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Our biannual newsletter, Giving, offers insight into areas of philanthropy and techniques for charitable giving that you may not have considered.
Our Fall/Winter Newsletter Feature:
Helping the World's Poorest Entrepreneurs |
Introduction: A Note From Our President
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I recently wrote an article for the summer 2008 issue of Stanford Social Innovation Review about the rise of national donor-advised funds, entitled “We’ve arrived. Now what?” In the article, I call on the donor-advised fund industry to facilitate innovation and creative ways to utilize donor-advised funds for maximum charitable impact. I am pleased to announce that Schwab Charitable is doing just that. |
Donor-advised funds’ primary role in the charitable sector has been to make giving easier and to democratize philanthropy by providing foundation-style giving to donors with as little as $5,000 to contribute. We do that by aggregating donors under one administrative umbrella. Our umbrella structure uniquely positions donor-advised funds to offer programs to donors that historically would only be possible to very wealthy individuals or large foundations.
I am proud to announce that the team at Schwab Charitable is once again creatively taking advantage of our unique structure to offer you something you would not typically have access to. Through our microfinance guarantee program, you now have the opportunity to set aside a portion of your Charitable Gift Account to guarantee microfinance loans to the world’s poorest entrepreneurs to help them start maintain or expand small businesses. This is different than making a grant to microfinance, in that your funds stay invested and may never have to leave your account. You have already secured a tax deduction by making a gift to a donor-advised fund, and now you can double your charitable impact by putting the funds to use once as a microfinance guarantee and then a second time as a grant to a completely different cause (see page 4 “Make the Most of your Charitable Gift Account Assets”). Participating donors will make it possible for microfinance institutions in 30 countries to establish, expand or enhance their ability to make microloans or to poor but hard-working entrepreneurs.
The Team at Schwab Charitable is thrilled to be able to democratize access to the microfinance guarantee model through this new program. Choosing our experienced partners, Grameen Foundation and Developing World Markets, has been a rigorous and educational process. It also has been inspiring to learn about how hard people will work for themselves and their families if given just a small footing from which to build. We are so proud of this effort and hope you will consider participating in our new microfinance guarantee program.
Kimberly Wright-Violich
President Schwab Charitable
To keep reading, download a copy of Our Fall/Winter Newsletter:
Helping the World's Poorest Entrepreneurs
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