So… who wants to donate the final $30 needed to meet the $5,000 Ukraine match from MR. ANONYMOUS?
In case you missed it, here’s the challenge in the post last night
Mr. Rogers said to look for the helpers, and here at Balloon Juice we are very good at helping the helpers!
Inspired by the generosity that is repeatedly displayed by Balloon Juice peeps, a donor has come forward, hereafter referred to as MR. ANONYMOUS, with an offer to match $5,000 of donations for Ukraine!
Donations can go into either BJ thermometer: Balloon Juice for Ukraine or World Central Kitchen.
Balloon Juice for Ukraine
By default, your contribution through this thermometer will be split evenly between Americares Foundation, Vet Voice Foundation, International Rescue Committee, World Central Kitchen, and International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).
Click Customize Amounts if you don’t want the automatic split between all 5 – and you must click that BEFORE you enter your dollar amount.
Or give through this thermometer that goes directly to World Central Kitchen.
PaulB
I’ve got it. In for $50 for WCK.
WaterGirl
And PaulB puts us over the top!
In less than 24 hours, you guys have donated $5,020 to benefit Ukraine!
AJ of the Mustard Search and Rescue team
Yayyyy 🥂
Go team!
scav
Absolutely impressive the lot of you.
Haroldo
A very tardy $30.00
Uncle Cosmo
May I make a suggestion in future fundraising?
Many of us here are 72 or older, and every year we are required to withdraw a specified percentage of funds from our pretax retirement funds (IRA, 401k etc) and place them in accounts subject to Federal and state tax. However, anything from the pretax accounts that is directly contributed to a charity or nonprofit (not quite sure what qualifies, perhaps some Jackal can enlighten us) counts as a withdrawal but incurs no tax.
I have intended to send some $$$ this year to WCK, which qualifies for a no-tax-incurred withdrawal, but there doesn’t seem to be any way to do this in Balloon Juice (and qualify for whatever angel-matches might be floating about) while simultaneously counting against the required withdrawal amount.
Is there some way we can facilitate this for any future qualifying destination? I’d add my tax savings to the contribution and I bet most of us in this situation would do the same.
Alison Rose 💙🌻💛
This place is just amazing. Yesterday on the VAAC Zoom, one of their people was talking about the monetary help we’ve given them and how incredible it was, what we were able to do. And I was like…it really IS kind of incredible, isn’t it? This ragtag group of weirdos here :) We may not have institutional power, but we have boundless compassion, and in some ways that’s a lot more valuable.
WaterGirl
@Uncle Cosmo: Hmm, we will have to give that some thought.
dnfree
@Uncle Cosmo: that would be difficult, I think. Money directed to a charity as a QCD has to go directly from the holder of your IRA to the charity, in the form of a check usually, so the money never is touched by you. That’s how we currently do our more significant charitable giving. I either sign on to my account and fill out the form, or I call customer service. There are special questions like those associated with other withdrawals, like if you want tax withheld (you don’t) and what percentage. Then the check comes to me, made out to the charity, and I mail it to the charity. Your IRA has to know that the intent is a QCD, and so does the charity, because you need a letter from the charity for tax purposes.
There are other requirements, too. You can’t give to a community fund-type charity that itself gives grants. You are not allowed to specify the purpose of the contribution (like if it’s to the world kitchen, you can’t specify that it’s for Ukraine). The charity has to spend the contribution within a year (which shouldn’t be too difficult for the world kitchen), but it can’t be for instance put in an endowment-type fund for future use.
It’s best if all involved know it’s a QCD so you get it credited properly. I don’t bother with this process for donations of $50-100 or so. It would be nice if some of the anonymous matchers of funds could do this, and maybe they have some way of informing WaterGirl if they send a check directly to the charity like this.
WaterGirl
@dnfree: If we are talking about a person offering a Balloon Juice angel matche, the BJ donations go into the thermometer and the amount we are matching goes to them as a check.
It could still raise the same amount of money.
I think that all of the groups we have done big fundraising for in 2021 and 2022 have charity designations.
scav
@dnfree: Could be managed by flipping it? Make the direct no-hands touchy donation be the angel for an appropiately chosen destination and that gets dedicated / sent (in a separate transaction as necessary) from the general angel-matching donations? All the money ends up in the right place, just in different lanes.
dnfree
@scav: That’s how it would have to work, and the money from the IRA has to be processed and then sent to me, and then I have to send it to the charity, so it takes at least a week to get there. That wouldn’t involve WaterGirl making any changes, as far as I can see. And the donor does have to be sure it’s a legitimate charity, not political action, and that the charity follows the QCD rules.
dnfree
@WaterGirl: I haven’t looked all of them up, but for instance Four Directions is a 501c4, so would not be eligible for a QCD.
scav
@dnfree: Actually, with a two-lane system, things can get a little innovative. No-touchy angel can donate to appropriate (say) WCK general fund and other funds go to more dedicated WCK fund that angel can’t legally touch, no? Rather in the spirit of the mixed focus thermometers BJ already has.
kalakal
I’m so very. proud. My 9 yr old granddaughter in NJ wanted to help Ukrainians after watching the news. So she set up a lemonade & cookies stand. She raised $32. Disappointed she asked daughter how she could raise more. Daughter suggested a go-fund-me. 18 minutes later she had raised $300*. Mrs Kalakal lamented to daughter that we couldn’t actually buy cookies in person as we’re in Fl. 20 minutes later we had a doordash delivery of lemonade & cookie mix :) .
I am so lucky with my family
* Grandparents may have been involved.
SiubhanDuinne
Not off-topic as it’s an open thread: Just saw the activist-author Barbara Ehrenreich has died, a few days after her 81st birthday. I remember reading “Nickel and Dimed” when it first came out, however long ago that was. I don’t think Ehrenreich used the term “intersectionality” in that book, but the concept — the deeply baked-in links between poverty, gender, and race/ethnicity — was plain to see and grasp.
I admired her very much. Thank you, Barbara Ehrenreich. RIP.
dnfree
@scav: this is true. I don’t think there’s any way to make a QCD work with the thermometer, though, so I don’t think there are any changes WaterGirl could make to facilitate it. To her it would just be like what happens now except that the check would take longer to get there. But the person making the QCD would have to be sure the organization qualifies and sends an appropriate IRS letter. The tax consequences are serious if the donor doesn’t check all the boxes. I know I have had to contact smaller charities to ask for a tax letter.
dnfree
@Uncle Cosmo: I summarized above, but bottom line is the QCD process isn’t really worth the hassle to make a $25 or $50 contribution to get a match. If you wanted to be an “anonymous” and match funds for $500 or more, a QCD would be a possible way. But it would definitely be your responsibility to be sure the cause is a 501(c)(3) and to track that you get a letter from the charity acknowledging the donation, date, amount, and “no goods or services were received” language.
DB11
@SiubhanDuinne: Concur about Barbara Ehrenreich — a uniquely thought-provoking and insightful writer — and sorry to hear that she has died.
Ohio Mom
@SiubhanDuinne: Sad to hear this. I was a big Ehrenriech fan. I’m going to take some comfort in knowing she lived the exact way she wanted to and that she accomplished what she set out to do.
I will now scurry over to read the official obits.
Lyrebird
@kalakal: Awww.
Yes an awesome family! So much to be proud of!
scav
@dnfree: I guess I’m not really worried about the thermometer (BJ will know there’s really a little more on top) nor, really, about the speed of the donation if measured in weeks. If the QCD person is going to make a donation, all those hoops will have to leapt through anyway and if they can use / structure / alter their donation so it inspires others, it seems to meet the essence of Uncle Cosmos’ desire of getting involved in the matching donations money-stream.
WaterGirl
@kalakal: That’s very sweet.
WaterGirl
@scav: Yeah, we have done this before. A couple of Balloon Juice angels have mailed paper checks to 4 Directions or Voces or VAAC.
SiubhanDuinne
@kalakal:
That is a lovely story!
dnfree
@WaterGirl: I’m going to bet that most of those are 501(c)(4) and not eligible for a Qualified Charitable Distribution from an IRA or 401(k) type account. The World Kitchen is more likely a 501(c)(3). Getting that wrong for someone wanting to use an IRA for this kind of donation would be costly.
For example, if I’m required to withdraw $10,000 this year, and I do a QCD for $1000 and a withdrawal of $9000, I fulfilled my obligation but only pay tax on the $9000. But if I mistakenly sent the $1000 to a group that wasn’t a charity, I owe tax on the whole $10,000.
eclare
@SiubhanDuinne: Oh…Nickel and Dimed is a great book. I read it a long time ago, very eye opening.
Uncle Cosmo
@dnfree: You’re probably correct. WCK is one of the exceptions; I intend to send Chef Jose some QCD bucks this year, and the idea that there might at some point be other qualifying charities we might want to support didn’t occur to me til I saw them in the mix.
dnfree
@Uncle Cosmo: it’s a process (especially getting the letters from smaller charities), but financially definitely worthwhile. I wish I could deduct political contributions! (Or as my husband says when he sees the records, “What’s all this ActBlue?”)
The other problem we’ve had the past couple of years is that some charities confuse a QCD with a donation from a donor-advised fund (DAF), which already got the charitable deduction, so they don’t send a letter and I have to call and explain, even though I send a note with the check that says it’s a QCD and I need a letter.
Good luck!
Laura Too
Can’t tell if it’s still needed but I put in $30.00 as a thank you to Adam for all he”s done. Thank you Watergirl, Quilting Fool and everyone else for all you do!
WaterGirl
@dnfree: I believe that VAAC is 501(c)(3) for instance, but I am not up for arguing about it.