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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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.

_{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 the best way for Americans looking to donate to Canadian charities or Canadians looking to donate to American charities? There are several ways to go about cross border donations. Over the coming weeks we will explore some of the options and the possible advantages and or disadvantages. In this post we will explore the most common way to donate to a charity across the border.

The most common way to donate to a charity in another country is by sending the donation directly to the designated charity on the other side of the border. For example, an American resident sends a donation to a Vancouver homeless shelter. The donor can send it by cheque, wire transfer, or credit card if the charity accepts credit cards. The advantage of this donation method is the charity receives the donation directly into their account from the donor without any intermediaries.

However, there are some disadvantages. First, the donor would need to convert the US dollar funds into CAD dollars. If the donor does not have a special FX rate with their bank or credit card the donor may pay 3-4% above the market currency exchange rate. Second, if the donors is sending a wire, there may be a significant wire fee and if the donor is paying with a credit card the charity pays up to 4% credit card processing fee. Third, although the donor may receive a Canadian tax receipt, the US donor can not use the tax receipt for a US tax deduction. (Unless the donor also files a Canadian tax return and claim the tax deduction on their Canadian earnings, in which the IRS may allow for a limited deduction in some circumstances.) As the IRS would only accept a tax receipt from US charity, not a foreign or international charity. The same apply to Canadians donating to a US charity.

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

Click here to read part 2 Donating to American Charities

© Charity.Exchange 02/11/2021

_{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.}

The post Cross Border and International Donations appeared first on Charity Exchange.