Leveraging Three Giving Vehicles to Maximize Impact— Matt Rogers, Founder, Incite.org

We currently use three giving vehicles: a foundation, an LLC, and a DAF. This particular model developed over time as we learned about the most effective tools and activities for our impact work. My wife and I started making grants six years ago, which at that time consisted of writing individual checks to various organizations. We quickly realized that was not an effective grantmaking strategy and we wanted to be more tax efficient while maintaining flexibility to best use our assets for impact.

  • Establishing a Foundation Mission related investments (MRIs) were important to us and difficult to accomplish through a DAF, so we set up our foundation which is the primary delivery vehicle for our grants and investments.
  • Flexibility of an LLC An LLC offers more flexibility and with post-tax dollars there are no constraints around what kinds of activities our employees can be doing across impact investing, political giving, and supporting c4 organizations.
  • Utilizing a DAF Once I exited from my startup, I maxed out what I could give, 30% of adjusted gross income, to our foundation, so we set up a DAF for the remaining 20%.We use this for other grants that we write; however, the DAF is not our primary giving vehicle and we plan to wind it down over the next couple years.

See the full guide here.