added to the fund and used for the purposes described in the agreement in place at the time of death. You have the flexibility of changing the grant recipients during your lifetime, rather than by going to the trouble of changing the terms of the Will or other estate documents. You have your plans in place and the estate gift is complete.

To learn more about establishing a donor advised fund at the Victoria Foundation, please contact donorservices@victoriafoundation.bc.ca