Since the centralized donation swap isn’t running anymore, I thought I’d create a quick take as a space in which people can ask for counterparties in ad hoc donation swaps.
These are usually set up when Person A wants to donate to an organization that isn’t tax-advantaged in their country. They would like to find a counterparty who lives in a country where that organization is tax-advantaged. In exchange, Person A donates to an organization of the counterparty’s choice which is tax-advantaged in their own country. US donors make particularly good counterparties as so many effective charities have 501(c)(3) status—or can accept donations through another 501(c)(3) -- in the US.
Some potential candidates can be found at the GWWC site here. AMF is tax-advantaged in lots of places. If someone has the charts from the old donation swap website, the vast majority of the listed organizations are probably still tax-advantaged in the listed countries.
The end result is that more money gets moved to effective charity for the same out-of-pocket cost for the donors. Also, as others have expressed, small/medium donations serve important roles in the funding ecosystem, and swaps allow everyone to give them without putting themselves at a tax disadvantage.
(Please don’t propose swaps that have the effect of circumventing legal limitations on who can donate, frustrating public reporting obligations, and so on. Specifically, donation swapping to political campaigns is inappropriate in the US and probably in other countries as well.)[1]
Since the centralized donation swap isn’t running anymore, I thought I’d create a quick take as a space in which people can ask for counterparties in ad hoc donation swaps.
These are usually set up when Person A wants to donate to an organization that isn’t tax-advantaged in their country. They would like to find a counterparty who lives in a country where that organization is tax-advantaged. In exchange, Person A donates to an organization of the counterparty’s choice which is tax-advantaged in their own country. US donors make particularly good counterparties as so many effective charities have 501(c)(3) status—or can accept donations through another 501(c)(3) -- in the US.
Some potential candidates can be found at the GWWC site here. AMF is tax-advantaged in lots of places. If someone has the charts from the old donation swap website, the vast majority of the listed organizations are probably still tax-advantaged in the listed countries.
The end result is that more money gets moved to effective charity for the same out-of-pocket cost for the donors. Also, as others have expressed, small/medium donations serve important roles in the funding ecosystem, and swaps allow everyone to give them without putting themselves at a tax disadvantage.
(Please don’t propose swaps that have the effect of circumventing legal limitations on who can donate, frustrating public reporting obligations, and so on. Specifically, donation swapping to political campaigns is inappropriate in the US and probably in other countries as well.)[1]
I’m not providing legal advice that swaps for tax purposes are okay, mind you. But I did just do one.