Admin, Author at Charity Exchange

Charity Of The Week: Friendship Circle

Admin — Sat, 31 Jul 2021 09:46:13 +0000

Welcome to our new blog section called “Charity Of The Week”. Here we will highlight a number of charities that truly do extraordinary things to better their community, raise awareness, and help those in need. For our first charity of the week, we take a closer look at Friendship Circle: a non-profit organization run by the Chabad Hasidic movement. Friendship Circle was founded in 1994 when Bassie Shemtov and her husband, Rabbi Levi Shemtov, noticed that members of the special need community, though often provided with specialty medical care and therapy, did not have access to meaningful and lasting friendships outside of their family circles. Bassie and her husband wanted to offer social inclusion of those with special needs while changing the mentality of the broader public at large. With that the Friendship Circle was born, a non-profit organization that provides individuals with special needs the friendship and inclusion they deserve.

In it’s earliest days, Friendship Circle was founded with just 8 volunteers who would meet 4 families in their Michigan homes every week. Since then, Friendship Circle has spread throughout the United States and beyond with over 80 locations worldwide, cultivating the friendships of thousands of special children and volunteers. The organization counts on the efforts of teenagers who meet up with special needs children in their free time for fun, activities, and friendship. One of their founding principles is that everyone person, regardless of any limitations imposed upon them, has a soul. Each person is special, unique, and worthy of boundless friendships. For nearly 30 years, Friendship Circle has been providing thousands of young children with the opportunity of friends and inclusion, regardless of background or faith.

Besides from having teens contribute their time with special needs children, Friendship Circle also hosts a number of fundraisers including walkathons, art auctions, camps, dinners, and a wide range of community events. A sector in New Jersey also provide a “LifeTown” center in Livingston where young people with special needs can learn life skills such as education, arts, job training, and more, from teenagers and healthcare professionals. The center provides services to 30,000 young people each year and was modelled after similar facilities in Michigan and Ohio, such as the Friendship House in Michigan which offers support to all individuals and families struggling with isolation, addiction, and other family-related crises through a welcoming Jewish recovery community.

Friendship Circle truly is an excellent, global, non-profit organization. They are always happy to receive your kind contributions so they can continue to thrive and support these kids. Fortunately, Charity Exchange already hosts two of their sectors on our platform including the Friendship Circle of Sharon MA and Friendship Circle Miami Beach North Dade. If you would like to donate to either of these charitable organizations then simply sign up to our platform!

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How To Donate Cryptocurrency To Charities In 2021?

Admin — Sat, 31 Jul 2021 05:21:05 +0000

Not everyone’s assets are in money, stocks, bonds, mutual funds or tangible assets. In 2021, cryptocurrency is becoming increasingly popular with everyone wanting to invest in various crypto. In fact, as of writing this article, around 13% of US citizens have traded or bought cryptocurrency in the past year. When you compare that to the 24% of Americans who bought stock in that same time period, it’s fairly easy to see that this trend has no signs of slowing down anytime soon. With so many people around the world owning this digital asset, many have wondered whether they can use cryptocurrency for charitable donations. In this article, we will explore how to donate cryptocurrency to charities in 2021.

How To Donate To Charities Using Cryptocurrency

So can you donate to charity using cryptocurrency? The answer is yes and no. Yes being that some charities and charitable organisations will allow cryptocurrency as a form of donation and no because many others either won’t or are not set up to receive these types of donations. It can also depends on the type of crypto that you want to donate. Unfortunately, cryptocurrency have been the target of scams in the past couple of years with thousands upon thousands of people losing money thanks to fake coins. Understandably this means that many non-profits prefer to stay clear of assets which they don’t know or understand.

The good news is that there are many charity foundations such as ourselves who do accept cryptocurrency, which will allow you to donate to any registered charity in any part of the world we operate in. In fact, by using our platform, you will be able to make charitable contributions globally using crypto while still receiving a tax deductible receipt. This works by converting your cryptocurrency into fiat currency, which can be added to your Charity Exchange digital wallet and then used for charitable donations. To do this, all you need to do is create an account with Charity Exchange, go to your Wallet and select Add/Deposit Funds. Then select Deposit Crypto and the type of cryptocurrency you want to deposit and, if accepted, we will covert this to fiat currency.

Whether through us or another charity foundation, keep in mind that not all your cryptocurrency can be accepted as an asset. As mentioned, spam cryptos are on the rise and lesser known coins can be unstable and full of risks. That is why here at Charity Exchange we currently only accept a few cryptocurrency including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and USDC, with a preference for USDC as it’s considered the most stable. If you own any of these cryptos then you can easily sign up with us and start donating to charities around the world with your cryptocurrency. Please note that the conversion from cryptocurrency to fiat currency can take up to 24 hours to process. We also do not incur any deposits or mining fees when adding cryptocurrency to your wallet.

For more information on donating to charities using cryptocurrency, then please visit our Donate Crypto FAQ on the matter. If you would like to sign up to Charity Exchange so you can donate to non-profits in Canada, USA, and Israel, then be sure to sign up right here.

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Can a US resident make a tax-deductible donation to a Canadian Charity?

Admin — Thu, 08 Apr 2021 16:42:16 +0000

How can a US resident make a tax-deductible donation to a Canadian charity or a Canadian resident make tax-deductible donation to a US charity? (part 2)

Use the Charity Exchange matching donation program.

Charity Exchange charitable foundation and Donor Advised Fund operates in the USA, Canada and Israel. The Foundation also offers a Global Matching Donation program. The Global Matching Donation program is a great tool for donors to use when seeking to support global charities and charities across the border. The benefit of donating to the foundation and using the Donor Advised Fund and or the donation matching program, is that all donations are tax-deductible. Donors receive a tax-deductible receipt for funds deposited to the foundation.

How does the matching donation program work?

The concept of the global matching donation program is to pair 2 donors from different countries and match their donations. Each donor’s donation supports the other donor’s charity. Below is an example of how it works.

Justin, from Montreal Canada, wants to make $1,300 CAD donation to the American Red Cross. Justin creates a $1,300 pending donation to be matched and sent to the American Red Cross. The donation is pending on the charity exchange’s platform until a match from a US donor is found.

Joe, from Washington DC in the USA, wants to make a $1,000 USD donation to Canada’s Feed the Poor organization. Joe creates a $1,000 pending donation match to Canada’s Feed the Poor. The pending donation is instantly matched with Justin’s pending donation to the American Red Cross.

The result, Justin from Canada’s $1,300 CAD donation is sent to Canada’s Feed the Poor to support Joe from Washington’s selected charity. And Joe from Washington DC’s $1,000 USD donation is sent to the American Red Cross to support Justin from Canada’s selected charity. Essentially the donor makes a recommendation to the Donor Advised fund to donate their funds to the charity the other donor selected.

To use the donation matching program, the donor would need to open a Charity Exchange account and make a deposit / donation to the Donor Advised Fund. Once the funds are donated and cleared in the Donor’s DAF account the donor can recommend a donation to any charity in the country of residence or in the countries Charity Exchange operates in using the donation matching program.

To learn more about the donation matching program visit our FAQ page or watch a short how to video here.

_{Legal Notice: Opinions in this blog post do not reflect the opinion or endorsement of Charity Exchange or its affiliates. The opinions in this post should not be used as legal or financial advice for any financial decision. The advice or opinions shared in this blog post are solely those of the author and are not the opinion of Charity Exchange or its affiliates. For legal or financial advice, always consult with your financial advisor or legal council.}

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What is a Donor Advised Fund?

Admin — Thu, 01 Apr 2021 20:30:28 +0000

What is a Donor Advised Fund?

Many donors and individuals are turning to donor-advised funds (DAFs) to assist with their charitable efforts. There has been an explosion in the use of DAFs, which are funds set up for charitable purposes that can facilitate large donations.

Donor-advised funds are registered charitable foundations that are funded with cash, securities, or other assets. All the contributions are put into an account in the donor’s name, which is held by a DAF sponsor and eventually donated to a charity of the donor’s choosing.

Donors can take a current tax deduction for contributions made to the fund. This is an important feature because it allows a donor to take a tax deduction for all contributions at the time they are made, even though the money may not be dispersed to a charity until much later. This incentivizes donors who need a tax deduction to donate now and then decide where the money will go at a later time when it’s convenient.

DAF’s are very well-equipped to convert appreciated securities or other tangible assets into cash.

The ability to do this can enable many folks to give a larger amount than they would otherwise. For example, a donor with 10,000 shares of Google with a very low-cost basis can hand this over to a DAF and take an immediate deduction for the full value of the donation (subject tax law limitations).

If they wanted to do the same for a local woman’s shelter, they would have to sell the stock and pay the capital gains tax on the sale.

Donor-advised funds can provide donors with an immediate tax deduction for funds that may not actually be distributed to a charity until months or years later.

Charity Exchange is a charitable foundation that operates as donor advised fund. To learn more visit our DAF FAQ page.

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Global Donation Matching 101

Admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 17:30:04 +0000

How does global donation matching work?

In short, a donor’s gift is matched with another donor’s gift either a private donor, a business, corporation or a charity to double the donation amount. However, global donation gift matching can take on different forms depending on who is offering the program.

Business and corporations
When a business or corporation offers a donation matching program the business is seeking to encourage philanthropy and increase charitable spirit amongst their staff and employees. It also helps charities maximize the charitable income in a creative way. https://doublethedonation.com/ explains how the global donation matching program works with corporations.

Private Donors
Charities create matching donation campaign in partnership with private donors. The goal of the charity is to effectively double the impact of an individual gift. It allows both the donor and others to support the charity. The donor commits to a specific donation amount that is matched by other community donors. The benefits to the charity and donor is an increase in donation revenue and the expansion of their donor base. https://www.charidy.com/ is an online platform that helps charities and donors create matching campaigns.

Charitable foundations and non-for-profit
Charitable foundation looking to help charities offer charitable grants in order to match donations dollar-for-dollar for the duration of a fundraising campaign.

Donor Advised Funds
Charity Exchange offers a unique donation matching program for global donors. Many donors, when donating to a global charity, cannot benefit from a tax deduction if the charity is not located in their home country. Charity Exchange helps donors create a global charitable matching gift that can offer a local tax deduction for their donation. The program matches 2 donors in different countries. Each donor makes a charitable donation to a charity in their home country. The charity in their home country is chosen by the donor in the other country. To learn more about charity Exchanges matching donation program click here.

Read about other donation matching programs in this article by https://recharity.ca/matching-gifts-guide/

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The Latest Bitcoin Donation

Admin — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 20:01:09 +0000

Wasabi Wallet a Bitcoin privacy wallet and Canadian exchange Bull Bitcoin are donating 0.86 BTC (-0.83%) (about USD $41,370) to the development of Bitcoin Knots, a bitcoin full node and wallet software developed by Luke Dashjr.

Wasabi Wallet said the donation will be split equally between the two companies and is needed given the lack of financial support and incentive for developing and pursuing open-source tech.

The goal is to support the development of Bitcoin Knots and does not have any specific stipulations, according to J. Daniel Beluska of ZkSNACKS, the private company that supports the development of the open-source Wasabi Wallet.

This donation is part of the rising trend of cryptocurrency donations.

The announcement was made Monday March 1^st 2021 in a wasabi blog post.

To learn how to donate bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies to any charity in Canada, USA and Israel, visit Charity Exchange.

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US-Canada Income Tax Treaty for Charity

Admin — Thu, 25 Feb 2021 18:16:52 +0000

In 1980 the U.S. and Canada have entered into a mutual agreement. The agreement was named The US-Canada Income Tax convention.

Under the terms of the United States-Canada Income Tax Treaty agreement, recognized religious, scientific, literary, educational, or charitable organizations that are organized under the laws of either the U.S. or Canada will automatically receive recognition of exemption without application in the other country.

U.S. organizations must be recognized as exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Code in order to qualify for this treatment. Similarly, Revenue Canada must recognize Canadian organizations as Canadian registered charities. Recognized charitable organizations resident in one country will be eligible to receive deductible charitable contributions from residents of the other country.

The treaty provides limited tax benefit to individuals residing in one country with income in the other country.

To read the full treaty click on the link to the Canadian Government website and here for the US Government website

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Considering Cryptocurrency Donation

Admin — Fri, 19 Feb 2021 18:29:14 +0000

Why consider donating cryptocurrency?

Cryptocurrency donations are an emerging trend for charitable giving. More and more donors are looking to donate crypto to their favourite charities. In 2019 Anne Connelly published a report on the landscape of cryptocurrency donation across Canada. The report suggest that in 2019 only 4% of Canadian charities accepted donation in cryptocurrency. However, the survey showed that 29% of donors have donated cryptocurrency to charity. So, the crypto donation trend is on the rise.

Can one donate Crypto to charities that do not accept Crypto?

The short answer is yes. Charity Exchange can help increase the accessibility for donors and charities to donate and accept cryptocurrency donations.

Charity Exchange accepts Cryptocurrency donations from donors. Donors can deposit their crypto donations into their Donor Advised Fund account and receive a tax-deductible receipt for the fair market value of their cryptocurrency. Donors can then (recommend and) gift the donation to any registered charity in the countries Charity Exchange operates in.

Charites can also open a Charity Exchange account and direct donors to their charity listing page and accept cryptocurrency donations through the Charity Exchange platform.

The process of how Charity Exchange accepts cryptocurrency.

Charity Exchange users can deposit cryptocurrency into their Donor Advised Fund accounts. The fund currently accepts three types of cryptocurrency, BITCOIN, ETHEREUM and USDC.

Once the crypto has been deposited to the user’s account, charity exchange converts the currency to USDC and redeems the USDC crypto for the local fiat currency. In the US we exchange it for USD, in Canada for CAD and in Israel for Israeli Shekels. This process helps avoid potential fluctuations in the market and stabilize the value of the cryptocurrency. It ensure that the charity receive the maximum financial value intended by the donor at the time of the gift. It also allows the donor to put the funds to use immediately.

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Donating Bitcoin and other Crypto Currency

Admin — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 19:15:19 +0000

The top 3 benefits for donating cryptocurrency to charity.

One, the tax benefit. Donating cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin, Ethereum or Litecoin and other cryptocurrency to registered charities and non-profit organizations is tax deductible. In addition, in some instances there may be no capital gains tax on cryptocurrency and can help donors reduce their tax obligations.

Two, it is simple and easy. Donating cryptocurrency is simpler than donating with a credit card or other methods of payment. Credit cards for instance, require valid personal billing information and can be compromised while cryptocurrency do not have personal or billing information attached to the payment.

Three, join the growing trend and support a cause you care about. In the last few years, cryptocurrency donations have been on the rise. Hundreds of millions of dollars of crypto have been donated to many charities in North America. According to some estimates, six hundred million dollars worth of crypto have been donated to US charities alone.

We at Charity Exchange can help you donate Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other Cryptocurrency to any charity in Canada, USA and Israel. Charity Exchange connect donors with charities across the globe. Our Donor Advised Fund can help any donor donate crypto to any registered charity (in the countries we operate in). When you open a Donor Advised Fund account, you can fund the account with cryptocurrency and gift the converted fiat currency to any registered charity.

To learn more how Charity Exchange can help with crypto donations visit the Donate Crypto FAQ page.

*For tax or legal advice regarding cryptocurrency donations (or any other donations) and their tax status please consult with your attorney, accountant, or financial advisor.

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Donating to American or Canadian Charities

Admin — Mon, 15 Feb 2021 15:38:50 +0000

Americans looking to donate to Canadian charities or Canadians looking to donate to American charities (Part 2)

In part one we discussed the advantages and the disadvantages of donating directly to charities in other countries. In part two we will discuss the option of donating to international charities through a local charity in your home country.

There are some charities and foundation that are setup to support international charitable activities abroad. Some of these charities and or foundations include World Vision, Against Malaria Foundation, Doctors Without Borders and many others.

Supporting international causes through these charities can offer the full tax advantage. In addition, many of these charities are running these charitable activities abroad or are intimately involve in those international charitable programs. However, most of these charities are only setup to support specific international charities or causes that they operate or choose to fund. This limits the donor’s ability to support a specific charity that may not have relations with these local charities and or foundations.

Charity Exchange’s donation matching program can help donors with its unique donation program for cross border charity. Visit the Charity Exchange page to see how matching donations work.

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