The Napa Unity League holds their monthly mixer on the first monday evening of each month. That's tonight.
An addition to tonight's mixer's agenda from Deb Stallings:
I hope you are making plans to attend the NVUL Monthly Mixer on Monday, March 1 beginning at 6 PM. We’ll enjoy a special St. Patty’s Day-themed event, and the chance to enjoy the company of friends old and new.
At the meeting, we’ll discuss (briefly, we promise!) an opportunity to establish a Donor Advised Fund in the name of Napa Valley Unity League. The Horizons Foundation is an LGBT Foundation that serves the nine Bay Area county region and is celebrating its 30th Anniversary this year. In 2009, I became the Director of Development and Gift Planning at Horizons. Since then, I have seen how other service organizations like San Francisco FrontRunners and the MAXfund use the program. I think it might just be a good fit for NVUL too.
In its simplest terms, a Donor-Advised Fund (DAF) is like a charitable checking account. A person or in our case, a group, creates a named fund such as “Napa Valley Unity League LGBT Charitable Fund”. It can then make and/or accept tax-deductible contributions into the account. It can then make grants to any other non-profit it chooses from the funds in the DAF account.
Here are three important characteristic of a DAF:
1) Any contribution into the fund is tax-deductible using Horizons Foundations' 501(c)3 status.
2) We can grant to most any non-profit organization, and in some cases, organizations that are not non-profits if we can demonstrate that the funds are for a public benefit. Please note that:3) Funds deposited into the account can only be withdrawn through the granting process, so once the funds are there, they can only be used for a charitable purpose.
- The grant amount must be a minimum of $250
- Grants cannot be made in exchange for any goods or service, like tickets to an event or for any political purpose
- In accepting a grant from our DAF, the benefiting organization confirms that they do not discriminate against LGBT people.
Why might we decide to do this?
1) Donations to the fund are tax-deductible: This will gives NVUL the flexibility to help lots of organizations, without having to become a 501(c)3 ourselves. Once the fund is established we can make further contributions to it in support of other causes we want to support.
2) Our DAF Fund wouldn’t change the way we run our day-to-day operations, or how we do events. We’d simply distribute the proceeds of events through our DAF. We’ll continue to separately account for all of our operating funds.
3) We put the “lavender stamp” on money we raise to give to other organizations. It’s labeled and recognized as money raised by the LGBT community. This way when COPE, VOICES, American Cancer Society or Queen of the Valley prints their annual reports, they will recognize the Napa Valley Unity League LGBT Charitable Fund as the donor. Our LGBT community will be publicly acknowledged for our efforts that have too long gone unidentified.
More info:
I am happy to discuss this further with you individually, and of course we’ll take a few minutes for group Q&A on Monday as well. There’s lots more info on the Horizons Foundation website www.horizonsfoundation.org.
You can read all about the Donor Advised Fund program, download the DAF Guide and more at http://www.horizonsfoundation.org/page/donors/daf#benefits
It’s an important part of Horizons’ mission to help LGBT people meet their philanthropic goals, so if I can provide any information at all, please don’t hesitate to be in touch. My contact info is dstallings@horizonsfoundation.org , or by phone 415.398.2333x103.
Looking forward to seeing you all at the mixer on Monday!
Yours in Unity,
Deb Stallings
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