← Jill on Money with Jill Schlesinger
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- [00:00]
A
Hey gang. Now you know that we have not yet gotten into the merch business full time, but I was thinking about how easy it could be after I created these beautiful pullovers at vistaprint. I chose a pullover. But boy, the options are incredible. And what stands out is how vistaprint makes it simple for small businesses like ours to look professional without the headache. Their design tools are so easy to use, and if you need extra help, real people are ready to guide you. Whether you're creating merch, signage or thoughtful gifts for your audience, vistaprint helps you do it all quickly, easily, and within your budget. It definitely inspired me to think bigger about the podcast. So now we're looking at other items that we could customize. Maybe something like a water bottle. It's so easy. Vistaprint print your possible right now, new customers get 20% off with code NEW20@vistaprint.com hit hey gang. I've recently been thinking about how to make my home feel more functional, especially my work area. So I have turned to Wayfair and let me tell you, it was a game changer. I found lighting for my desk that really has helped me when I wake up early. And you know how early I wake up, gang. And shopping was a breeze. I filtered by exactly what I wanted style, checked out the reviews. I even used the Wayfair Verified to make sure everything was top quality. What sets Wayfair apart is how fast and simple everything comes together, from furniture to home accents. Everything feels thoughtfully curated and actually fits my style. And now Wayday is the sale to shop the best deals in home. We're talking up to 80% off with fast and free shipping on everything you need. Head to Wayfair.com April 25th through the 27th to shop Wayday. That's W A Y F A I R.com Wayfair Every style, every Home. Welcome to the Jill on Money show. It's Friday, April 3rd and we are here trying to help you make better. Sometimes it's just less bad financial decisions. If you've got a question or a big decision that is pending in your life, get in touch with us. Go to jillonmoney.com, click the contact Us button, write us a note and if you'd like to join us on the air live, just check the box. Mark will do everything else while you're on the website. Don't forget to subscribe to our free weekly newsletter comes out today Fridays and that exact newsletter will entitle you to our blog as well. So kind of cool, right? Today we've got a special guest who's going to help educate us on donor advised funds. Now, many of you know, we've talked about this for a while that we really think philanthropy is so much woven into the day to day decisions that you're making. And so we wanted to bring you a guest who could kind of drill through that. So today we're joined by Julie Sunwoo. She is the President of Daft Giving 360. Julie Sunwoo, welcome to our program. And Julie, you are president of Daft Giving360. It's one of the largest providers of donor advised funds, or DAFs as we like to call it in the biz. But you know, I always like to introduce people by making sure they give us a little bit of their backstory. Before you were president of Daft Giving360, you were actually a human being in your own. So tell us about yourself.
- [03:29]
B
Well, thank you so much for the invite, Jill. It is great to be here. I joined Daft giving 360 about a year ago. April is my anniversary. But prior to that, I've been working in financial services in many parts of Schwab, actually for three decades, worked with both registered investment advisors in the advisor services division and individual investors in the retail division. And now I get to apply all that learning here in Donor Advice Fundland to help people with their philanthropic goals. I'm very excited.
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A
You know, I think it's interesting that, you know, you're in financial services, you're in philanthropy, but you started as an art history major. And I think that's kind of a cool thing to be able to talk about if just allow me to dabble in here for a minute. Only because so many young graduates and even parents of these young graduates are like steering kids in like, oh, you have to be a STEM person, you have to do this, you have to do that. So talk a little bit about how art history shaped you.
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B
I believe that it's really important for people to follow their passion. And that's what I did when I chose art history as my major in college. I think the most important thing that people need to learn is how to think critically, right, and communicate and understand things. And one of the beautiful things about art history in my studies was that you always look for the deeper meaning behind a piece of art because artists are influenced by the society around them and trying to share their own message. And so I loved it. I encourage young people. I know there's so many pressures to find the careers of their choice, but passion in what you learn is an incredibly important thing too.
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A
And so now you have this critical thinking approach where you are at daft giving360. And it is one of the largest donor advised funds providers. Now we talk about donor advised funds all the time here, but if someone just is tuning in right this minute, what is a donor advised fund?
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B
Well, donor advised funds are a simple tax smart way to give to charity. And often the best way for me to describe what donor advised funds are is to explain how they work. And so with donor advised funds, what you do is you contribute to the fund and it can be any sort of asset typically. As long as we can help you sell can be regular old stocks, mutual funds, ETFs, it can be things like collectibles that are harder to sell. We help with that. And when you make the contribution, you receive the market value of that contribution as a tax deduction.
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A
So whatever you're putting into that donor advised fund in that moment for that tax year, that is where you're going to get your tax deduction, right?
- [06:10]
B
That is correct. At the moment of contribution, that value is what you receive as a deduction.
- [06:15]
A
Also, when you look at donor advised funds, I think people are like, oh, that's for rich people. You guys are trying to present this as a really smart way to give for anyone, right?
- [06:29]
B
Yes. Our goal is to make giving easy. And so we want to make our donor advised fund as accessible as possible. And one of the ways we do that, for example, is that we have no account minimum. So you could literally put $100 in and have that be your contribution for the year if that's what you choose.
- [06:47]
A
Talk about how, okay, let's just like pretend for a minute that we were, you know, lucky smart. We bought a little piece of Nvidia. We bought a little piece of one of these magnificent seven stocks and they had a killer 2024, 2025. You're sitting on all these gains. Explain how sitting on those gains can actually be turned into an opportunity when it comes to a donor advised fund.
- [07:16]
B
Yes, and in fact a lot of people use this strategy. Last year, some of our most significant non cash contributions were from MAG7 stocks, highly appreciated equity ETFs, index funds, et cetera. What you can do by contributing to a daf, those assets receiving the tax deduction is a means that you can deploy more of those assets directly to charity. So sometimes if you've held a security for more than one year, you're subject to capital gains tax. And when you contribute to a donor Advised fund. Because you are not subject to that capital gains tax, you can receive as much as 20% more that can be directed to charity. And that's really appealing to people who want to grant out money to their favorite organizations for their philanthropic goals.
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A
Now, we know that last summer there was the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill act or what's New that is important that people need to know about.
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B
Well, for people that itemize, one of the things that's new is that there are changes on both ends of the spectrum. And so if I start on the bottom end, itemizers have to clear a half percent adjusted gross income threshold before they can deduct the amount of their charitable contribution. And that's new.
- [08:32]
A
Can you talk a little bit about bunching? That's something that we often will talk about at the end of the year when we're doing our year end episodes. So can you talk a little bit about what bunching is all?
- [08:43]
B
Yes. So bunching essentially is instead of thinking about annual contributions, for example, that you bunch several years worth of contributions into one year. And that helps you give a larger gift to the donor Advice fund. It also helps you clear any thresholds like the floor we just spoke about if you're having trouble doing that. And I think it's an excellent strategy. It helps you meet your long term charitable goals, also receive all the benefits that you want. In terms of tax benefits. It's a great strategy.
- [09:14]
A
All right, so we're going to talk a little bit about the folks who make a lot of money, meaning someone who Is in the 37% or whose income breaches that 37%. That seems like a lot. Gang, I know that the income you earn over $640,000 if you're single is taxed at 37%. If you're married, filing jointly, any income over $768,700 is taxed at a 37% bracket, which is actually the top bracket. So let's talk a little bit about those folks who are in that 37% tax bracket and some of the changes. With the One Big Beautiful Bill act,
- [09:58]
B
the value of that charitable deduction gets capped at 35%. And so anything above that will no longer be deductible. So that is an impact for the higher, higher income generators and something for people to think about for sure.
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A
Now there's also something interesting. People who claim the standard deduction who really were shut out of getting any tax benefit for giving. What has changed for the standard claimers, the non itemizers, we're excited about this move.
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B
I hope that it really increases the appeal of charitable giving to people who do not itemize, which is the vast majority of people. Over 90% of tax filers do not itemize. And so the latest tax changes allow people to deduct up to $1,000 if you're single filer, individual filer, and up to $2,000 if you're married filing jointly. And you get that tax deduction if you donate to operating charities, even if you do not itemize. So I really hope that encourages so much more g a broader group of people.
- [11:02]
A
So what happened as a result of donors contemplating the changes that are now already in place?
- [11:09]
B
We definitely saw people try to get ahead of the changes and take advantage of things that were in place last year. So last year, for example, we had our donors grant $9.9 billion to charities. It was our biggest year ever, was a 28% increase year over year. And I think, you know, part of it is that people were catching on to dafs, but another part of it is what you talk about, Jill, people trying to get ahead of the tax changes. So that contributed to a very busy season for us.
- [11:40]
A
I also think what's really great after now, like we're talking to you, we're still in the heat of tax season, right? And I have to say the process of using a DAF for me personally, so I've had a DAF for a while and I don't have to track all these one off donations that I make. If I do it all through a donor advised fund, it's a heck of a lot easier. All I have to track is the contribution in, not the granting out. Right? From tax purpose standpoint, right?
- [12:09]
B
That's correct. And I think that's one of the beauties of a DAF is that we handle all of the administration for our donors and we also invest a lot in our digital experience. So really all you need to do go is to our website and your mobile phone to find all the information you need about your philanthropic giving over the past year? It is very easy. It's our goal.
- [12:29]
A
What if you have a charity you love and it's not on your list? Is it hard to get a charity included presuming they meet all of your standards? Like, I know that there are times these smaller charities are like, oh, we haven't done that yet, so is it hard to do that?
- [12:46]
B
It's not. And one of, one of the things we pride ourselves on is that we will give to any charity that's Eligible, according to the irs. We really want to, like I said, make giving easy and accessible. And in fact, last year 54% of our donors gave to new charities. And so we do have a process down path to make sure that we're getting money out to the charities that people are interested in and including those that we have not worked with historically.
- [13:14]
A
So give us a little sense of kind of like the popularity, like what's happening on the ground for you guys. What are you seeing?
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B
I mean, every year as we talk to people about donor advised funds, people are generating more awareness. We still have a ways to go. You know, I think there are people that don't know about donor advised funds, but it's encouraging to hear more and more people embrace the solution. I think one of the audiences which is near and dear to your heart, Jill, I know and mine is registered investment advisors. They play a huge role in making sure that their clients know that donor advised funds exist, that they can play an important role and they're an excellent way to give. In fact, 80% of our business is with RIAs. Our donors use RIAs and that's a big part of how they, I think, found out about the solution to begin with.
- [14:01]
A
I'm wondering, you know, I think people get a little bit anxious about this, like, oh, I'm going to push a ton of money into this or even a little bit of money. What happens if I pass away when I am, you know, before I'm able to give all the money away. So what, what does happen with that situation?
- [14:20]
B
Well, we, we help people plan for that scenario. It's very important. One of the things that we do is try to ensure that people put a succession plan in place, whether it's your next generation, your spouse, that someone can take over the decisions of where to direct that charitable giving. If you should pass. It's a great way to talk to people within your family. We talk a lot about this intergenerational wealth transfer. Right. That's in the works right now. We're in the middle of. It will continue for decades more. And so this will be happening on a regular basis. And it's important to have this conversation with all the people that are important to you to understand where you wanted that money to go.
- [14:59]
A
Is there anything else that you think our listeners need to know about either donor advised funds in general or DAF giving 360 in particular?
- [15:10]
B
Well, I always talk to people about the importance of philanthropy and whether you use a DAF or find another way to give. We talked about those contributions you can make directly to charities and the new deduction for non itemizers. I think it's just important to think about the impact you can have in your local community. I Hope you consider DAF giving 360. We try our best to, like you said, reduce the friction and make it as easy as possible. And if you're interested in learning more about us, we have a plethora of resources on our website dafgiving360.org well, thanks
- [15:41]
A
to Julie Sunwoo, the president of Daft Giving 360. If you've got a question about how to establish a donor advised fund, what the use might be in your life, get in touch with us. Go to jillonmoney.com Click the contact Us button, write us a note or just check the box and Mark will do everything in his power to arrange to bring you on the air live with us. Well, it is Friday and we want to do a little bit of business. Our music is to Going composed by Joel Goodman. Mark Telercio is our Executive producer. He also happens to be the best executive producer in the world. He is also the guy who runs the website jillonmoney.com we're distributed by Odyssey. We always ask that you try to lift someone up. Change your work, change your wealth, change your life. Thank you for listening and we'll talk to you on Monday.
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