At the Greater Lowell Community Foundation (GLCF), we can help make your year-end giving simple and rewarding. A trusted partner for giving for more than 26 years, we’re proud to be a place where charitable giving becomes local, personal, and meaningful.

We can help you think strategically about how you give and how to make our community a better place. We work to ensure that your donations make the greatest impact on the causes you care about while maximizing your tax advantages.

1. Consider a gift of appreciated stock or mutual funds. 

If you have stocks or other publicly traded securities that are worth more than what you paid for them, consider using these for your charitable giving this year. Appreciated stock and mutual funds can offer a more cost-efficient deduction, based on current fair market value, not your cost basis. GLCF can accept marketable securities of any kind. Please contact Janinne Nocco, GLCF’s Controller and Administrative Officer for instructions at [email protected] or 978-970-1600.

2. Batch multiple years’ gifts into a Donor Advised Fund. 

With the increased standard deduction ($13,850 for individuals, $27,700 for couples for 2023), it may be difficult for some people to receive a tax benefit from charitable giving every year. One solution? Batch multiple years’ worth of donations into a gift to a Donor Advised Fund (DAF) at GLCF. You'll get the full tax deduction now, while spreading out grants to your favorite charities over time and benefiting from the larger standard deduction in those later years. GLCF can set up a DAF for you in one meeting. 

3. Give a gift to our Community Needs Fund.

Gifts to GLCF’s Community Needs Grant Fund provides the Foundation with an additional source of unrestricted dollars to award nonprofit organizations and address the community's most pressing current needs. Contributing to the Community Needs Fund is a great way to ensure nonprofit organizations throughout Greater Lowell receive funds to support a wide variety of community projects in a responsive timeframe. 

4. Use your required IRA distribution for giving, skip the taxes. 

If you are age 70½ or older, you can transfer up to $100,000 from your traditional Individual Retirement Account (IRA) directly to a charity. If you are 73 or older, the transfer counts towards your Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) and allows you to avoid paying income tax on the distribution, while supporting your favorite charity or any fund at the Community Foundation that is not a Donor-Advised Fund. These tax-free rollovers can benefit any public charity, you may direct qualified charitable distributions to any of our non-donor-advised funds, or we can help you set up a new fund that benefits an interest area of your choice, a specific nonprofit, or greatest needs grantmaking. This year we recommend using your RMD to support the LGBTQ+ Fund, Refugee And Immigrant Resettlement Fund, the Children’s Fund or the Community Needs Fund.

5. Give in someone's honor.

In lieu of a holiday gift, make a donation in someone’s honor. Whether it's to your own Donor Advised Fund or one of our other funds, be sure your gift is postmarked or submitted online by 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 31.

6. Let GLCF help you. 

Working with GLCF gives you access to our extensive knowledge of the Greater Lowell nonprofit community and the broad charitable needs of our region. You can stay informed about the organizations you support and the effect your giving will have on the future of our community. We’re happy to discuss options that meet your charitable giving needs.