By Jewish Community Foundation.
The language of philanthropy can be difficult and hard to understand at times. All of us at the Jewish Community Foundation would like to help you better understand these terms and provide you with the knowledge needed for meaningful giving. We will be sharing a series of these educational tips and helpful articles in the coming months, and to help you better understand the upcoming articles, these are a few terms pertaining to philanthropy that will often come up.
Philanthropy: The desire to promote the welfare of others, expressed especially by the generous donation of money to good causes.
501(c)(3): Section of the Internal Revenue Code that designates an organization as charitable and tax-exempt. Organizations qualifying under this section include religious, educational, charitable, amateur athletic, scientific or literary groups, organizations testing for public safety or organizations involved in prevention of cruelty to children or animals.
Strategic Philanthropy: Intentional direction of charitable dollars with knowledge of expected results, greatest impact and leverage of dollars with specific goals in mind.
Giving Circle: A giving circle is a form of participatory philanthropy where groups of individuals donate their own money or time to a pooled fund, decide together where to give these away to charity or community projects and, in doing so, seek to increase their awareness of and engagement in the issues covered by the charity or community project.
Donor Advised Fund: An individual charitable account that helps make giving easier and more meaningful. The donor(s) makes a donation to establish the fund and receives an immediate tax deduction to the full extent allowed for gifts to a public charity. Then, the donor(s) retains the privilege of recommending grants at any time in the future to the causes that he or she values most.
