Contribute to a Fund

The journey of giving starts here

Contributing

The Community Foundation of Greater Huntsville provides you with a simple, powerful, and highly-personalized approach to giving. We offer a variety of giving tools to help people achieve their charitable goals. You can make a gift of cash, stocks, bonds, real estate, or other assets to the Community Foundation for any fund we manage. Most charitable gifts qualify for maximum tax advantage under federal law. For more information about the Community Foundation's Gift Acceptance Policy, please contact giving@communityfoundationhsv.org.

Use this simple calculator to figure out the net cost of a donation. Just enter the amount you would like to give and your federal tax bracket (see chart). The calculator will display the net cost of the donation and the tax savings. Note that when you make a donation of appreciated assets, such as publicly-traded stock, you get an additional tax advantage by avoiding capital gains tax on some or all of the appreciated value of the asset.

2022 Federal Income Tax Brackets and Rates

Taxable Income

Rate	Single Filers	Married Joint Filers	Married Filing Separately	Head of Household
10%	$0 to $10,275	$0 to $20,550	$0 to $10,275	$0 to $14,650
12%	$10,276 to $41,775	$20,551 to $83,550	$10,276 to $41,775	$14,651 to $55,900
22%	$41,776 to $89,075	$83,551 to $178,150	$41,776 to $89,075	$55,901 to $89,050
24%	$89,076 to $170,050	$178,151 to $340,100	$89,076 to $170,050	$89,051 to $170,050
32%	$170,051 to $215,950	$340,101 to $431,900	$170,051 to $215,950	$170,051 to $215,950
35%	$215,951 to $539,900	$431,901 to $647,850	$215,951 to $323,925	$215,951 to $539,900
37%	Over $539,901	Over $647,851	Over $323,926	Over $539,901

Give to Your Fund

The Community Foundation of Greater Huntsville offers several easy contribution options. If you have any questions, please contact giving@communityfoundationhsv.org.

Credit Card

Online credit card contributions (MasterCard, Visa, American Express, or Discover) can be made 24 hours a day, seven days a week on our website by clicking the Donate button below.

Donate

Wire Transfers of cash

Please include the fund name and the amount of the gift in your communication to the Community Foundation. There may be a fee from your financial institution to send a wire. Wires are processed the same day. There is a smaller fee from your financial institution to send an ACH transfer. ACH transfers are processed in 2-3 business days. Contact giving@communityfoundationhsv.org for specific instructions.

Check

Make checks payable to the Community Foundation of Greater Huntsville, with your fund name noted in the memo section. Mail to 303 Williams Avenue SW, Suite 1031, Huntsville, Alabama 35801.

Transfers of Securities

Please include the fund name, a description of the shares, and the name of the brokerage firm in your communication to the Community Foundation. Contact giving@communityfoundationhsv.org for specific instructions regarding transfers of stock, corporate bonds, government securities, including treasury bills, notes, bonds and FNMAs, and other marketable securities.

Greater Horizons, our back-office-partner, must authorize acceptance of these securities, and the Community Foundation will work with you to provide any information necessary to secure such acceptance.

Mutual funds and closely-held securities:

If you would like to make a gift of mutual funds or restricted or closely-held securities, please contact giving@communityfoundationhsv.org for instructions.

Give to Our Fund

Join like-minded citizens, leaders and philanthropists who believe in the power of giving to generate positive change in our community today.

Grant

For Community Foundation fundholders, you may make a grant to one of our funds through your online donor portal, by submitting a fillable Donor Suggestion Form, or by completing an interfund transfer from your donor advised fund. Click to access a complete list of grant guidelines. Please send your completed form or refer questions to giving@communityfoundationhsv.org.

Check

Make checks payable to the Community Foundation of Greater Huntsville, with your fund name noted in the memo section. Mail to 303 Williams Avenue SW, Suite 1031, Huntsville, Alabama 35801. To donate to a specific fund, please note on the check.

Credit Card

Online credit card contributions (MasterCard, Visa, American Express, or Discover) can be made 24 hours a day, seven days a week on our website by clicking the Donate button below.

Donate

Complex Assets

You may be able to attain a new level of giving you may not have considered possible through assets you already own. You can use our expertise to quickly and easily donate hard-to-value assets to donor advised funds. We specialize in accepting donations of complex assets, including:

Charitable Gifts of Real Estate
Personal Residence
Commercial Property
Farmland or Undeveloped Property
Other Real Property
Charitable Gifts of Privately-Held Business Interests
C-Corp or S-Corp Stock
Limited Liability Company (LLC) Interests
Limited Partnership Interests
Other Alternative Asset Gifts
Life Insurance Policies
Retirement Plans
Negotiable Instruments
Oil and Gas Interests
Private Equity

This list is not intended to be all-inclusive of acceptable alternative assets. Gift acceptance is dependent upon asset review and approval.

Benefits

The Community Foundation is a public charity, so you will receive the maximum tax deduction allowed by law for your donation. You can also avoid capital gains tax, and you may be eligible to receive a lifetime income stream. We look at each donation individually and create charitable giving plans that maximize gifts to the community and provide bottom-line benefits to you.

We do not provide tax, legal or accounting advice. This is for informational purposes only.

Charitable IRAs

Now it’s easier than ever to make the gift of a lifetime. The Community Foundation of Greater Huntsville can help turn your individual retirement accounts (IRAs) into tax-saving charitable gifts. Extended tax benefits allow more people to experience the joy of giving during their lifetimes, meaning, you can give more for less.

At age 70½, you are required to take distributions from your IRA. Instead of creating a taxable event for yourself, consider making the distribution a charitable gift instead, using all or a portion of your mandatory withdrawal amount (up to $100,000 total, per person). As long as the distribution is paid directly to your charity from your IRA administrator, the amount will not be counted in your taxable income for the year, which may result in tax savings for you!

Please note that, under current law, qualified charitable distributions from IRAs may not be used for donor advised funds; however, the Community Foundation can help you navigate the tax law to find an option that will further your charitable giving objectives.

Your Community Foundation can help you connect to the causes you care about most. You can set up a charitable fund in your name or make an unrestricted gift. Giving is one of life’s pleasures; we can help you enjoy it today.

Charitable IRA FAQs

Why do donors want to give IRA assets to the Community Foundation?

After decades of deliberate saving, some of today’s retirees have more money in their IRAs than they need for daily living expenses and long-term care. For larger estates, a good portion of IRA wealth goes to estate taxes and income taxes of non-spousal beneficiaries; heirs may receive less than 50 percent of IRA assets passed on to them through estates.
Instead, IRA holders may choose to leave their IRAs to qualified charitable organizations—choosing charity over taxes.
Which donors stand to benefit most from giving their IRAs to charity?

Because charitable IRA transfers are not included in taxable income and not available for itemized charitable deductions, these special rules may benefit many different types of individuals:
• Generous donors—When making a major gift, some taxpayers may give more to charity than they can deduct that year. Donors cannot deduct more than 50 percent of their income for gifts of cash to public charities (30 percent, if giving to private foundations). Although amounts over 50 percent can be carried forward and deducted in future years, taxpayers will face an immediate tax bill and may lose some of the benefit of the deduction if they die before the gift has been fully deducted. Donors who consistently give above the limit will not be able to take advantage of the carry-forward provisions.
• Non-itemizers—Donors who regularly give a portion of their income to charity are not able to enjoy a tax break from the contribution if they take the standard deduction.
• Financially comfortable—Individuals or couples who distribute the minimum from their IRA—and have other forms of income to pay living expenses—may find that transferring their minimum distributions to the Community Foundation helps fulfill personal charitable goals, tax-free.
In the past, how did the tax law treat charitable gifts made from IRAs?

Prior to 2006, IRA holders faced a disincentive for giving retirement assets to charity during their lifetimes because all withdrawals from traditional IRAs were subject to income tax. Thanks to the renewed tax provision, retirees will be able to give far more support without being penalized, doing so during their lifetimes and seeing their gifts benefit their communities.
In the past, when a donor of any age withdrew IRA funds to make a charitable gift, he or she was liable to pay income tax on the withdrawal, offset to varying degrees by a charitable deduction for the gift.
As a consequence of this unfavorable tax treatment, very few individuals donated IRA funds to charity during their lifetimes.
How has the tax law changed?

The current law permits individuals to transfer up to $100,000 from individual retirement accounts directly to a qualifying charity without recognizing the assets transferred as income for federal tax purposes. A donor who has reached age 70½ is now allowed to exclude from his or her income tax calculations certain IRA withdrawals. In most circumstances, these charitable contributions are not tax deductible unless the retirement accounts were funded with after-tax dollars.
This provision is permanent.
What are the advantages of this renewed law?

When given through the Community Foundation, the tax benefits now available to American seniors will encourage new contributions from individuals who will no longer have to pay tax on a charitable gift of IRA funds. When given through a community foundation, these contributions can support all aspects of community well-being: arts and culture, economic development, education, environment, health and human services, neighborhood revitalization and more.
Now it is easier than ever for more people to enjoy the experience of making the tax-free gift of a lifetime using their excess retirement assets.
What if a donor contributes more than $100,000 from an IRA?

Because the amount that the donor is able to exclude from income is limited to $100,000 under the act, the remaining amount would be recognized as income. With a married couple, each person can transfer $100,000 from his or her account.
Donors may choose to contribute additional amounts to charity; however, the extent to which additional amounts can be deducted from their income will be determined following general rules of itemized deductions where the charitable percentage limitations and itemized deduction reduction are factors.
What is the itemized deduction reduction?

Higher income taxpayers must reduce their itemized deductions by the lesser of 3 percent of the amount by which their income exceeds a certain amount – $250,000 for individuals, $275,000 for heads of households and $300,000 for married couples filing jointly.
These taxpayers can lose up to 80 percent of the value of their deductions because most itemized deductions have to be reduced by 3 percent of the amount by which the taxpayer’s income exceeds a certain number, or 80 percent of the taxpayer’s itemized deductions.
Example: A married couple filing jointly has $500,000 in adjusted gross income (AGI) and because their AGI exceeds the $305,050 threshold, the 3 percent reduction applies to this couple’s itemized deductions.
AGI $500,000
Excess of couple’s AGI over $305,500 = $194,950
3% reduction x 3%
_______________

Reduction of itemized deductions $5,848.50
The couple’s itemized deductions will be reduced by the lesser of $5,848 or 80% of the itemized deductions.
Does a donor also receive a charitable deduction when he or she transfers assets to a charity under this provision?

No. The benefit under this provision is that the individual does not realize the amount contributed directly from the IRA to a qualifying charity. Because a donor does not include the amount in his or her gross income, the individual may not take a charitable contribution deduction for the contribution. To do so would allow a donor to receive a double benefit from the contribution. For this reason, charitable contribution deductions are explicitly prohibited.
How will charitable distributions affect the minimum required distributions from a taxpayer’s IRA?

Shortly after an individual reaches age 70½, he or she is generally required to receive distributions from his or her traditional IRA. Distributions from an IRA to a charity will receive the same treatment as distributions to the individual taxpayer for the purposes of minimum required distributions.
Are there any IRA transfers to the Community Foundation that do not qualify for preferred tax treatment?

Yes. Transfers to Supporting Organizations and Donor Advised Funds do not qualify. In addition, split interest gifts, such as Charitable Annuities, Charitable Lead Trusts and Charitable Remainder Trusts, do not qualify. Further, an individual may not receive a benefit in return for an IRA distribution.
Because such transfers do not count as qualified distributions under these special rules, the donor will have to first recognize those distributions as income. The donor’s charitable deduction must then be calculated as a regular itemized deduction.
How can an IRA gift be made?

IRAs are typically held by a financial service or trust company. These custodians will likely provide a form that could be used to transfer the IRA directly to charity, with no tax incurred.